Motorized Router Lift - Eagle Lake Style

johnwnixon

Thanks to everyone for the warm welcome over in the Introductions forum. This forum is a wealth of great information geared towards routing (which is my favorite machine in the shop!).

I wanted to start a dedicated thread for my motorized router lift, so I can get all the information in one place an address any questions.

Let me start by saying that my foot-activated motorized router has really opened up a lot of functions on the router table that were previously impossible, unsafe or tedious to perform.

Device Description -
I motorized the raise and lower action of the table mounted router. There's a panel on the router table that has a toggle switch to control the direction of the lift, and a pulse switch to activate the lift. There's also a foot pedal that activates the lift, allowing you to use both hands to control the work piece while operating the lift.

Background -
The idea was born from my desire to make mortises with a router. I was on the verge of building a mortising jig for use with a plunge router. The concept of the jig is simple - control the movement of the router while incrementally plunging the bit to make the mortise. By motorizing the lift action of the router, I simulated the plunge (the z axis). By adding a tenon jig to the router table, I was able to control the x-y movement of the work piece. The combination of these two elements makes for highly effective and efficient router table mortising. With a router table that has an enclosed lower connected to dust collection, you get a nearly 100% dust free operation (using a spiral upcut bit, all the dust and chips is extracted below the table).

After installing and using the motorized router lift for a while, I realized there were many other benefits beyond mortising.

Some of the benefits -

• Changing bits - my Motorized router lift is connected to a Hitachi M12V. Changing bits on this router when it's mounted in a table can be time consuming. With motorized router lift, I can drop the router down in a matter of seconds to easily change bits. The router go right back up to the ready position in seconds.

• Stopped Dados - I can start the bit in the middle of the work piece by raising it up with the lift. There's no more tilting the work piece onto a spinning bit to make a stopped dado.

• Mortising - with the modified tenon jig equipped with stop blocks, I can setup and cut reproducible mortises in no time at all. This setup is great for making matching mortises for loose tenon joinery.

• Incremental Passes - how often to you take too much off in one pass because you just don't feel like changing the bit height in between passes? With the motorized router lift, the pulse of a button on the table changes the bit height so making incremental passes is really easy.

• Cutting Circles - I made a circle jig for the router table. It's the standard pivot type affair, but I can rotate the blank while raising the bit with the foot pedal and cut a circle fast and easy.

About the device -
My current version of the Motorized Router Lift is powered by an 18 volt screw driver (Black and Decker XD1200). I converted AC to DC and added a variable powered transformer to control the speed of the motor. I rarely adjust the speed, but it's nice to have that capability for raising the router at different rates depending on the operation. You could easily skip the AC to DC conversion and just use the battery (connected in a remote location) to power the device.
The screwdriver is connected to a hollow drive-shaft that take the place of the nut on the router's threaded rod. This drive-shaft turns against the router body to raise and lower the M12V.

FAQ -
Q. How do you stop the router at the desired depth?
A. I use the router's depth stop.

Q. Does the screwdriver motor continue to run when the router has reached max depth?
A. Yes, but it has a clutch that slips to prevent burning the motor. It's also easy to tell when the max depth is reached - I can hear that the bit is no longer cutting, and I let off the foot pedal.

Q. Do you have an indication of the bit height during the lift operation?
A. Yes, I have a digital caliper connected to the router, and a remote readout above the table that shows the relative amount the bit was raised. I can use this in conjunction with the depth stop to know when to let off the foot pedal.

Q. Do you need to have the VARIAC for controlling the motor speed of the lift?
A. No, if you can find a motor with a suitable RPM, there's really no need for a speed controller.

Q. Can I buy a Foot-Activated Motorized Router lift somewhere?
A. I am currently working with a company to bring the device to market. Patent is pending. Simple enough to build your own though.

Resources -
There's a lot of information on my Web Site about the Motorized Router Lift. I have videos of the lift in action, pictures, and documents describing the components.

Here's a good place to start
http://www.eaglelakewoodworking.com/...mrl_master.htm

Part 3 of my pool table build showcases the Motorized Router Lift for making mortises:
http://www.eaglelakewoodworking.com/...?PoolTable.htm

Here's a few pics of the device and the results:






Best Regards,
John W. Nixon
EagleLakeWoodworking[DOT]com

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reikimaster

I think you need 10 posts to be able to post links. This may help temporarily:

http://eaglelakewoodworking.com/Moto...mrl_master.htm

johnwnixon

Thanks reikimaster, I appreciate you translating my crypto-link!

__________________
John W. Nixon - Buffalo, NY
www.EagleLakeWoodworking.com

Router is still my name

Awesome !

reikimaster

Heheh.... we're neighbors. Least I could do.

I live in Sanborn.

DougO

This looks like one of the better mods to a router table I have seen. Got to give it a try.

thanks for sharing John

johnwnixon

Hey Charlie, that's awesome! I'm in Wheatfield, so actually closer than you may have thought. You're welcome to come out to my house some time and check out my shop / projects....there's always something in the works.

__________________
John W. Nixon - Buffalo, NY
www.EagleLakeWoodworking.com

reikimaster

Invitation appreciated and I hope sincere as I may very well take you up on that. I like the furniture style that you seem to favor.

rmaxa

Welcome to the forum, awesome devise. I'm not to far from you either, I'm in Rochester.

__________________
Rolf

http://www.rochesterwoodworkers.org/index.html

johnwnixon

Yes, Charlie, I'd love to have you over. There's a few other's in our area that I've met (mostly from the WOOD magazine forum). Do you know any of these guys - Bill Richardson, John Morello or Scott (Gator Guy) Clark?

__________________
John W. Nixon - Buffalo, NY
www.EagleLakeWoodworking.com