I must admit that setting up the Sidewinder was a bit of a ***** because I fitted the handle to the side of a home built cabinet, so had no reference point. If you don't get the curve of the cable just right, the lift tends to seize up in use. Once it's right, the Sidewinder is brilliant.
I was using a UK supplied (probably made in China) router as it was the only one that has a completely round body, but that stopped working one day in a cloud of smoke and it's been discontinued, so I had a PC 3HP router shipped from the USA and it runs on a 120V step down transformer. All domestic mains is 240V in the UK and I guess PC may make some 240V routers but I'm also guessing they might be expensive as they won't be made for the mass US market.
I have the Clean Sweep inserts and they work very well, but my dust extraction didn't work as well as I had hoped. I use a high pressure vac with a small bore hose (which turns on automatically when the router's switched on) with the hose entering the rear of the cabinet into a square box, but unfortunately much of the dust just drops into the bottom of the box and doesn't get fully extracted, so I just bought the Clean Sweep dust collection box and that needs an extra hole drilled in the base, to take the Sidewinder cable. I wonder if that's one of the reasons they discontinued the Sidewinder?
Unfortunately the shelf and drawer system in my home built cabinet doesn't allow enough space for the Clean Sweep box to fit, so I've decided to scrap it and I've just bought the Incra stand with shelf and wheel kit, which I assembled yesterday. I've yet to fit the stand to the router table and I'm trying to avoid dismantling the entire Sidewinder lift and the LS positioner, but I may have to give in as trying to fit the table and screws from underneath may be too much for my back!
Regards,
Alan.
