Tricked-out overarm pin router

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delong94
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Re: Tricked-out overarm pin router

Post by delong94 »

delong94 wrote:Thank you. The brackets are there for the casters... I'll need to get some new casters later on. I plan to get the ratchets and collar too.
I picked up a used caster pair... $40 with free shipping... I'll have to clean them up and get the OPR set up soon. Not sure when, but I am taking this one day at a time. The collar and ratchet handles should be here this week too.
delong94
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Re: Tricked-out overarm pin router

Post by delong94 »

Finally started to clean up the OPR. Still a lot of rust on the support pole. I added the ratchet handles and soaked the caster bracelets in evaporust.
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BuckeyeDennis
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Re: Tricked-out overarm pin router

Post by BuckeyeDennis »

delong94 wrote:
delong94 wrote:Thank you. The brackets are there for the casters... I'll need to get some new casters later on. I plan to get the ratchets and collar too.
I picked up a used caster pair... $40 with free shipping... I'll have to clean them up and get the OPR set up soon. Not sure when, but I am taking this one day at a time. The collar and ratchet handles should be here this week too.
I did make one other small mod to my OPR stand that you might want to consider. Mine came with the casters already installed. But the stand was not very rigid in the twist direction (about a vertical line through the router axis). I think this twistiness results from moving the side braces up higher to make room for the casters. Once you do that, there is no longer a complete perimeter frame anywhere except at the top.

Actually, when I got my OPR, the side braces were completely missing, and the stand was as loose as a goose. But after I picked up the rusty basket-case machine, I salvaged the side braces, cut them to the new length, and cleaned and painted them. On the donor machine, being too long to fit inside the legs, they had been bolted to the outside of the legs.

After I installed the "new" side braces, the stand was still pretty soft about that twist axis. So I added bolts that clamp the side braces firmly to the front middle brace. This does a good job of keeping those braces at right angles. I drilled new holes close to the inside edge of the braces, to give the bolts as much leverage as possible.
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My stand doesn't have a rear-middle brace, and I don't think that any of them did. After I learned that I still had a twist problem, I kicked myself for having discarded the front brace from the rusty donor machine, as it could have been repurposed. But the original front brace plus the two side braces, with the added bolts, makes a rigid C-frame. So the stand is pretty stiff now.

I just checked the manual, and the original casterless stand had bolts like this installed at all four corners of the bottom perimeter frame, through the existing slots you can see in the photo. But you lose those when you install the caster kit.
DLB
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Re: Tricked-out overarm pin router

Post by DLB »

A few questions about this router system. I have acquired a SS under-table only free standing router table but never set it up, mainly because the table was warped as described early in this thread. It came with a steel table frame, no casters, that similarly I have never assembled but I think it is all there. More recently I bought a SS dedicated Pin Router 515702, circa 1990 off Craig's List. It has a plywood table with cutout for the center piece of a SS router plate that the pin screws into, no fence, no T-slot, etc. It came on a sturdy shop-built stand/cabinet, also sans casters. I believe I have all of the hard-to-find ingredients of a tricked out Over/Under/Pin Router System.

I'm considering three possible mounts and my first questions will help me decide. Options are the SS steel stand, the shop-built plywood cabinet, or a M5/MV.

1) How often do you adjust or reposition the table in/out relative to the Arm? Is there a preferred under- and/or over- table position that is different from the Pin position, or is it one size fits all? Are you using the T-Slot and T-Nuts on the bottom of the table to make this adjustment? (I'm wondering if I can eliminate the T-Slots and T-nuts if it is a one-time adjustment.)

2) I'm considering a different router plate, which wouldn't be compatible with the SS centers with pin mounts. Is there any reason that you can think of that the pin must be centered in the plate, as long as it is directly below the OAR center? In other words, can I slide the table back and relocate the pin to the front of the plate?

2B) Similarly, any reason in your experience that the upper and lower routers need to be centered to each other? (Other than using the lower to hold a pin for pin routing.)

3) Is there anything else you would change or do differently if you were starting over?

- David
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BuckeyeDennis
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Re: Tricked-out overarm pin router

Post by BuckeyeDennis »

Hopefully others will chime in as well, but I'll offer some answers from my perspective.

1) I do adjust the table position occasionally, using the stock T-slots and nuts. Sometimes I want to push it all the way back, just to minimize the front overhang for shop-space purposes. More commonly, I'll need more distance between the fence and the undertable router bit, and sliding the table forward helps with that. The central location of the dust port on the Jessem fence tends to interfere with the overarm router post, even though I have a 90 degree elbow plugged right into the dust port. So I can't move the fence fully rearward when the table is in the normal OPR position.

2) If anything, I'd put the pin location behind the undertable router bit. With the Jessem fence, that would allow more space between the fence and the undertable router bit, without having to move the table.

2B) I can't think of any other reason. I normally use the Jessem fence for undertable routing, and remove it for overarm pattern routing.

3) I haven't been terribly impressed with the stock SS stand. If you reconfigure it to mount SS casters, you lose a lot of rigidity. And there's a ton of potential storage space beneath the undertable router that's basically impossible to use efficiently. A custom cabinet could solve both of those problems.
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rlkeeney
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Re: Tricked-out overarm pin router

Post by rlkeeney »

If you have two routers, one mounted below the table and one in the router arm, why not mount them aligned with each other and insert the pin in the collet of the lower router. I don't have this setup, but I can't think of any reason why it would not work.
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reible
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Re: Tricked-out overarm pin router

Post by reible »

rlkeeney wrote:If you have two routers, one mounted below the table and one in the router arm, why not mount them aligned with each other and insert the pin in the collet of the lower router. I don't have this setup, but I can't think of any reason why it would not work.
I have two router installed all the time. I do use one router to hold a shaft that works as a pin and then cut with the other. You can cut with the pin either below or above so it is very flexible.

When doing the alignment of pin to bit it has to be done very carefully or things go south very fast.

I really love mine but of late I have been playing a lot more with my Shaper. I do plan to cut some more bears this summer and I have a new fence I want to mount on the table. Just never enough time to do it all.

Ed
{Knight of the Shopsmith} [Hero's don't wear capes, they wear dog tags]
DLB
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Re: Tricked-out overarm pin router

Post by DLB »

Thank you for those inputs. The light bulb that came on for me is that this setup is an excellent under-table and OPR, but some OAR operations are limited. That should not have been a surprise, it is after all an under-table router fence, but I had not thought it all the way through and don't have mine set up yet. I will go forward using the shop-made cabinet that came with my OAR, and make these improvements to it to add under-table functionality. That experience will help me determine if I later want to change or design a different cabinet. The table positioning information is also enlightening.

I'll need to go back and review some of the videos on OAR that Nick did, because I don't recall the fence system. I think I'd like to add that at some point. But for now I want to get it up and running. Right now I'm waiting for the paint to dry on my table straighteners so I can see how flat the table ends up.

-David
thunderbirdbat
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Re: Tricked-out overarm pin router

Post by thunderbirdbat »

When using a fence with the OAR if the material is lower then the fence,I use an auxiliary L-fence clamped to the fence or table. This allows the work to follow a fence without the router body being in the way of the fence.
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overarm pin router
brandinstroy
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Re: Tricked-out overarm pin router

Post by brandinstroy »

I’m new to the forum and picked one of these up last year. I was thinking it would help me in my process but I don’t think it does help me. If anyone is interested I think I’m going to let this go. If this is the wrong place to post this please let me know
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