Turret Stop on DW618 Router

[Brian Dormer]

Ok - I *KNOW* that the turret stop on the Dewalt 618 plunge base is a wobbly piece of junk. Pat Warner (in his website or book - I don't remember which) says three words about it - "take it off". And I did. BUT....

There are times when a turret stop would be "nice". I love the router (3+yrs and going strong) - I just hate the turret stop. More accurately - I hate not having one.

Short of buying another router (SWMBO would just *LOVE* that "excuse") has anyone come up with a fix for that crummy turret stop? Maybe a washer or grinding something down so it fits right (I'm not a machinist)?

Anyone.... anyone.... Bueller.... Bueller....

[J. Greg Jones]

I too encountered the same thing on both of my 618 plunge bases. The post on the aluminum base is taller than it needs to be, and the turret stop bottoms out on this post. I fixed mine by taking a file to the post to lower it. You don't need to take off much, so going slowly while checking the fit often is the answer. Take off too much and the turret will not turn when fully tightened. I also smoothed up the bottom of the turret stop to remove any high spots so that it now rotates smoothly on the base with no noticeable play.

[Brian Dormer]

How did you smooth the inside of the turret stop?

I will try filing down the center post.

Thanks!

[Hoa Dinh]

I removed the turret stop on my 618 plunge base. Then one day, I decided to put it back. I can't remember the details, but I think I put a steel washer underneath the turret. I applied a layer of slick tape on each face of the washer.

I'll post back tonight when I'm at home and have the router base with me.

[Brian Dormer]

Hoa -

That sounds even better - I'd prefer not to do anything irreversible to my plunge base. I may want to sell it someday.

[Hoa Dinh]

Brian,

It is simple than I thought it was.

First off, if there is a ball to provide the detents for the turret, remove them and put them away. There are some dimples on the turret and one on the base so I think there must be a ball, but it's been a while so I can't recall if there actually is.

You need a few nylon washers of difference sizes (no steel washer as I wrote in my previous post). I don't have them so I make them from Slick Trips.

You'll have to do some experiment because the number of washers may depend on their thickness. In my case, I need 3 washers:

- The largest one between the turret and the base. In photo 2, you see one has been stuck to the bottom of the turret already (I made 2 but needed only one).

- The medium one between is attached to the turret. It large center hole will allow the post on the base to go through.

- The smallest one goes under the screw.

That's it. The screw needs to be tight enough so that it does not come loose when you rotate the turret. You may need to apply a drop of Loc-Tite (I didn't).

[J. Greg Jones]

The washer solution is pretty slick (pardon the pun)! Personally, I like the tactile feel that the detent ball provides when the turret clicks into place at each position, so I would prefer not to give that up.

If you go with the file option, there is no need to smooth the inside of the turret stop. Filing the post will lower the stop on the base, taking out the play in the process. To get zero play, I had to file just enough to get metal to metal contact between the base and the bottom of the stop. I also made a few passes with the file on the bottom of the stop to remove the high spots. In hindsight it might be better to skip this step as the high spots would give less metal-to-metal contact, thus acting as a bearing.

It is a foolproof process as long as you take your time by making a few passes with the file, check the fit, and repeat until it is where you want it. The post does not have to be lowered much to get it where it needs to be and aluminum files off quickly.

[Brian Dormer]

Hmm... interesting options. I have to admit that I would rather keep the ball detent if possible. So I will take a look at the stop (everythings in a baggie stored with the router) and base and see what it looks like.

Right now, I'm leaning towards filing down the post - but I'm going to see if maybe it's possible to do something with washers (nylon or otherwise).

All this makes me wonder why Dewalt hasn't fixed this - apparently they don't see it as a problem.

Thanks for the great ideas.

[Brian Dormer]

I just wanted to follow up on this item (for future readers).

The turret stop is held on by a phillips head screw. There is also a small spring washer under the screw.

I filed down the center post, testing every few strokes of the file (the aluminum cuts VERY easily). I probably used 20-30 medium to light strokes of a 10" mill file in total. Make sure you keep the plane of the cut parallel to the bottom of the router base. I pitched the spring washer and put in a small metal washer. I didn't pay attention to size of the washer, but it fits perfectly in the recess on the turret where the screw goes. It's a common washer from a blister pack obtained at the BORG.

So the order, from top down, is Screw, Washer, Turret. I reinstalled the spring and ball detent, dropped the turret stop back on, cranked the screw down and VIOLA! No more slop in the turret stop.

Turning the stop does take a little more force than it used - but the fact that it's not sloppy any more makes it worth the 10 minutes it took to do this little fix.

Thanks for all the help on this!

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Ok - I *KNOW* that the turret stop on the Dewalt 618 plunge base is a wobbly piece of junk. Pat Warner (in his website or book - I don't remember which) says three words about it - "take it off". And I did. BUT....

So, you took it off just because you read a statement that said to? Why not wait till it failes and make use of it in the meantime?


Anyway, I think the correct expression is spindle or shaft lock. "Turret" connotes so very much more than the rotating shaft with a collet on a router.

There are times when a turret stop would be "nice". I love the router (3+yrs and going strong) - I just hate the turret stop. More accurately - I hate not having one.

Then put it back on. Apparently it was serving your needs.

[Brad Schmid]

Turning the stop does take a little more force than it used - but the fact that it's not sloppy any more makes it worth the 10 minutes it took to do this little fix.

Thanks for all the help on this!

Brian,
Not sure if you did this or not, but when you look at the bottom of the turret, there's a raised ring around the outer edge. If you lay some 1000 grit wet dry paper on a flat surface and rub the turret on it to polish this ring, and also lightly sand the surface on the base it rides on, it will make the operation smoother. After I did this, and filed the post to proper hieght, it is now the best one I have on any router.
cheers

[Brian Dormer]

Cliff -

With the turret stop "out of the box" it was so wobbly that I seriously doubt that it would be possible to get an accurate depth on a plunge cut. It was obvious to me (and probably anyone else that has seen one), but I recalled the quote from Pat Warner.

However, it's "nice" to have those stops to keep things "honest" when routing a deep dado - using the stop allows one to ensure each pass is only an 8th or so deeper than the prior pass - without having to reset the depth stop for each pass.

There is so much to like about the router that it's really a shame that Dewalt "dropped the ball" on the design of the turret stop.

My reason for posting initially to see if anyone had come up with a fix. Which did bring up some information. When I found a (simple) fix that seems to work, I felt I should "share the knowledge".

[Brian Dormer]

Brad -

I'll give that at whirl next time I have some 1000 grit out (probably to sharpen chisels).

As is, it's tight - but that also keeps it from wiggling. You can't have it both ways...

It's still 1000 times better than the stock configuration.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

With the turret stop "out of the box" it was so wobbly that I seriously doubt that it would be possible to get an accurate depth on a plunge cut. It was obvious to me (and probably anyone else that has seen one), but I recalled the quote from Pat Warner.

WOW ~!! I'm flabberghasted.

Additionally I thought you meant a collet lock pin and not a the plunge depth stop. Never heard any one call that a turret stop before. But then coming form a machinist/tool maker background I think of a turret and a turret lathe comes to mind, so I was way off the mark there.

I removed the worse than worthless plunge depth stop from my Triton because it's a cheap cheesy piece of plastic trash and wouldn't repeat twice running. And it tends to remove itself when you use it the way it's intended.

I only have the sliding stop as a one setting stop now. If I need multiple stop depths I'll simply use little maple blocks for that purpose.

There is so much to like about the router that it's really a shame that Dewalt "dropped the ball" on the design of the turret stop.

I am frequently baffled at the screwy places where manufacturers seem to deliberately elect to screw up. It's almost like some one brought their 4 year old to work on "bring your kid to work day" and assigned the project to the kid.

Table saw fences spring to mind. So very often I look at those horrid factory fences and wonder "What were they thinking?"