Bowed Router Table top

[John Harden]

Just bought the JessEm Master Lift Excel and Master Fence from my local Rockler store.

I was on here doing a search for ideas on a router table base for it. Those of you with this top will know what I mean about the crank hardware making it somewhat difficult to design a base. I was about to head off to the lumber yard for some materials.

In any event, I came across some posts from someone who said their JessEm was not dead flat. One guy (Pat Warner I think) noted how a dead flat table is critical for precision work.

Went out to the shop and used my handy dandy, Lee Valley precision straight edge and low and behold, the top has a crown of about 1/8" in the middle running side to side along it's length. It is flat from front to back.

My question is should I return this top or go ahead and design the base and use the weight of the PC 7518 router to help flatten it out, and/or screw the top down very tightly to a flat base and hope for the best? Will this flatten out or should I cut my losses and return it? I hesitate to return it without some real hard thinking as I used 25% off coupons for both it and for the fence (had two coupons), so I got an excellent deal.

Incidentally, I threw the straight edge across the top of my old shop built top and it is dead flat.

Phenolic takes and holds threads really well, so I'm thinking that if I cut some threads in it and screw up into the top from the base below, I can force it down and flatten it out.

I could always return the top, keep the fence, then buy their lift that goes with the 7518, and use my existing router table (based on Norm's) and make a new top that is a bit smaller so it will work with the 32" length limitation on the Master Fence.

Any thoughts or feedback?

Regards,

John

[Jamie Buxton]

Yeah, the table should be flat.

[John Keane]

Flat is flat; front to back; side to side. FWW has a recent article on the Router table. Send the entire kit and kaboodle back to the source, ask for an immediate refund, call Justin at Woodpeckers ( Woodpecker.com), and talk to him about a flat router table, routers, lifts and whatever. Justin is a Creeker, and I have no financial interest in Woodpeckers ( if they ever go public, I will buy it)

[Jay Albrandt]

Hey John,

I recently set up my entire Jessem system (table top, Rout-R-Lift, and fence) and found the top plate of the lift to be bowed.....but certainly not an 1/8th of an inch!

Mine was bowed in the middle, front to back on the right side by .012. Just enough that I couldn't get the middle of the plate to sit below the table top and still level the corners.

I contacted Jessem and they told me that their plates are "shear cut" and not machined. That is why they come with the steel bars bolted to the bottom to keep them flat. In my case, the steel bar was also off.

Once I explained the problem to Jessem, they promptly sent me a new plate and bar. The new ones arrived yesterday and they are very flat.

Call Jessem. Talk to Brad. Maybe after they get a number of these problems cropping up they will go with a machined plate. I have found everything from Jessem to be top notch and the additional cost of a machined top is something I would be happy pay for.

Good Luck.

Jay

[John Harden]

Thanks for the replies. That 1/8" I was quoting was just a guess from eyeing it. Just went out to the garage and with machined shims, found it to be just a hair over 1/16" of an inch of crown. By this I mean if you hold the straight edge tight against one end of the table, it rises up 1/16" at the other side.

That remark about it being flat from front to back was an error as well. It has about 1/32" of crown front to back as well.

If I set the PC router over the insert hole where it will be when installed, the weight flattens it out just a hair, but not near enough. In fact, by pushing down with pretty hard with my hand, I still can't get it to be flat.

My just call JessEm tomorrow to see what they say. Worst case is I'll return the whole shebang to Rockler on Saturday. Too bad as I really like this setup.

Thanks for the replies.

Regards,

John

[Dan Larson]

Thanks for the heads up. I saw the other post reporting on the same problem. I had been thinking of buying this router table system-- now I'm not so sure. I guess if I get serious, I'll have to buy from a local store and check the top for flatness before I plunk down $$$.

Dan

[Dan Forman]

John---I posted the other thread you mentioned. My table has a different problem, it has a valley rather than a crown, running from left to right, parallel with the aluminum track. I'm leaning toward returning mine, though I seem to change my mind every few minutes. I don't really feel like building or buying a base just to see if it will work when cinched up tight. That's probably the bottom line. Good luck with whatever you decide.

Dan

[Dev Emch]

This all sounds fishy to me. I understand the concept of a prestressed panel but if that is the case, shouldnt they mention that before you purchase and in the documents?

A number of you folks have brought issues to the front burner but not all of these are the same. To me, alarms should be going off about now. This is a quality control problem or a possible manufacturing issue or an engineering issue. Maybe all of the above.

Pat Warner posted his opinions and his URL. I have spent quite a bit time reading what he has posted and bookmarked his site. There is lots of good information there. And that is comming from me.... a shaper junkie. I esp. agree with his view points about how the venerable router table has become over-engineered for what it is.

I have personally looked at Jessem stuff and actually bought their Mite-R-Slide unit to see if I could modify it for use on my martin table saw. No such luck so it went back to woodcraft. Their product line can be called many things but Eye Candy comes to mind. Its very good looking and very seductive.

But if these items are not true, then you have yet another gadget for the Captain Gadget collection. I am not satisfied with the solutions that have been presented here. So my 1 cent opinion is to merely return these items and explain to Jessem that your returning these because they are not true. Doing so gets rid of a questionable item and opens up a quality investigation at Jessem. In the long run, your better off and, if Jessem acts on it, Jessem is better off.

Best of Luck..

[Kirk (KC) Constable]

A while back I bought two Jointech phenolic tops and their steel tube tables. The tops sure didn't look flat to me...but after screwing them to the base they're plenty close enough. I suspect if you screw it down, yours will be too.

KC

[Ed Lang]

I did the same thing. I bought a PRL from Woodpeckers and am glad I did.

[Chris Gregory]

I third that, I have three Woodpecker tables and they are all dead flat and their service is exemplary I didn't really shop around but I think their prices are also very reasonable.

[pat warner]

"Phenolic takes and holds threads really well, so I'm thinking that if I cut some threads in it and screw up into the top from the base below, I can force it down and flatten it out."
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You can usually remove gentle cup, bow or twist if it is gentle. If you can staighten the defect out x hand forces (<10 pounds or so) you stand a good chance. If it takes clamping forces (100+pounds) to flatten, expect adversity.
If the flattening forces are high, the mechanism to flatten transfers that stress somewhere else, perhaps into a twist of the frame it's fastened too.
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Routers

[John Harden]

Thanks for all the excellent replies. Great point about being able to force out a gentle bow, but not a substantial one without those forces going someplace else.

I REALLY didn't want to return it as it has all the features I want, particularly the dust collection built into the router lift. I also got a smoking deal and only paid a little over $400 for it, when it Retails at over $500.

Called my local Rockler store and they're ordering me another one from JessEm. Should be in in a week or so. I'll take this one back when it arrives and check that one for flattness before I leave the parking lot.

Thanks again for all the great advice!!!!

Regards,

John

[Dan Larson]

John, please let us know if the next one is flat. Thanks.

[John Harden]

New top came in and I brought it home. It's dead flat from side to side and has a little less than 1/16" bow from front to back. Once screwed down to the base and with the heavy PC, 7518 in place, that bow should at least be cut in half if not gone. Even if it's only cut in half to 1/32", that's only 1/64" of bow from the front edge of the table to the router bit, which is in the middle of the table.

All in all, I'm happy with both the replacement table and how quickly Rockler handled the situation. No questions asked. I told them it was bowed and they ordered a new one immediately.

Regards,

John