Bosch 1180 Fix or Scrap?

Make a fence for it, hang one of your spare routers in it, install a roundover bit in it and leave it set up.

Don't have a spare router...? Let's buy one...>

I guess it depends...do you have another table that you can use...? Are you planning on building one...? Use the plate for the new build, maybe...? Do you have space for another table...?

If you keep it, it looks like you will need a DYI fence and related nuts and bolts and an external switch...not a big lift. Lots of plans for fences...

If you don't now have a table, you can DIY what you will need to put this one in operation and make/buy something else later...

Check out www.ereplacementparts.com for hardware (bolts, carriage bolts, knobs, etc)...check parts for the 1180 and the 1181...

...and Welcome to the Forum...

Although I couldn't see it clearly, it appears that the name on the left front corner of your router table is "Bosch", so it should be a quality table. Because it's a Bosch table, you may wish to look at a Bosch router. Most of my routers are older Sears models – and if you're buying something, you'd be better to look someplace else. However, I do have a Bosch trim router which is a well-built unit. You may want to look at a Bosch router that comes with both a fixed base – which could be attached to the table insert – and a plunge base which could be used by transferring the motor between the fixed base and the plunge base. I see from your bio that you have a DeWalt tablesaw and want to develop your woodworking experience. You would be money ahead to buy a quality router as there are lots of postings by people who have bought cheaper or older routers and been very disappointed when they malfunction and parts are unavailable. If you look at postings on this site dealing with router tables or any number of YouTube videos you can get an idea of how to build your own fence or look at catalogs from woodworking magazines and look at their options for fence packages. Many on the many members on this site have pictures and/or postings of how they built their fence and I think these would be helpful to you. This is a great forum and as you get more involved in woodworking in general and routing in particular, there are many members of this site who are more than glad to offer you practical advice.

Glad you decided to join the fun. This is a great place to learn and advance your skills.

The table looks to be pretty decent and appears to be pre drilled for several brands of routers. However, I'd suggest you go with the Bosch 1617 EVSPK, see pix. the kit includes both fixed and plunge bases. The motor is quickly switched between either by releasing a clamp. You can use the fixed base to hold the router under the table. You can order a key (Pix) that will allow you to fine tune bit height without removing the router from the table.

You will remove the plastic base under the router base and use those bolts to bolt the base under the table. I think it will be a very workable table so long as it's flat and not warped or dropped.

Fences are pretty easy to make, you just need to make sure the material is extremely flat Many of us use plywood for such things because it's usually very flat. Maybe one in 50 Home Dept or Lowes lumber is really flat. The taller the fence, the more useful it will be for joinery, especially for times when you want to put a shape to the end of a long, piece such as making doors.

Below is a rather fancy home built fence. Note that it gets held on the table with clamps. You might need to work out how to get the clamp to stay put under the table, but that's a pretty simple thing to fix.

Note that in the picture, the base of the fences and the face are held at a precise 90 degree angle to the table top with blocks cut exactly to 90 degrees. You can use a draftsman's triangle with a 90 degree angle to make sure it's square. You also need to do sawdust relief by trimming the edge off the bottom piece. It gives the sawdust somewhere to go. Note that there is an opening in the fence to make room for the bit. Behind that opening, you can add a dust collection port--Rockler and other woodworking stores sell these in 2.5 inch size to match the Shop Vac hoses.

Speaking of sawdust. Sawdust will ruin your lungs. So you need to invest in some basic dust collection gear. See last pix. A big shop vac will do for starters, but you will need something like the Dust Deputy on top of a bucket set up as in the picture. Dust from the tool goes into the hose, that hose goes into the side of the dust delputy, and the hose from the Shop Vac goes into the top of the dust deputy. The DD and bucket will collect 99l percent of sawdust and bits and pieces of stuff, so your shop vac filter won't clog up too fast.

I always wear a mask when doing any work in the shop, as well as safety glasses and muff style ehearing lprotection. Many carpenters wind up with COPD and fored to quit at age 55.

I also attached a copy of a pdf of the 18+ things that helped speed up my learning curve. It's kind of long but hopefully it will save you some grief and money over time. It took me 12 years to accumulate a full lshop. That was during my peak earning years, so I suggest you really focus on what appeals to you most and accumulate tools that will do that kind of work and make it easier. Hint: get the Wixey digital angle gauge as soon as possible and use it to set your saw EVERY TIME you use it. Cuts less or more than 90 degrees are extremely difficult to join.

One of my favorite books is called the Joint Book. Printed on thick, coated stock, it is meant to live in your shop and shows hoe to make just about any joint you want. Watch You tube videos on setting up each tool. The time you take do set up your tools is minimal, but pays of nicely when you make something.

Sorry about being long winded here, but I'm just paying back all the help I got when I first joined.

A couple of people have mentioned router lifts, but those can be very specific as to how they're mounted. For the most part they are mounted under a router plate that is set into a shallow recess in the table top. Before you buy a lift, be very careful to find one that will work in your table, or plan to invest a few bucks in some plywood to make a table you can use any plate in. Don't have to do that to start.

I like a two layer table with plywood on top and a second layer of MDF that will help keep everything flat. You buy the plate to fit the router and/or lift, then cut an opening in the top layer (ply to just fit the plate. Then you cut a second opening in the second (MDF) layer that is smaller by half an inch or so. You glue the two layers together. If you use screws to secur the second layer, coming up from underneath, you MUST pre drill the holes or the mdf may split.

You then have to install some levelers so you can have the plate top perfectly level with the plywood top. Kreg makes plates and the little levelers in the picture and these will let you produce a great looking table that is fully functional. I like aluminum plates, and the kind that have inserts that twist lock in place. The silver and red plate in the picture is my Woodpecker plate, but you won't need something that overbuilt for a Bosch 1617, but you can see the inserts are red and let you support the workpiece all the way across the router opening. Hope we haven't overwhelmed you with information. It is pretty daunting at first.

The most important thing to learning is to make stuff. Almost anything and you will learn more from that than anything else.

Tom.

Mr. Stick, What does it mean to write "let it ride..."? That sounds like rule two, as I am sure you helped to add to the forum, does not apply to you. I am really at a quandary. You do this in many ways with your sarcastic rebuttals to people. The claim is this is a friendly forum. I just wonder in your mind what is friendly and what is an insult? Others may be afraid to say something to you. However, speech is cheap, but precious, so I have nothing to lose.

"SO LET IT RIDE" YOUR WORDS NOT MINE. How much fun is it to belittle someone on their first visit?

Mr. thomas1389, NO Sir, I am not picky at all. This is not a joke. This is a public forum and a little common courtesy should be shown to all, not just those that a an elite member or members decide to talk to in this manner. If not then Rule number two needs to be rewritten. It should have somewhere included within, that jokes are allowed and there can be no rules to state where the line should be drawn. Here is an example Mr. Thomas1389, it has been said you may be an SOB. "Stand Out Brother". How was the joke? Hope you may have liked it. Rule # 2 Mr. Stick.

Tagwatts1 said:

Mr. Stick, What does it mean to write "let it ride..."? That sounds like rule two, as I am sure you helped to add to the forum, does not apply to you. I am really at a quandary. You do this in many ways with your sarcastic rebuttals to people. The claim is this is a friendly forum. I just wonder in your mind what is friendly and what is an insult? Others may be afraid to say something to you. However, speech is cheap, but precious, so I have nothing to lose.

"SO LET IT RIDE" YOUR WORDS NOT MINE. How much fun is it to belittle someone on their first visit?

Mr. thomas1389, NO Sir, I am not picky at all. This is not a joke. This is a public forum and a little common courtesy should be shown to all, not just those that a an elite member or members decide to talk to in this manner. If not then Rule number two needs to be rewritten. It should have somewhere included within, that jokes are allowed and there can be no rules to state where the line should be drawn. Here is an example Mr. Thomas1389, it has been said you may be an SOB. "Stand Out Brother". How was the joke? Hope you may have liked it. Rule # 2 Mr. Stick.

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Hi Frank, I quite seriously hope that you feel better now that you have things off your chest. I admire your intestinal fortitude in the way you fearlessly addressed the perceived irreverence of the member known to you as "Mr. Stick". Perhaps we should have a few more "rule police" here. Why, just the other day a post, that I took a great deal of exception to, was made by a member and I hesitated, admittedly in fear of others, to rebuke him/her. The word "to" was used where it should have been "too", meaning also, or, as well as. I think these instances of transgression should be noted by the moderators or perhaps a panel made up of members of unquestionable integrity that would assign points to each member for infractions of the "code". These infractions could be categorized as to severity and possible resultant damage to a member. For instance, the sarcastic rebuttal made by the aforementioned member would rate high where my making light of it would be an infraction of a lesser value. To ensure the correctness of the records of violations a selection of members of unquestionable unquestionable integrity could be made to oversee the members of just unquestionable integrity.
Or...we could just let it ride and trust the moderators to do what they do in keeping this forum a casual friendly place to share ideas, have fun and make sawdust. This would be something like getting big government out of our hair.

Hey Herb, you might be right to think that Quarantineitis has set in somewhat. I just read Stick's note about rule bending and taking some things private. I've concluded that I should also let things ride and refrain from further input of this sort to this thread. Although I was beginning to enjoy this semi malicious repartee my better judgment says it can't go anywhere but down. Besides, It really doesn't have anything to do with routing or working wood or making any sort of sawdust. I'm gonna try to keep to the high road but I'm fearful that I might again fall off the wagon. This quarantine is playing up my weaknesses in some part and has caused me to recall admonishments made to me by my old granny, bless her soul, when she felt it was her place to correct her progeny of their errant ways. To curb my sarcasm or my occasional slide to ridicule she would say "more to be pitied than censured" of a person. My old granny often thought it was her place to correct us in lieu of our parents. She drew from a very large stock of quaint expressions and if none of her attempts at educating us worked to her satisfaction she could always fall back to knocking us into the next week with a short piece of 2 x 4 to the side of the head. Gets 'em every time, she would say with a satisfied smile. She was a sweet old lady, carried the good book everywhere. She couldn't read but she carried the book. It impressed people. She aged well but we finally had to bury her out under her favourite tree. I think she died a week later.

Okay, now lets make sawdust!!