Just received a bosch RT60 router table, need advice

[Reggie]

Hi All, I am a woodworking novice and my dad has been donating all his old gear to me as he upgrades to newer kit. So far I've been given a ferm scrollsaw, power devil chopsaw and a bosch rt60 router table with an adjustable speed router, I've got the scrollsaw setup correctly and the chopsaw is relatively simple but I could do with advice on the router table if anyone has any experience with this model?

The main issue that I can see is that the router mounting plate isn't flush with the table, there is a vague mention of getting it flush in the manual but ikea style pictures and ticks and crosses, however, due to some dumb luck, I searched google for a black and decker router table (no idea why I thought it was black and decker) and found a manual for a trend craft router (CRT mk1?) that is exactly the same table as the bosch, in it they mention a decent method of plate adjustment bolts that allow you to get the plate flush, so I thought I'd share that for anyone else that gets one of these tables, you can find the manual on the trend website in the downloads section.

I've just been and checked the table and the small box of spares that my dad left with it, it turns out that there are 3 of the 4 bolts and nylock nuts mentioned in the trend manual, however I had a spare bolt laying around and used one of the nylocks from the plate retaining bolts, so I think that's mostly sorted, I just need another nylock for the last retaining bolt.

One other issue that I haven't quite worked out yet is the insert plate rings, they're made of plastic and seem to be an overly tight fit, to the point that they bow upwards when snapped in place. I think there may need to be a shim or some washers to give a small amount of clearance between the insert plate and the base of the router, that would then give the plastic clips on the rings space to clip in place without bending, anyone got any thoughts on that?

Lastly, has anyone got any tips for using this table sucessfully? I appreciate that it's really a hobby sized table and I am a novice, I have no preconception of what to expect from it, I don't expect to be making big complicated projects or anything like that, the router is reasonable though I think, it's a bosch gof 900 ace variable speed.

Regards,
Reggie.

 

[dm65]

I've got the MK2 which has similar construction and I took mine to bits and rebuilt it as it was all loose and wobbly

Can't help you with the plate, mine didn't come with one so I use a bit of laminate floor bolted underneath - works fine with my big orange aussie router

Also, put a board underneath and screw it down so you clamp it if needs be - mine sometimes moves a little bit (I haven't followed my advice and just lift it into place)

 

[Reggie]

It looks like I needed a good read of the trend mk1 crt manual, looks like I was missing an m6 nylock, and there are some missing spacer washers which shim the router base away from the phenolic top plate.

 

[Reggie]

It turns out it's not actually m6, the head of the nut is somewhere between m5 and m6 and the bolt is m5, the bolt hole in the table to hold the plate down is also a snug m5 fit. I have a cunning ploy though that will save me a couple of quid, the height adjustment bolt holes are more forgiving, so I've taken an m6 nylock nut, filed it down enough to fit and I'll use an m6 bolt to adjust the height.

as for the plastic rings, 3 washers for each of the router mounting holes is apparently what's needed there, although 3 seems excessive, it should be simple enough to check by simply slackening off the nuts until I can snap all of the plastic inserts into place without bowing, I should be able to do it without needing to take the router out if I take one bolt out at a time and add the washers, then do the next one.

 

[Reggie]

I've been investigating the router table some more, although I haven't used it in anger yet apart from putting a round edge on some scrap 3x2 I had laying around, it seems there are definitely things that need attention.

First up is the fence, as explained, I am a novice but I have seen more than enough videos of competent people with competent systems to know that the fence with this table is pretty limited.

My dad has an incra system, so I know what the good stuff can do and roughly how it does it but no matter how good the fence system is it seems that if you follow a few basics then you can't really go wrong, it seems bosch didn't follow any basics at all.

If someone could look over my list of what I think are basic things for a fence I'd appreciate it.

1. you've got to be able to move the fence along a decent range, so decent slots in the table to move it backwards and forwards seem essential, along with being able to lock it in place.

2. It should be easy to attach standard size fittings to it, whether it's a mitre or a t slot on the front and back faces along with a complimentary slot going through from the front face of the fence to the back to allow easy fitting of custom jigs/attachments/clamps.

3. a clear (ish) back to the fence, this is to allow attachment of your own kit that you've made/bought

4. reasonable flat edges for rulers, marking with pencil etc.

The RT 60 really fails on most counts here, the fence has a relatively short amount of travel due to the slotting on the table and the fence itself, it's certainly not a deal breaker but it feels a bit lame as you've only got a single slot on the table and a slot on the fence on the other side, so to get it into certain positions, you have to completely undo the clamping knob/bolt, remove it, reposition and put the bolt in the new hole.

I couldn't be bothered to measure the slot in the fence (the fence is plastic of some description) but suffice to say it looks like a straight edged slot maybe 1/4" wide, there is a single clamp that comes with the fence that is held in by the slot and the fact that it fits across the slope to the top and down the back of the fence. That slot is the only way to attach anything to the front face of the fence.

There is no way to attach anything else to the fence, of course you can clamp front and back as long as you're nowhere near the centre 6" of the fence, there is a hole for dust extraction in the way.

Lastly, there are no flat edges on the top of the fence for reference of a straight edge if you need to make precise measurements.

I hope I'm not sounding too critical of the device, I've hardly used it, for getting edges etc. I'm sure it's adequate in a lot of situations but I can't help feeling that I will want something that gives me a lot more options in the future and this fence just won't allow me to do that at all. I'm sure I could make my own attachments but they will be limited to that single slot and of course there will be no way to attach standard fittings to it. I get the feeling that I will be making my own fence sometime in the near future.

Ok, so that's the fence done with, what next? The table and the mitre slot.

The table itself is either steel/iron or aluminium, I'll check with a magnet next time I'm down there, the finish on the top surface of the table is very poor, it looks like it's acid etched or something but it is bare metal across the top of the table, it's also grooved from left to right up to the mitre slot and then there is a lattice work of about 6-7inches to the edge of the table, essentially, if you drop a piece of wood or approach the bench at the wrong angle, you will gouge or scratch your work.

the finish of the rest of the table with regard to paintwork is relatively poor, it's certainly got a coating of paint on all the vertical surfaces but on the edges it's quite wobbly paintwork, either the edge underneath is poorly finished or it was a poor paintjob, either way using the edge of the table as some kind of edge for a lip for a sled etc. is going to end up a bit wobbly, so I'll take some wet and dry to that and see if I can't get a better edge to it.

Am I being too picky here guys? I appreciate it's a low end table, I don't expect the thing to be perfect, I will try and correct whatever I see is wrong.

The mitre slot seemed to suffer a bit from the same wobbly bob paintwork, there is are 2 attachments that fit the mitre slot (even though it's not mitred) there is the mitre gauge, which is pretty sloppy in the slot, so that will need sorting or throwing out or adapting.

The 2nd attachment is on a slider that goes in the mitre slot, it was useful for working out where the sticking points were in the slot, this allowed me to use some wet and dry to smooth out the slot and allow the slider attachment to move relatively smoothly, it could do with some wax but apart from that the mitre slot is now usable without sticking.


All in all, as things progress I'm starting to have a lot more faith in the table, I've managed to address quite a few setup issues, getting the router plate level with the table, shimming between the router and the plate to allow the plastic inserts to fit correctly, getting the mitre slot smooth and the one I'm most happy with is lifting the router easily, just a couple of scraps of wood, a bit of 3x2 pine scrap and a length of something or other as a simple and effective lever, as long as the lever end is positioned below the centre of the router it lifts very easily, almost as if the springs had been removed. After it's at a rough height, I can use the micro adjust that's on the router itself to get it just right.

 

[Eric The Viking]

[caution: this post is longer and far more boring than any human can reasonably stand. But I didn't want to waste it so I've posted it anyway. Feel free to ignore it, but not the safety stuff!]

Bluntly, I wouldn't waste any more time on that table.

I started with a bought B+Q table and router, which was dreadful, but graduated to a cupboard shelf (melamine faced chipboard), bolted onto a cheap workmate-style portable workbench (replacing the wooden jaws). The router was clamped on the back, and the cutter simply pushed through to the surface (whilst it was running, obviously). Now I have a commercially made table, but I emphasise: it allows me to do things more easily, but it's not more accurate than my cupboard shelf version.

A fence is a piece of straight 2x2 or 2x4 clamped to the table edges. If you want it split, you just cut a notch in it and use something sacrificial on the front - MDF or possibly hardboard. Adjustment with shims at either end, as there's a 2:1 scaling if the layout is symmetrical, so you can be remarkably precise.

Cost: practically nothing; results: as good as with something very posh.

The things you need to get used to are SAFETY, cutter and work-feed speeds, depth of cut in each pass, and how to set cutter height, etc. There are some very good books around (look for ones by US writer Bill Hylton for a start), also videos (I'm a fan of Steve Maskery's Workshop Essentials and Marc Spagnuolo. There are many others too).

Find plenty of scrap material to practice with, and *always* allow for extra stock on a project, because you'll need it to set up the cut you need to make. Even if you have 'dial-in' distances for height and fence, you'll probably still need to 'creep-up' on the finish you want.

Separately-adjustable split fences are overrated, IMHO. If you're using the table as a planer, you need one, but set up is tricky, and hand planing is quicker and easier by the time you've messed about doing it (believe me: I used to do it before I got my own planer/thicknesser). You can't remove much stock at a time either, as a router and cutter can't handle the loads imposed, and anyway sticking a bit of melamine on the outfeed side, or even just a bit of ice-cream tub plastic, does just as well.

The only two other reasons for having one are zero-clearance for fine finishes (either mouldings or jointing cutters), or better dust extraction. In both cases you can achieve this with a flat slab fence with a notch in the middle (and a box on the back for DX).

Personally, I'd just get the thing working first:

Setup Tools: a reliable straightedge and 2" or 3" and 6" engineer's squares (get the BS-929 marked ones, not those Chinese ones that just claim to be - mine are Fischer).

Shim the insert plate with 80g paper until it's dead flat with the top, and check the flatness of both with a known-good straightedge. Adjust until the heavy back of one of the squares passes across the join between plate and table without catching in either direction. Check with a long straight cutter that the spindle is perpendicular to the table (you'd be surprised how many people don't do this and wonder why they get rubbish results). Shim the router base edges underneath if necessary. If you don't like paper, use kitchen foil folded over - it doesn't compress as much.

The better you can get the above results, the better your table will work. It's more important than a decent fence, by a long way.

Starter block (AKA the "lead-on pin"): If you're routing with a bearing-guided cutter, you don't need a fence at all, theoretically, BUT you NEED a first pivot point to start the cut safely. Otherwise you get kickback. Commercial router plates always come with drop-in metal pins for this purpose, but you can achieve the same thing simply by screwing a wooden block to the top of the table near the cutter slightly in front and to the right of it. 2-3" away is about right - no further, and closer makes for difficulties. Pivot the workpiece around this block as you start the cut. Once the face is running on the cutter's bearing, it's reasonably safe from kickback, but you still need to keep a firm grip.

I swap to pulling on the outfeed side early on, so there's nothing awkward about feeding the work. If you feel uncomfortable about pulling the workpiece otherwise unsupported, you can put a second block on the outfeed side, but make sure it's behind the straight line between the starter block and the cutter, otherwise the work will catch when the end gets to it. You can also use the end of a piece of 2x2 to do this (clamped hard down at the back of the table) - cheap and simple. Make sure, though, that no lead-on blocks can move in use.

Finally the fence. Get a decent length of 2x2 or 2x3, well seasoned and planed square; cut a notch for the cutter, and clamp it to the table at the ends, ideally using soft jaw clamps - a bit of 'give' in the clamps stops them moving it as you tighten down. I have a range of clamps, plastic and metal, but invariably end up using these as first preference (sold by Axminster, Rutlands, and probably others too):

Check it's square and true when clamped down hard, plane to fix this if it isn't (hint: write on it which is the true face and top!).
You need backing blocks too, and shims. These don't need to be perfectly square, but it helps. 2x2x3" is about right, and two more clamps. These blocks are clamped behind the fence, one at each end. You slip shims between the blocks (which don't move), and the fence (which does). Shims: lots of ideas on the forum recently. I use playing cards, old business cards, and plastic 'window wedges' (commonly used by window fitters for aligning UPVC frames when fitting, good as they come colour-coded in mm increments).

Process of use of the fence: Set up your maximum depth of cut with the fence backed against the blocks (slide fence and blocks around until it's right). Clamp the blocks down hard and put shims in place (you usually only need to do this on one end - pivoting on t'other end is fine!), to move the fence out to the first cut depth you'll take. Make the first pass, remove some shims, re-clamp the fence, repeat. As long as you remember how many shims you use, it's quickly repeatable and very fast to do.

Hope that helps. I strongly recommend you get some good books. Also look at the Ron Fox stuff on Wealden Tools web site (http://www.wealdentool.eu/hints_and_tips.html).

Safety (again): At the very least, find out what's safe practice and what isn't. Router cutters take no prisoners: injury = amputation. There's no possibility of a severed something being sewn back afterwards. Get into safe HABITS. For example, I have my NVR switch mounted on the front of the table and, although it fully isolates the router, I ALWAYS remove the router's plug (so I can see the pins) before making anything more complex than height adjustments (on mine that's done from above the table and well away from the cutter so it's safe). I'm a coward: the switch is excellent, BUT it's still electromechanical and thus not 100%reliable.

Be aware of climb-cutting too (moving the workpiece WITH the cutter blade's movement, instead of against it). You can do this by accident, especially when grooving or dadoing, and a simple setup can suddenly turn quite nasty on you (kickback!). There are times when you want to do this, in a VERY carefully controlled way, to get a good finish, but generally it's dangerous and to be avoided. Don't ever, EVER operate with the workpiece between the cutter and the fence*. It's seriously dangerous and best case will wreck the stock, worst case can wreck you. Fence-cutter-work is good, and the work always moves right-to-left when the fence is furthest away from you.

I'm old and a bit thick: I write on my jigs and fences things like, "DO NOT GO THIS WAY!" or arrows showing the cutter movement (labelling the arrows too!). It's one more protection against that terrible moment of carelessness, or, in my case, stupidity.

The books and various videos web sites etc. will all explain about push sticks (disposable substitutes for human fingers!), and finger boards (wooden 'fingers' that look like a hair comb, and apply even pressure to workpieces as they slide past the cutter), and even Shaw guards (similar idea to fingerboards, but industrially-rated). They're all about safe working. You can always ignore safety practice, at your own calculated risk if you UNDERSTAND what you're doing, but if you don't understand the issues in the first place you're a danger to yourself - not good.

Sermon over.

Summary: a really good result from a router table doesn't mean an expensive setup. It means accurate setup: flatness, smoothness, squareness (fence and spindle), and the ability to move the fence and cutter in small increments - simpler to do than you might think. Posh adjusters, etc. in a skilled worker's hands make the job faster, but he won't get better results than me with my wedges and clamps!

But you've got a shiny new router table! What a depressing old fart I am...

Seriously, go for accuracy, don't worry about complexity and expense, and you'll be encouraged by the results you begin to get.

E.

*grooving/dadoing a slot looks like you're doing this, but you're really not, if you're doing it correctly.

 

[Reggie]

Hi Eric, thanks for the long post, it turns out it is short enough for this human to read it all Thanks for all the useful hints and tips,

I am being sensible about safety, I've done a single test piece just to see what's what, against the fence, all well levelled, clamped, fed correctly and well held etc. However, I haven't touched the router since because of all the little issues that I could see that really need sorting (plus the main one being I'm very short on tools and someone forgot to bring the collet spanner with the router).

It seems like carpentry, just like any other hobby, it's very easy to get caught up in the technology but I feel like I'm looking at with the right frame of mind, some things are without doubt essential, the rest of it is pretty looking, expensive fluff and you can easily spend a heap more on sundry items too.

I had come to the conclusion that I'd tough it out with this table for a short time and have to build my own at some point in the future, I have zero experience at all, so if I'm going to tackle something like building my own table, I'm going to need to cut my teeth on something, it might as well be this bosch table, if only for a month or so.

Accuracy is what struck me about the bosch fence, there's really not much in the way of provision for it, clearly it's a fence and it does what it's supposed to do with regard to keeping a straight edge and keeping the work piece aligned with the cutter, but that's about as good as it gets, I don't need incra micro adjustment etc. but I do need to be able to mark reference points, the fence is black plastic, which isn't exactly useful for pencil marks or laying any kind of measuring device along.

I suspect I shall build a better fence as one of the first projects I attempt, I don't want all singing and dancing, just simple and effective to use and adapt. Before I do any of that I've got some practising to do

Back to safety issues, my router table has an NVR switch mounted on the front where it is easily reachable, the router plugs into one side, the other side is plugged into the wall, the table however is mounted quite high, when it arrived it was part of a combo home made trolley unit, the top of the unit itself has a chop saw on one side and the router table on the other, you just undo the mounting bolts, slide them sideways and flip the lid 180 deg to get at the other tool.

It's a nice idea for saving space, the chop saw is at the right height but I'm not keen on the height it puts the router table, it feels inherently dangerous having the router bit at chest height, this is something I need to address.

You've also nailed it with perpendicular, I have actually been considering this, I'm still waiting for bits to turn up for the router plate but in the mean time I've been learning how to get the plate flat with the table, when you've been staring at the plate/bit for 5-10 minutes it becomes apparent that the bit might not be straight up!! I get the feeling that before I get to use this router properly that I might end up having to take it all to bits and tweak things to get it dead right, I think I need to at least get some calipers on my shims to see if they're causing issues of their own, would I be right in thinking that there are several points on a plunge router attached to a table that could potentially stop the bit from being perpendicular to the table?

I'm thinking that there is the plate height adjustment, the points where the plate is fixed to the table, then there is the attachment of the router to the plate and last but not least, the plungers on the router?

I'm guessing out of all of them, the plungers would be most difficult to correct, although if the error is repeatable then it should be possible via shimming the router base/table insert plate?

I couldn't find the guide pin in the box of bits but I suspect a simple short round headed bolt of some description will suffice?

The table came with a push stick, but I'm sure it will be simple enough to make my own from scraps, I've also got a scrollsaw so I might have a crack at making some featherboards.

I've seen some very cool ideas in the videos I've looked at, they've mostly been about diy improving tables and work flow, I don't have a ton of money, so I won't be buying expensive kit, however, from the videos that I've looked at for various jigs, fences and attachments, I've got some basic ideas for construction that should serve me very well.

 

[Reggie]

No guide screw found unfortunately but a quick homemade solution was at hand, a short m6 bolt, round head + a small bit of plastic tubing as a collar should do the trick nicely

I checked the bit for being at a right angle to the table insert plate and everything looks spot on.