Default Route

I've had a router for a while now, and I've always been meaning to pick up a router table to go along with it. It just so happened that a cow-orker was selling one used for $100 and so I didn't buy it because I ended up being #3 in line. However, a different cow-orker was also selling one for $90 in slightly poorer shape, and so...

It followed me home.

This is the Bosch RA1181which is, as the title of this post suggests, pretty much the default router table, and matches well with my Bosch 1617EVSPK router, which is pretty much the default router.

The condition issues are a missing cord spool on one side, which I couldn't possibly care less about, and some missing nuts and washers that vibrated loose and got lost somewhere along the way. Vibration tends to be an issue with these things.

However, there is a solution to vibration, and that solution is called nylock nuts.

And also new washers. And just in case that's not enough, we also have the venerable Loctite 290.

For when it just refuses to stay stuck. Also for the few nuts that weren't 1/4-20 and for which I didn't purchase replacements.

Anyway, 8 new washers and nuts go in to hold the legs onto the table.

And some loctite goes on these 10-32 nuts.

Now you might notice that these nuts have springy toothed washers on them. This is an attempt by Bosch to keep them from rattling loose, but there's two issues with that.

The first issue is that, much like most forms of lock washers, they don't actually work.

The second issue is that these nuts sit inside hex-shaped insets that keep the nuts from turning, so not only will the nuts not turn anyway, but the springy toothed washers actually interfere with getting the nuts seated into the recesses in the first place.

Great job, Bosch.

Anyway, these are the nuts that are getting buttered up with Loctite 290, which conveniently can be applied after the fastener is torqued to spec, as it will wick into the mated threads and seal them together.

Meanwhile, here we can see the remains of the original hardware.

That's 3 original nuts with the useless springy washers, 2 replacement nuts without them, two original washers (black) and two replacement washers (stainless). This hodge-podge of hardware will find a new home in my random fasteners bin.

I suppose there was one other condition issue to mention, which is the sorry state of this featherboard.

Pro tip: if your featherboard does this, you're using it wrong. Luckily a replacement set was included, so I actually have three working featherboards, not just two.

With all the fasteners fastened and the table set up, I must say it's looking pretty good. And, as luck would have it, it fits perfectly on my shelving.

This will be quite a nice addition to my shop.