Oak Park Phoenolic Base Plate needs 3 1/2" hole

pmspirito said:

Can I use a hole saw to drill out an Oak Park Vac-U-Base-Plate to 3 1/2" to accomadate a panel raising bit I recently purchased? The large hole OP-BP is 3 1/8" and is not a Vac-U-Base-Plate. If I drill it oversize enough I figure I will not have to worry about being dead on in the center.

OR is there a base plate with various sized insert rings that is not shown in the online catalog ?

Click to expand...

If I recall correctly oak-park has two sizes of holes, one is the one for template guides (1 1/2") and the other a 3+" hole. Option one is to buy as second plate..... A second option is open the hole up on the one you have but when using smaller bits you would not want that big a hole so that is not really an option. I can think of a few other options if you want to "walk on the wildside" one is given below.

I've been playing with an idea I once saw for making a "false top" for my sears router table. I have my first bit that will not work with the table so this is what I was thinking.......

[I will do this in text and add some sketches..... I'd like some thoughts on the safety and related issues from anyone who can help out....]

I would start with a the false top. This would be as long as my table and the width would be to the center or so of the router shaft. I would cut out a half circle the width of my largest bit plus lets say 1/16" to 1/8". (fig 1)

The next part depends on your fence (Since my fence will not allow that big of a bit either I would need this....) I would add a fence to the side with the half circle cut in it with a cut out the same size as the half circle and then some shape above something like the cutter perhaps. (fig 2)

The fence could be mounted as shown or with another joint/braces added etc. (fig 3 looking from above) (fig 4 facing fence)

The back side of the cutter would have to be covered perhaps with a box or shield of some sort... (maybe the box with a vac port). The fence/false top would be adjusted and clamped in place. Something like seen in fig 5.

Keep in mind the bit would have to be inserted from above and you would have to have access get your wrenches in..... Since the bit is setting above your regular table the router/bit combination would have to allow the height setting of the bit off the "false top"....

If someone has already done this I'd like to here how it worked/didn't work for you as well as details of how you did it.

Keep in mind this design is more in my head then anywhere and is based on a sketchs I remember seeing so some of the details are "fuzzy".

I was also thinking of "blocking" the router so it could not ever go low enought to have the bit hit the table....

Ed