Building The Tilting Router Lift

In this video I'm gonna show you how I built this tilting router lift. I'm gonna start by making the wooden tracks for the sliding mechanism. I set the table saw very accurately. And then I just cut out a series of slots to cut the dados that I need to cut that track. So, let's check it for play. Got 5 thou on this end. About the same. The other guide rail on this router lift is just gonna be a 35 degree bevel. That way when the clamp is tightened, it'll always push the square guide rail up against one side. The cut is fairly tricky to make because the 35 degrees. I have to pretty much cut that upright against the fence. 'Cause this blade only tilts so far. So, I've got the track on one side and the bevel on the other side. And this part is gonna mate on here and the bevel cut is gonna glue onto it like so. So, the tricky part is how to line that up exactly right. So, what I've done is I put this on here and I made sure that was level. And then measure if the space I had in here. And then I've made these blocks that go in here to hold this exactly parallel to the other track. And then I'm gonna put some glue on here and just clamp it together like so. And that will insure that this bevel track is gonna be in exactly the right position to keep these parallel. So, the way this thing works is this part slides and it has a router on it. And it gets pressed on here with a *** and a washer. And when that *** is tightened that presses these together. And this wedge will force that over onto this side. So, whichever small amount of play this one will have it'll always be pressed into that corner so that the position is absolutely consistent. I came out with a neat design of, sort of, a compound angle for the gears. And I made a gear pair for testing and it runs pretty well so those are the gears I used for the router lift. So I've got my shaft in here. That's gonna get turned buy this gear. And I need to make sure that, that hole in this block that goes on here. Lines up exactly with that shaft. So, I've made this block to fit exactly in here with no play in it for now. And to mark exactly where the center of my shaft should go I'm just gonna use this drill which is what I used to drill that hole. And I'm gonna slide that against here. And I'm gonna use the point of that drill To mark the center so that's exactly where I need to put the hole for the screws right here. Next, I'm drilling a hole big enough to fit the T-nut into. And then I'm using the prows of the T-nut to mark where I need to drill the holes. 'Cause I drill holes for those prongs, 'cause otherwise that block of wood would split apart from where the prongs would go but with the holes in there it goes in there fairly well. So, I flattened the nut on this side so that it doesn't protrude over the edge. And normally when we're lifting a router lift the thread rod pushes the insert into the block of wood but sometimes we have to pull down. That happens especially if I forget to unlock the router lift and then try to crank it down. So, I'm putting a screw in here. And that will prevent the T-nut from getting pulled out. So, here is a tricky bit. So, I've put this block right here so its at the end of the threaded rod with just enough engagement for the end of it's range. And then I've marked a position that this block is at here. And I've transferred these marks onto here with this thing here sticking up at 1 centimeter towards the end because this thing travels actually just a little bit past the top because when we tilt the router lift we can actually run off the end of this rail a little bit to get a little bit more depth. So, I have put a ruler and a piece of paper in here to jam it in here tight. So, now let's put this into position. And I've already transferred where the block goes here and where I need to drill my screw holes. So, I'm gonna clamp this block together and then drill through here to put the screw holes into both pieces. After drilling a hole through both parts, I enlarge the holes in the plywood there so that the screw won't get caught in that layer. So, I just screwed this block on from the other side. And let's try it on here. And let's try that out. I'm just gonna use a drill here. Seems to work. Now, with a router on here the cutter head is gonna be over here. And there's gonna be a great chance for chips to fall in here. So, I need to block that off. So, now with this screw in here when this is in it's lower position that screw comes quite a ways up here. So, I made a little block to block this area off and it's got a little hole in it. So that when the routers cranked all the way down it's not gonna interfere with where this goes. So, getting these fancy psuedo-bevel gears to mesh is a bit tricky. So, I previously experimented just with a nail through here. And here's my nail hole that I used. So, if I tap that in here those gears turn nicely without jamming. I'm only screwing this machine screw into a slightly undersized hole in the wood, and the more often I screw that in and out the looser it will get. So, I'm only gonna screw it in by just a couple of turns. Just to make sure that the whole thing fits. So, let's see. Yeah, it works. Next I need to cut the mounts for the router. And I'm just using my paper template to cut these out. They're shaped for a standard 3 1/2 inch, or 89 millimeter diameter router body. And I need to make a cutout around these clamps for a hose clamp to hold the router onto the clamp. I did that with a router table and I'm cutting the corners on the band saw. And checking how they fit on the router and making minor adjustments on the belt sander. And then I carefully position them on the slider checking the position with a caliper. And now, just tapping those screws with a hammer. And that will serve as a location mark for where to drill the screw pilot holes. Now with this groove carved in these blocks that fits a hose clamp in here. And then with these guys screwed onto here that holds the router lift like so when I tighten the hose clamp. Now, I'm just gonna leave these off for the time being. Because when I build the rest of this thing I don't want it getting in the way. So, with the router mounted on here. The whole router lift is gonna tilt like so. And to allow the tilting action I'm gonna mount these two hinges on here. And I've added an extra hole to each of these hinges Just to give me a little bit more mounting. Because I'm only able to attach to about two thirds of the hinge. So, with these extra holes I should get a bit more hold. To mark the positions for the pilot holes for my *** I clamp a piece of wood in place to act as a guide. And then carefully place that *** in place. And once I have it in the right position just tap the screws to mark the pilot locations. So, this *** thing is gonna go on here and then there'll be a threaded rod and bolt that goes through here to pull these together. Pull it against the bits that go on here. So, to give these guys a bit more support I'm gonna put this in here. And that's got a bit of a relief for the ***. This space is really tight in here. The next thing I built is a table for my router lift. So, I've got my guides all clamped to the board. And if I put the router down on here, I can verify that, that will cut exactly to the line. And now switching from the 3/4 inch bit to the 1/4 inch bit I'm gonna cut all the way around, but this time all the way through. And that will give me a nice 1/4 inch ridge all the way around. So, after I cut out that insert hole I chisel the corners square. And then it's ready to receive the insert. I drilled out some holes in the corners for the dust to escape and also added a tab and a magnet to hold down the insert. So, here's looking at it from the bottom. And the magnet is enough to hold it up against gravity. So that should be enough to hold it down against the wind from the router. So, the next thing I built is a fence. I started out by cutting out all the pieces on the band saw. And then gluing them together just with butt joints. And then I drilled some holes for the dowels to insert the dowels after I actually glued the whole thing together. I later cut those dowels flush with the surface. I also needed to cut some slots in the front so that I could mount the fronts of the fence in an adjustable way and cut those slots with my slot mortising machine. I put some T-nuts in the bottom of the table, so that I could then screw my fence to it. I cut some knobs out on the band saw and drilled a hole in it and carved that hexagonal so that I could then insert a bolt into it. Now the other thing that I did is I embedded some small magnets on the bottom of the knobs so that the washer would stick to the *** when I lift it off the fence.