Cranked Spanner for Router

[Mike Wingate]

Has anyone made a cranked spanner for a router? I want it for table use. I use a box/tube spanner for straight bits, but struggle with wide bits.

 

[Argee]

What size?

Ray

 

[CNC Paul]

Has anyone made a cranked spanner for a router? I want it for table use. I use a box/tube spanner for straight bits, but struggle with wide bits.

I think Trend sell them

 

[Mike Wingate]

At £17 and £22, Trend and Rutlands are a bit pricy for a stamped, bent piece of steel.

 

[Argee]

Looks like I'll have to ask again - WHAT SIZE?

Ray

 

[Mike Wingate]

Sorry, got carried away. 22mm AF please. To suit a DW 625/Elu 177/Trend T11 routers please.

 

[Argee]

Shame - I've got a spare, but it's 21mm (Triton TRA001).

Ray

 

[Mike Wingate]

When I come across a piece of steel plate, I will cut one out, bend it and heat treat the head, plastic coat the handle. I got near to chipping a chamfer bit today.

 

[Mike Wingate]

I won a Mercedes-Benz chrome-vanadium, forged black spanner on ebay for £0.99p. Put it in the vice, pointed the oxy-acetylene torch on it, bent it by gloved hand, Repositioned it in the vice and repeated for the second bend. Excellent.

 

[white_sw]

I've been meaning to bend one for my Triton.

Ray, you say you have a spare one, are you interested in selling it to me ?

Cheers,
Sam

 

[big soft moose]

I won a Mercedes-Benz chrome-vanadium, forged black spanner on ebay for £0.99p. Put it in the vice, pointed the oxy-acetylene torch on it, bent it by gloved hand, Repositioned it in the vice and repeated for the second bend. Excellent.

strikes me as a damn good idea - but i dont have access to a O/A torch - can you get it hot enough with a bog standard butane torch do you think ? I might try anyway as its only 99p if it goes **** up

 

[Mike Wingate]

Turn it into a turbo-butane by blowing air through a tube, concentrating the flame. Do your first bend as near to the head as possible. You will have to reposition the spanner in the vice as the vice will act as a heat sink and draw the heat away from the spanner.

 

[Eric The Viking]

Turn it into a turbo-butane by blowing air through a tube, concentrating the flame. Do your first bend as near to the head as possible. You will have to reposition the spanner in the vice as the vice will act as a heat sink and draw the heat away from the spanner.

Hi Mike,

Since I've got a few 22mm spanners already, I was thinking of attacking the single-ended one that came with the T11 similarly, as you did. I don't have Oxy, but I do have MAPP gas, and was wondering if it would do. Plan 'B' is to saw the end off and weld it into a zig-zag (have MIG, with both mild and stainless wire and gas).

D'you think I'd get away with MAPP and a hammer?

(going off-topic a bit) Incidentally, I got the router plate back from the engineers today. They've done a beautiful job of the drilling, and we've got away with a 17.5mm hole for the height adjuster (alignment is perfect). The actual spanner is 16.8mm diameter (not quite round), so it has quite enough clearance, and only minimally disturbs the layout of the top surface (wot I wanted!).

I think the T11 quick-release kit is a total waste of money though. It has two major disadvantages:

(1) If you use it, you can't fit the dust extraction spout over the motor (one of the QR bolts fouls the perspex), and
(2) the same bolt/cam ends up right in the middle of the back edge of a standard 12x9inch plate. You'd have to make a semicircular recess in the table rebate to allow for it, and it would be a fiddle to operate on all but the thinnest tables.

If, like me, you were mug enough to buy one already, the only thing it is useful for is alignment. The threaded bushes do centre the router nicely on the plate whilst you do up the machine screws.

But at £22 for a few M6 bolts, springs, bushes and plastic cams, I know I was conned...