Jessem Master-R-lift II (long)

[Bill Huber]

To start, I am not affiliated with Jessem in any way. I don't know anyone that works for Jessem. I have emailed them but have never talked to them.
I only know 2 people that live in Canada and they don't even do woodworking.

I bought this lift because I am going to get a bigger router and my FX lift would not handle a larger router.

As everything I have seen or owned from Jessem it is built like a battleship. There is NO skimping of any of the hardware. The plate is aluminum and is black, mine was dead flat with the Lee Valley straight edge.

This lift will work with just about any router out there, the way it is designed you just move the mounting blocks to holes that match your router. This is very easy to do, the manual has pictures of the blocks and the main body with letters and numbers. The you look on a list of routers and just put the screw in the right hole and push it though the correct hole in the body and tighten it down.

Once you have the blocks set just put the router in and tighten the main lock screw. You use the crank that comes with the lift to lock it all down. This the only thing I didn't like. On my FX it is just a lever that you push in and it locks it down. It could be that this is made to handle big routers better.

So if you only have one router and have to take your router in and out a lot this could be a negative to the lift. For me I have 2 routers so once in the lift it stays there.

The plate is leveled with 10 set screws in the plate, now this does take some time but to level any plate right it takes time. Once leveled there are 2 bracket on the bottom that you push out to lock the plate in the hole so it will not rattle around. Now if that was not enough you can also screw two 1/4-20 flat head screws into two opposite corners of the plate and it does not move at all.

In use it is very very smooth, turning the crank is just so smooth, no jerks, just smooth as it can be.

I installed my Wixey Digital Readout to do some test on the lift. I ran it to about mid point, set the reading on the lift to zero and zeroed the remote readout. I then turned the crank 10 turns up and then turned it back down until the lift was at zero and the remote readout read .001.

I then zeroed out everything again and turned the crank 10 times up and then 10 times down and then 10 times back up to zero on the lift, the remote readout read .000. I guess that shows there is some back lash but its not much.

[Van Huskey]

Thanks for the review!

[Bill Huber]

This lift has a lock on it, you don't need it for most routing but with a heavy router and doing a lot of routing you will keep any movement of the lift.

The lock is very easy to use, after set the height of the router take the crank and put it into the lock hole and give it about a 1/4 turn and its locked.

Bottom line this is one hell of a lift, built like a battleship, everything is made heavy. You can read more about it on their sit.

http://www.jessemdirect.com/Mast_R_Lift_II_p/02120.htm

The mounting blocks for the router.
PA064731.jpg PA064730.jpg

The locks that keep the plate from moving around in the table cut out.
PA064739.jpg

You can see the lift screw in one of these image, it is really big and I think that is why it is so smooth to operate.
PA064737.jpg PA064743.jpg PA064742.jpg

[brian platt]

I've had the same model Jessem lift for several years in my router table. I agree that it is very heavily built and worked very well. I had the big PC router installed and even with that weight it moved up and down without much effort. I found it a very good investment and highly recommend it. I've also had good luck with their miter gage. Nicely machined and solid.

[Bill Huber]

I've had the same model Jessem lift for several years in my router table. I agree that it is very heavily built and worked very well. I had the big PC router installed and even with that weight it moved up and down without much effort. I found it a very good investment and highly recommend it. I've also had good luck with their miter gage. Nicely machined and solid.

Brian, this is the new II model, it is stronger then the old one and has a lock on it. It will also fit just about any router out there with no adapters.