To enable me to rapidly insert and remove my router from my router table, I built the toggle-clamp fixture shown in the drawing above. I removed the rubber cushions from the clamps and substituted short sections of steel rod, tapped through the middle like barrel nuts. The rods clamp into channels (for edgeguided rods) molded in my router’s base.

The fixture also features an easy-to-use height-adjustment screw, which is simply a length of threaded rod fitted with a crank on the bottom and a pressure-dispersing disc on top. The screw eliminates the problem of having to overcome the combined force of the plunge router’s weight and the spring pressure when making small height adjustments.

The all-metal fixture in the drawing does require moderate metalworking skills and access to some metalworking machinery. However, many of the components could be replaced by wooden counterparts.

Philip Blume, Albuquerque, N. Mex.

Fine Woodworking Magazine, February 1995 No. 110

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