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Centering your router on a mounting plate

41970 Views 61 Replies 37 Participants Last post by  niswanger
It is very important that your router be centered on your mounting plate. Many people sweat over this for hours remeasuring before they drill their mounting holes. The quick and easy way to do this is with a centering kit from Rousseau. These kits work with all brands of mounting plates that accept Porter Cable style guide bushings and they cost $5.

Step 1. You chuck up the centering pin in your routers 1/4" collet.
Step 2. Insert the disk into the center hole of your mounting plate.
Step 3. Remove the sub base plate from your router, set it and the screws aside.
Step 4. Install the transfer screws into your routers base with the points facing out.
Step 5. place the centering pin into the disk, position your router to face the direction you want it mounted and lightly tap the edge of your router with a mallet. This marks the locations you need to drill.
Step 6. Drill the holes, flip the plate over and slightly countersink them.
Step 7. Using the new screws that came in the centering kit attach your router and it is perfectly centered.

If you are using a plate that accepts the larger Oak Park style guide bushings you can purchase a centering disk and a guide pin from them. You can purchase transfer screws from most hardware stores or tool suppliers.

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In concerns to another reason why centering a router bit in a table is very important. I am an avid Incra LS Positioner User. If that router bit is not centered it is a bear to set up that accessory to work correctly if you can do it at all. I create tons of boxes with up to four different registrations and I'll tell you if that bit is not in the center of the router table you get all kinds of interesting results. But once both the router bit is centered to the table and the Incra Positioner is centered to the bit life is good.
There are two reasons I can think of why it makes sense to center your router in the base plate. If you want to use an Incra jig and the bit isn't centered it is much harder to align the jig. In extreme cases I've seen the jig actually mounted crooked to compensate. If you use a pin router and the pin and the bit aren't aligned with each other the results you get are not acceptable. I found it is much easier if both pin and router bit are centered in their respective plates and the plates are centered to each other.

Victor
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