Replies

1. 
   Lataxe | Sep 05, 2006 12:38am | #1

   RN,

   Festool do a system that includes a stand and various top plates allowing you to mount various of their tools, including a router.  The system seems the usual high class Festool engineering but is also the high Festool price.  It includes fences, sliding carriages and so forth but is also lightweight and portable.  I've only seen this system demo'd at a WW show however - I don't own one.

   If by "off the shelf" you mean a non-system table, I would recommend the Veritas, the mounting arrangement of which allows virtually any router to be fitted and thereafter dismounted/mounted in a trice.  The table and its accessories are excellent, in terms of engineering and functionality.

   But I haven't actually put the Festool 1400 in my Veritas table so this is not advice from experience with the Festool, only with the Veritas.

   Lataxe

1. 
   Glaucon | Sep 05, 2006 01:05am | #2

   I agree with the Veritas table- I like it because it is coined steel and will not sag like many others. I also own a Festool 1400, but I have a PC 7518 router in my table. I would probably not put a plunge router in a table. The 7518 or a similarly sized Milwaukee has plenty of power, a soft start and variable speed- all of which are desirable for table routing. I like Festool tools, but some of their "systems" and accessories seem overpriced and over designed.Glaucon

   If you don't think too good, then don't think too much...

1. 
   Mike&L | Sep 05, 2006 03:32am | #3

   I am not an expert by any stretch of the imagination.  However, I read.  Something that I recently read suggested that you can mount any router to anything by removing it's base plate, taking what are called "transfer punches" to the mounting holes over a suitable plastic, aluminum, or baltic-birch plate, transferring the mounting points to said plate, drilling a suitable hole in the center for the bit to come through, and Voila!  - instant router mounting plate.

   Seems reasonable.  Haven't tried it yet.  But the pictures were convincing.  Would solve your problem by allowing you to use your current router table.

   Mike D

1. 
   daryl | Sep 05, 2006 06:54pm | #4

   I have two Festool routers, the small 1010 and the big plunge, I forget the number. The 1400 is a bigger bersion of the 1010, and I can't see it effective in a router table. It's a pain working the fine adjustment. It works better in the big 3 hp model, but it's a disc, not a crank, and there is no crank for it. I still use my PC 690 router, with a speed controller, in a router table, and if I needed a big router for it, would stay with the 3+ HO PC router. I never got why people liked plunge routers in a table. A good router could fine screw to adjustment, and now there are all those screw type adjusters like Jess Em to do it for you.I love my Festools, but not in a router table.

2. 
   Lataxe | Sep 05, 2006 10:01pm | #5

   G,

   I would agree that a big powerful router, with s/start, variable speed and such is best in a table.  I suppose if all you've got is a little one, you might want to try that, though.  (Although if one can afford a Festool, one could afford......anything)!   :-)

   But why don't you chaps Over There like a plunge router in a table?  In the UK we don't have much choice, as those funny US turrety ones are not widely available, even from Bosch and other European makers who do offer them to you.

   I have a large Triton in my Veritas table, a plunge router designed also for tables.  You can remove the plunge-spring in a second (to reduce the lifting resistance) and it's plunge mechanisms allow one of the (round) plunge handle to be used to wind the thing up and down rather than plunged (there is a switch on it to swap modes). 

   The fine adjuster is easy to use too, as is the collet, which can be wound right above the table top, automatically locking for a one-handed bit change and preventing switch-on of the machine.

   And, as its a Veritas table, the beast can be removed and turned into a normal plunge router again within a couple of minutes.

   Ah, the ingenuity of Australians.

   Lataxe.

1. 
   Glaucon | Sep 06, 2006 11:40am | #6

   Lataxe,I think you can use a plunge router in a table, but it is not (to my way of thinking) optimal. Plunge routers are the quintessential hand held machines, tend to be smaller with less power and fussier adjustments. The PC 7518 is a beast, not truly a shaper, but with mass, inertia and power- not an easily hand held machine. If Detroit were making it, it would have fins and white wall tires. I think the things that make it less suitable for hand held routing- size, simpler adjustments, power- are also what make it a good table mount machine. I don't like mounting and unmounting a router from a table if I can help it, so I park the 7518 there. If a WW'r can only afford one machine, buy the one best suited for what he will be doing most- a plunge if doing mostly free hand, or a 7518 or similar if using the table most. You can adapt most jobs to either or to the occasional use of the router for its non-ideal application.Glaucon

   If you don't think too good, then don't think too much...

1. 
   daryl | Sep 06, 2006 04:34pm | #7

   I thought over what I wrote, and want to add a few thoughts. 1. When my only router was a PC 690, I bought several other bases, maybe $10 each, and screwed them permanently to various jigs. One was a router table, another a horizontal mortiser.2. Several fixed base routers have crank screws so they are made for router tables. Milwaukee makes one I know.3. Those Jess Em and other crank inserts seem to be good.While plunge routers allow you to fine tune the cutting depth, I don' tlike the idea of removing an dputting back all sorts of hardware simply to use in a router table. If the router table is to be used only sometimes, then stick with the lighter router, I've even done panel doors with the 690. I just took 1/16" cuts (you really should only take 1/8 max anyway, a router is a finishing tool no matter how powerful).

2. 
   Lataxe | Sep 06, 2006 09:42pm | #8

   G & D,

   I agree about leaving the router in the table.  It's what I do, even though it will come out of, and go back in, a Veritas table very quickly.

   Of course, now I am a wealthy pensioner (ha ha) so have more than one router.  But there was a time when I could afford only one.....

   Glaucon, that "beast" you describe sounds, well, Good & Beastly; and now I want one!  I blame you for this stimulation of my tool lust, so you'd better send me yours, just for a lend of course.  :-).  Think of it as supporting the Special Relationship between the UK and the US.

   Lataxe the acquisitive.

3. 
   rnsykes | Sep 13, 2006 11:40pm | #9

   I only plan on using it in a table ocassionally, and can't talk the wife in to letting me buy a seperate router just for table use.  the Festool has alot of power, and I've used it for doing tongue and groove work for flooring, and even made a couple of raised panel doors with it, but its a pain in the neck to clamp and unclamp the work peice every time I want to do a different side.  I think it would be much easier to take he 1/2 hour to set it up in a table and get it all done right.  The reason I'm looking for something that i can buy locally is so that I return it easily if the router doesn't fit.

4. 
   BG | Sep 13, 2006 11:51pm | #10

   rnsykes,
   Check out Rockler too, they make router base plates that fit several different models. I think their metal bases allow the router to be used in either a hand held or drop into a top method...give them a call.

2. 
   quietude | Sep 14, 2006 05:24am | #11

   I checked the plates on the festool 1010 and the 2000 against my bosch bechtop router table. Neither of them fit. (I don't have the 1400 yet, but you know how it is- if i had every festool I wanted. .. . ) I use a p/c router for it that works fine. That said the plate is just plastic set into a metal table so it wouldn't be that hard to transfer the screw pattern on the festool and drill it out. I will probably do that when I have the time. I got my festool router for tongue and groove work on flooring, but it has plenty of power for table work as well.
   Good luck.

1. 
   rnsykes | Sep 15, 2006 01:42am | #12

   Thanks alot for the advise.  I think I'll probably end up doing that becasue I don't think anything will come off the shelf ready to accept the festool.

3. 
   iggy1965 | Sep 17, 2006 09:27pm | #13

   I own two festool routers (1010 and 1400)  and the festool new multpurpose table with the various inserts 5 and 6. My god, its great. If you have the money, get the festool table CMS-system. Its engineered by germans and they know how to engineer things. Its all aluminum. The dust collection is great. the adjustments which can be made are accurate. And yes it is transportable.

    

   Festool is the only choice for me

   Ignard ten Have

    

   ATF55

   OF1010

   OF1400

   PS300

   CMS-table

   CMS module 1

   CMS module 4

   CMS module 5a

   CMS module 6a

    

   CT-mini dust collector

    

4. 
   MatthewSchenker | Sep 23, 2006 04:10pm | #14

   I have the Festool 1000 and 1400 routers. Their strengths are in their hand-held abilities. You could use them in a table, but it would be kind of a waste!

   For table routing, I use a Porter+Cable 7518 -- a no-frills work horse. I save the Festool routers for more precise work.

   By the way, if you want to get lots of insights about Festool tools, consider joining the Festool Owners Group, over on Yahoo. There are lots of experts over there, offering honest opinions about the tools.

   Here's a link to join the group:
   http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FestoolOwnersGroup/