[Bradscopegems]

I am just setting up my woodwork shop and purchased a DeWalt 26200 fixed base router and a second fixed base so that I could make two different router tables. There is a small but very irritating problem: the 1/4 inch collet has instead of a six-sided nut a cylindrical nut with only two flats on it. This makes it extremely difficult to tighten when the collet is inside the fixed base and accessible only through a little window in the base casing.
I have had to purchase a new collet with a standard type of nut for £30. Why do DeWalt supply the nut with two flats? It seems to have only disadvantages compared with the six-sided nut shown in all their drawings of the 26200.

 

[Herb Stoops]

Welcome to the forum,Brad. Who knows why the manufactures do what they do. I had a PC trim router that I can only change bits by removing the motor from the base, and it was a hex nut Also in the past I have had routers that have a button to lock the shaft to change bits that has worn to the point of not locking the shaft.

Herb

 

[sreilly]

Welcome aboard Brad. As stated manufactures seems to do some strange things at times. For me I use a lift on my tables and that raises it up high enough to reach without taking anything apart. Aside from that the Musclechuck may fit the bill for some additional $$

 

[DaninVan]

Hey, Brad; welcome! If you and others don't complain to the Mfg. change won't happen. You'd think they'd run this stuff past high volume users (focus groups) before they finalize production.

 

[Bradscopegems]

I tried taking the router out of the base in order to change the bit. The procedure is that you hold the router firmly in one hand, press the yellow button to prevent the collet from rotating, and with ..... your third hand?... you tighten the collet nut with a spanner. Since I have only two hands I attempted to hold the router in my woodvice. Being a smooth cylinder, it slips and I finally ended up making a device like a giant wooden clothespeg with some internal pins that ran in the grooves in the cylinder and stopped the whole caboodle from rotating. Now that I have a decent hex nut on the collet this is all unnecessary. If anyone is considering buying a DeWalt 26200 I recommend that they refuse to purchase unless the hex nut is supplied, as shown in the drawings. Also, if anyone is making an under-table setup I would recommend that the table should be hinged so that the axis of the collet is horizontal. This allows the bit to be positioned correctly: if the axis is vertical the bit tends to drop down inside the collet and so you need that third hand to hold it.....

 

[Bradscopegems]

Sorry.... I should have written 'hinged so that the table can be lifted until the axis of the collet is horizontal'. A hinged table makes it much easier to change bits in a router table.

 

[Bradscopegems]

This message is just to let everyone who is interested know that I have finally solved the problem of changing the router bit in the DeWalt fixed base router without removing the router from its cylindrical housing. I made up a square piece of brass sheet a few millimeters thick that could (after a little milling to shape) be slipped between the router and the holder in order to hold down the lock button. This prevents the collet from rotating, even though the collet needs quite a bit of torque to tighten or loosen it . When I am through, I screw the whole router downwards and the brass pad pops out and is kept handy for the next bit change.
I would post dimensioned diagrams and photos of the brass spacer and of my hinged-top router table, but I understand that I have to post more messages before I will be allowed to post photos etc?

 

[Nickp]

This message is just to let everyone who is interested know that I have finally solved the problem of changing the router bit in the DeWalt fixed base router without removing the router from its cylindrical housing. I made up a square piece of brass sheet a few millimeters thick that could (after a little milling to shape) be slipped between the router and the holder in order to hold down the lock button. This prevents the collet from rotating, even though the collet needs quite a bit of torque to tighten or loosen it . When I am through, I screw the whole router downwards and the brass pad pops out and is kept handy for the next bit change.
I would post dimensioned diagrams and photos of the brass spacer and of my hinged-top router table, but I understand that I have to post more messages before I will be allowed to post photos etc?

Good to hear you're in operation...

Regarding pictures...you are allowed to post pictures that are located on your hard drive, or drive connected externally. But you cannot post links until you have 10 posts...

 

[Cherryville Chuck]

This prevents the collet from rotating, even though the collet needs quite a bit of torque to tighten or loosen it . When I am through, I screw the whole router downwards and the brass pad pops out and is kept handy for the next bit change.

This is why I prefer machines that use 2 wrenches. One counter rotates against the other so that you can often get both wrenches in the same hand annd squeeze them towards each other.

I would post dimensioned diagrams and photos of the brass spacer and of my hinged-top router table, but I understand that I have to post more messages before I will be allowed to post photos etc?

You can't post links but you can post pictures that are stored in your hard drive. Use the Advanced posting option and look for the button that says Manage Attachments. Click on it and you'll see some lines with Browse Attachments at the beginning. Click on those and they will take you into your computer where you'll find the files you want to download and click on them and click open. You'll need to maximize your screen so that you can see the Upload Files button and the Close Window one when they have loaded to the forum.