Tilting Router Lift

Another from woodgears.ca

As I’ve been getting more and more into woodworking, I’ve had a greater and greater need for a nice router table and lift. Seeing that commercial router lifts were upwards of $300, and Matthais Wandel of Woodgears.ca had just uploaded plans for his new tilting router lift, I decided to give a shot at making it. The router lift uses a threaded rod in tandem with a coupler nut to lift the router along a pair of tracks. Attached to the threaded rod are two gears that control the height. A knob securely locks the router in place. Kinda like this:

The router, fixed to a sled, slides up and down on two rails.

In addition to raising vertically, the router lift also tilts on a pair of hinges. This maximizes the use of standard bits, saving money and setup time.

Rather than making a separate cabinet for the router lift, I made a new wing for my table saw. The rabbeted 2×4 rails hold a piece of phenolic plywood. The 2x4s are attached to the table saw via some bolts through the fence rails.

New table saw wing.

Fully tilted at 45 degrees.

Overall, it was a really fun build that helped hone my table saw skills, while making a useful new tool.