I'm a subscriber to new posts from a SMC contributor when he posts new videos on youtube and I thought this announcement was worth passing along to fellow Creekers.
I want a router lift so bad I can hardly stand it. But, I'm going to wait a few more months. There's gonna be a new kid on the block soon, hopefully by Spring.
This new lift has been under development for nearly 2 years now. (It's really amazing to me what all goes into the production of a new tool!). I do know that the first 10 commercial prototype units have been delivered to the woodworking supply house, MLCS, that will sell this new lift and is currently being field-tested. Fellow Creeker John Nixon is the inventor of this new Motorized Router Lift. He hooked up with MCLS to bring the commercial version of his lift to market.
A sneak peek video of the new MRL can be seen on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAL5eCIQOxw
In the interest of full disclosure I have no financial stake in this new lift. When it does come on the market, I'll pay for mine just like anyone else who chooses to purchase one. My interest in the new lift is that I am very impressed with what I've seen.
Some of the features of this new lift are:
It comes with the standard MLCS aluminum 9” X 12” router plate. However, it can be mounted to whatever plate one may already have in their router table. (I have the Rockler 8 ¼” X 11 ¾” aluminum plate in my table, now. I haven’t yet decided if I’ll cut the table opening larger to fit the MLCS plate or if I’ll simply mount the MRL to my existing Rockler plate. Since my existing opening is smaller than the MLCS plate I’ll probably enlarge the opening to fit the new plate that comes with the MRL.)
The lift itself is fully motorized. There are no cranks, handles, etc. used to raise and lower the router. It comes with a control panel that mounts on a router table. The electronic "brain" in the control panel allows one to use the variable speed control feature of the lift motor. This allows the lift to raise slowly during various operations or to raise quickly when I want to change bits), The direction of travel can be changed with the push of a button from up to down and has a digital display that reads to .001 thousandths of an inch. The readout can be set to zero at any point on the travel.
For hands free use, the lift comes with a foot pedal that allows the user to both raise and lower the router.
The lift has a built in upper stop that allows the user to set the maximum height of travel of the router motor/bit. Once the lift has reached the upper limit of travel, determined by the operator, a built in switch stops the motor that raises and lowers the lift. There's also a lower limit stop that does the same thing.
The lift has 4"+ of vertical travel and allows for above the table bit changes. Once the router is installed into the lift the only time that a person would need to go "under the table" would be to change the depth stop height, a simple turn of a knob.
As I understand it, this new MRL will fit any router with a 3 ½” diameter motor. It’s also my understanding that at some point in the near future there will be a version that will fit larger diameter motors. I think that MLCS is also going to offer an optional motor to go with the lift.
A couple of advantages that I see in a motorized router lift vs. the manual lifts would be cutting dados, rabbets and mortises in incremental passes. For example, if I'm using a solid carbide spiral bit to cut a mortise in a piece of wood I would lower the router until the bit is just barely beneath the surface of the table. I set the digital display to zero. Then, I raise the motor to the maximum depth of my intended cut and set the depth stop, using the digital readout, of course, to determine that point.
Now, using a tenon jig that rides in a miter track in the table or some jig that rides against the fence, (whatever one's preference), along with stops either in the miter track or on the fence that would determine the starting and stopping point of the left to right travel of the jig/stock, the operation is a simple task.
I put my stock above the bit, turn the router on, raise the spinning bit into the stock, using the foot pedal to do so, perhaps 1/8-3/16", and move the stock from side to side. Repeat as necessary, in small increments, until I've achieved the desired depth of the mortise. I look at the digital readout to know how deep I'm cutting with each pass.
The thing that really appeals to me is that I will not have had to remove my jig/stock from the table to change the depth of cut. Essentially, as I see it, a router table equipped with this motorized router lift will convert that table into an inverted plunge router. The difference would be that one will be moving the stock across this "inverted plunge router" instead of vice versa and the plunge feature is completely motorized.
I also believe that the dust collection will be much better than using the plunge router for making stopped dados, mortises, etc. I know that it will be better than on my current plunge router DC. setup.
I'm certainly not knocking any of the fine lifts on the market already, nor am I suggesting that anyone not buy one of the perfectly good lifts already on the market such as the Jessem, Woodpecker, Bench Dog, etc. But, I'm going to wait a few more months to get a router lift because I see the potential of this new MRL being able to open up many more operations for me that would not be possible, or even if possible not nearly as easy to perform, as with a motorized router lift. I feel certain that these operations will be much safer than lowering the stock onto a spinning bit on the router table, which I must admit that I sometimes do
MLCS will also be offering a circle cutting jig and a mortising jig as accessory items to be used with the MRL.
I’ll be sure to post a review of the lift once I’ve given it a workout on my router table. I’d also be interested in hearing reviews from anyone else who may purchase one before I do.
Sorry, I don’t yet know what the price of the MRL will be. I understand that it will be competitively priced with the higher end manual lifts already on the market. For anyone interested, keep checking with MLCS. It should be in their catalogue and on their website in the fairly near future.
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Originally Posted by Chuck Isaacson
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