[craigo]

I recently purchased an older Ryobi R161 router for about $30. It came with a routing table.
For most lightweight routing (1/4" roundover) it works fine, but when the work was a little harder, such as 1/2" roundover or in encountering a knot, it would push away from the work. When routing a groove, I noticed the groove was significantly wider at one end. Upon inspection I determined the bit was not loose, but the main body of the router would wobble within the chassis. I removed the router from the table, turned it over and was able to wiggle the router unit even though the clamping lever was fully engaged. I finally found the screw that held the clamping lever in place, and removed the knob, but I see no adjustments to tighten the grip of the clamp. Is there something I'm not seeing, or is there another solution to keeping the unit in a stationary position? I've tried putting in a single layer of tape, but that hasn't worked. I may try more tape. I know I can replace the unit for about $70 at Home Depot, but I'm kind of cheap. Thanks for any advice!

 

[Stick486]

are you sure it's not runout??

 

[Cherryville Chuck]

Looking at the instruction manual on how that lock works I'm guessing that it is a cam mechanism. Looking at a parts diagram it looks like the inside cavity of the knob is the eccentric cam. Without one in my hands to play with it's hard to say if it can be tightened more. You would have to see if the knob is rotating as far as it can towards the narrowest point of the cavity. If it can't then you are stuck trying to make the barrel larger to fit tighter. Most of the older routers had a pair of ears sticking out with a bolt going through them that pulled the split together. There probably ins't enough of the ears on that router to modify it that way. If you use something slippery like vinyl electricians tape it might be too slippery to hold in place. Maybe some 600 grit sandpaper held on with spray glue might work. Try it without the glue first to see if it will fit.

 

[Herb Stoops]

This is a dumb idea,but maybe a large hose clamp tightened around the router base might work.
Herb

 

[Gene Howe]

Herb beat me to it.

 

[Herb Stoops]

Herb beat me to it.

You Dumb too? LOL
Herb

 

[Cherryville Chuck]

You mean there is an opposite to great minds think alike? I don't think I've ever heard of that before.

 

[Herb Stoops]

You mean there is an opposite to great minds think alike? I don't think I've ever heard of that before.

The not so great minds think alike too. HAHHAHAHAHa

Herb

 

[sreilly]

Clamp is a safe way to try for sure.

 

[craigo]

Thanks for the ideas. It'll take me a few weeks to get back to the router (I only get there a few times a year), but I'm going to try both the sandpaper and the hose clamp solutions. It does have a spiral cavity in the clamping knob; I believe it's going as far as it can but I'll double check that too. I was hoping there was an adjustment screw pulling the clamp tighter, but no. Maybe one of these ideas will do the trick. Thanks