In 1992, when I first saw the Multi-Router, made by the JDS Company, I bought one on the spot. This essentially is a small milling machine powered by a portable router, with a table that moves on X and Y axes. The workpiece is clamped to this table. There is also a vertical table, to which the router (equipped with a spiral-upcut bit) is mounted horizontally, and this table provides a Z-axis motion.

The beauty of this machine is in its construction. The range of motion is supplied by linear roller bearings running on ground steel rods attached to ground aluminum tables. The table motion is absolutely effortless, and there is no discernible play in the bearings. The rods have flexible, movable collars and easy-to-adjust stops.

I use this machine to make mortises, tenons, and loose-spline joints. After 12 years of use, this machine is holding up beautifully. As a matter of fact, it has outlasted three routers.

—Joseph Van Benten