Router motor only for a lift?

[Jeremy German]

Stupid question, if I buy a router lift (thinking the kreg to match my top, but open to recommendations) do I only need the router motor to fit in it?

 

For instance it seems like I can just get the PC 7218 motor replacement to use with the lift rather than buying the whole router. 

 

I am planning on leaving the router in the table, I also have a Bosch 1617EVSPK already, I was originally planning on installing that in the table but I feel like I probably want a 3HP+ motor in the table. 

 

[pghmyn]

I am just guessing, but I'm pretty sure that will work. I have always seen just motors installed in lifts. Makes the most sense to me, as well.

[chicks82]

Yeah you can get just the motor with out any bases.

[wdwerker]

The big Porter Cable variable speed motor is great. It holds up great under pretty heavy use in my shop.

[Jeremy German]

The big Porter Cable variable speed motor is great. It holds up great under pretty heavy use in my shop.

 

I can get a deal on the motor so it seems like a no brainer.

[CT Proctor]

I have the big PC in my table but if I were to buy another table router I would get a Triton. Remove the plunge sring, mount in the table, and use the provided table height winder. No lift needed.

[Jeremy German]

I have the big PC in my table but if I were to buy another table router I would get a Triton. Remove the plunge sring, mount in the table, and use the provided table height winder. No lift needed.

 

Wow, much better option. Thanks for the heads up, my Triton is on the way.

[dwacker]

Wow, much better option. Thanks for the heads up, my Triton is on the way.

 

If your router is going to see alot of use especially with larger bits I would re think that. The better lifts add alot of rigidity to the router and have better lifting mechanisms. 

[Tom King]

Get a 7518 off of ebay, and resell the base.

[BuilderBill]

If your router is going to see alot of use especially with larger bits I would re think that. The better lifts add alot of rigidity to the router and have better lifting mechanisms. 

 

What he said.

 

But it depends on the application. If you're just using the table occasionally for light edge forming, dadoes and rabbets you'll most likely be fine with the yellow plastic thing. You'd be just as well off in that situation with a PC 892, Bosch 1617 or any other fixed-base router with top adjustment. If you're going to be pushing large bits in a production situation(think a set of kitchen cabinets) I expect you'll be disappointed.

 

The motor in the 7518 weighs very close to 13 pounds. The big Triton weighs in at 13.2 pounds including base, plunge posts, springs, depth adjustment stuff, etc. That should say something in itself.

 

 

Get a 7518 off of ebay, and resell the base.

 

Good luck with that, too many folks buying 7518s to put into lifts and trying to sell the base. Got that t-shirt, ended up buying a new motor off Craigslist so I could get some use out of the base. Now if I want to do a single-pass pattern cut in 8/4 stock I'm covered. 

 

Just adding my $.02 worth.

 

Best,

Bill

[Tom King]

Even if you don't resell the base, there are good deals to be found on 7518s on ebay.  I just bought 3 factory reconditioned/new ones for 280 each including shipping.  For my use, I'm going to use the bases-article coming as the project progresses.  They were each just as good as new.  I bid on some used ones, but they went too close to the price of the reconditioned ones, so I went with them.

 

Someone gave me a cast iron wing for my tablesaw with a big Triton router.  The plate was one I had not seen before, not a lift, and a weird size.  We ran some baseboard molding with it, and it was much less than satisfactory.  Too bad the wing doesn't fit any of the newer lifts, because I have absolutely no use for that setup.  The Triton has one cool feature where the collet comes up above the table, but I'd never buy another one.  I've gotten way too many hours out of the 7500s to go looking for anything else.

[krtwood]

If you're going to do heavy use then aren't we just getting into the shaper argument?  By the time you have the table, PC 7518, and a lift you could have almost bought a grizzly 3 hp shaper.  Yes we all have an investment in router bits so you're probably going to keep a router table anyway, but it need not be a heavy duty beast.  That's why I like the Tritons since they make such convenient routers for table use, the collet comes up above the table and locks for single wrench changes, without having to spend any more money on them.  I used the 2 hp one for many years and for my use it was plenty but I wasn't expecting it to do big cutters.  I never really cared about being able to adjust it above the table, it's easier to do it from under and you have to under to adjust the speed and lock the plunge anyway.  I moved up to the 3 hp Triton for a particular bit and it tends to bind when you change directions adjusting the height so it's harder to adjust than the 2 hp.  I might end up getting a second plate and leaving the 2 hp one in the table most of the time.  I'm usually either doing small roundovers or grooves/mortices.

[dwacker]

If you're going to do heavy use then aren't we just getting into the shaper argument?  

 

I guess you have to define heavy use. Id call what Tom King is doing heavy use and IMO to heavy for any router. But for the OP. The PC motors can be had at woodcraft or rockler and im sure many other places as just the motor. You dont need to buy a base your not going to use.

[krtwood]

I guess you have to define heavy use. Id call what Tom King is doing heavy use and IMO to heavy for any router. But for the OP. The PC motors can be had at woodcraft or rockler and im sure many other places as just the motor. You dont need to buy a base your not going to use.

 

Well, heavy enough that having a 7518 in a lift makes a difference over a Triton.  It seems like a pretty narrow range where that would make sense versus just taking the next step up to a shaper.  I think if Norm had a shaper we'd all have em.  But Norm used his router table and I would hear stories of how the guy who operated the shaper was always nicknamed Stumpy and think well a shaper isn't for me.

[Tom King]

The only use I've ever had for a shaper, was building doors for a house.  I ended up selling the shapers, just because I didn't use them often enough to be worth the floor space. I bought a 7-1/2hp one with a feeder once at an auction.  I used it for one door job, and ended up selling it several years later because it had just become another work table.

 

I have a Woodpecker lift that I use for quick setups, but for some jobs, I like to have several router tops set up at the same time.  An example is a window sash job we have coming up, reproducing exactly some 1784 mortised sash, with every joint mortised.  Whiteside is making the custom cutters.  One regular sash bit.  One shoulder coper.  One full face muntin cutter, and a reverse of the full face cutter for tooling and making a couple of wooden molding plane bases out of boxwood.  We'll use the lift one for the rabbets behind the muntins.  All finish surfaces will be hand planed by taking a couple thousandths off the machined faces.  I'm planning on writing an article on this job, since I've been scolded too many times for not documenting what we do.

 

For setups like that, the router base gets bolted to a made top, with dedicated fences.  The made  router tops will be saved, along with it's router bit, and micrometer readings for setups, for future use long after I'm gone.  I like to have every cutter with its own setup so if something gets screwed up, we can remake it quickly.

 

That way there is a one time setup. Also, we can dive right into the job without fiddling with setup in between pieces.

 

 This is much different than making one piece of furniture.  It works out costing the customer no more in the long run, and I just like doing it that way. 

 

We do still use the Triton in the saw wing for running draw bottom dadoes, but I don't think I've used it for anything else  since the problem running base cap.  I don't think the problem is so much the Triton, but the plate it's in must flex or vibrate.

[dwacker]

 

 

 Whiteside is making the custom cutters.  

 

 

 This is much different than making one piece of furniture.  It works out costing the customer no more in the long run, and I just like doing it that way. 

 

 

 

Sounds expensive, custom router bits come at a premium.

[Tom King]

A little over 1100 for the four bits, but it's still a fraction of the cost of the job.  No standard sash cutters made by anyone come close to matching the 1784 sash profile that we have a few remnants left of to know how they were made.  Nothing about this kind of work is cheap.  The sash will be made from reclaimed Heart Pine, very carefully selected.   The house is Historically significant, and owned by a Foundation set up for its preservation.  This is not a weekend house addition project.  As opposed to the majority of new home construction, whose most important criteria lists have fast and cheap at the top of the list, we get that notion out of the way to start with.  Neither apply here.

[dwacker]

A little over 1100 for the four bits, but it's still a fraction of the cost of the job.  No standard sash cutters made by anyone come close to matching the 1784 sash profile that we have a few remnants left of to know how they were made.  Nothing about this kind of work is cheap.  The sash will be made from reclaimed Heart Pine, very carefully selected.   The house is Historically significant, and owned by a Foundation set up for its preservation.  This is not a weekend house addition project.

 

Wow that is worse than I thought. About all I could justify for custom tooling is about $150 for windows and thats with feed shoe tooling. $1100 I better be doing all the trim work crowns and bases the whole nine yards all custom.

[Trip]

==> The PC motors can be had at woodcraft or rockler and im sure many other places as just the motor.

 

yea, if you look at PC's site, you can get the part number for a motor-only, then just order it through a dealer or on-line (I think it's MSRP $199, but sometime on sale for $149).  If anyone needs more power then a 7518, then you should be looking at a shaper.

 

 

Personally, i'd get the woodpeckers lift... you can't go wrong.  It comes with 7518 mountings out of the box.

 

 

 

==> guy who operated the shaper was always nicknamed Stumpy

 

I'm starting to out-grow my router table, so a shaper is in my future.  My construction foreman lost a thumb and two fingers to his shaper five years ago, so I'm getting a power feeder....  

 

As a side note: ICD codes (medical coding) don't differentiate between shop tools --- but on a proportional basis, I'd bet a fair percentage of serious shop incidents involve the shaper...  Another side note: There was a move by OSHA to create ICD sub-codes for different power tools/operations to identify where shop-based injuries were actually occurring, but it never got off the ground...

[dwacker]

 

I'm starting to out-grow my router table, so a shaper is in my future.  My construction foreman lost a thumb and two fingers to his shaper five years ago, so I'm getting a power feeder....  

 

 

 

Not to be rude but you would have to be doing something really stupid to loose a thumb and two fingers on a shaper. Ive never met anyone personally that was ever hurt on a shaper. Ive dropped a head on my toe once and lost a toe nail but thats about it.

[Tpt life]

OSHA cannot pull hospital records but hospitals self report to the insurance industry. Last I checked wood working specific table saws were accused in about 30% of reports with about 25% "unspecified" across a veritable host of non labeled devices.

[Trip]

==> Not to be rude but you would have to be doing something really stupid to loose a thumb and two fingers on a shaper.

 

accidents happen...  Experienced woodworker, no alcohol/substance abuse involved...  Material removal released internal stresses in the stock and the stick just exploded in his hands...  He reacted in the wrong direction -- game over.

 

 

==> cannot pull hospital records but hospitals self report to the insurance industry.

 

Correct.  Hospitals also report to data agitators for processing, analysis and dissemination.  My company spends over $100K/year on ICD9/10 data and related processing for our markets.  Lot's of money to be made in DP.

 

 

==> table saws were accused in about 30%

 

Code W31.2 covers all 'powered woodworking machinery'.  There are no sub-codes below initial/subsequent/etc injury.  The oft-quoted 30% is a swag is based on gut, a sample of 'other' reporting and heavily influenced by 'best guess'.  That's why OSHA was in the working group pushing for expansion of metal, woodworking, agro, etc sub-codes to quantify specific machines/operations.  Never made it in.