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Overall, a good table. Easy to use and relatively easy to adjust. It's small and sturdy. I think I will probably improve the wooden guide because there tends to be some tear-out at then ends of the stock.
- Fence: The two sections are difficult to position accurately. Drilling a couple of holes and bolting some bar stock (a piece of wood would work just as well) between the bottom of the two legs helped stabilize it. If it's behind, the router bit carves a bit deeper as the work leaves the in-feed fence and creates a divot in your work. Because they are independent, it's a pain to line them up straight, tighten them down and get the cutting depth set correctly.
This obviously isn't a problem if you clamp the entire thing down as the manual recommends, but poor design is still poor design.you'll notice that competing router tables all have something that connects the right-side legs with the left-side legs.In summary.I'm an occasional woodworker and I don't use this router table very often, but every time I do, I wish I'd bought something else. If it's in front, the work catches. (Each side is bolted to the table top through two posts that project slightly below the strengthening ridges on the bottom of the table top. There are a number of different inside diameter metal rings (like overgrown washers) that fit into the circular hole in the table.you pick the ring that best fits the bit that you're using. Feeding a board through the router shouldn't also move the table sideways by 1/2 inch. Although usable for some things, this router table has too many flaws to be useful for precision work.
If the fence halves are not aligned with each other, the out-feed side is (by definition) either in front of, or behind the in-feed side. - Table: A bit of roughness in the casting surface was easily fixed with some sandpaper, but shouldn't have been there in the first place.- Router mounting: The router base is screwed securely to the table, not to a separate plate. That provides them an excellent axis for the legs to wiggle). That's not much of a problem with a long board, but try cutting an accurate tendon when the height of the table changes around the cutter.- Legs: There's no appreciable front to back wobble, but the legs have little rigidity side-to-side. Tightening the knob that holds each side to the table tends to move the fence slightly. The holes are obviously spaced for a Porter-Cable router.I use an old PC 690 router.
There are better ones available in the same price range. The top of the rings, though, is slightly below the surface of the table without any way to adjust them.
My husband made me a book case and needed a router table to add a detail to the front of the shelves and outer boards. My book case is beautiful. This table was perfect with his porter cable router.
Assembly was very straight forward and easily adapated to my Porter-Cable 890 Series router. I also spent some time cleaning up the groove edges of the table top as some rough metal edges could catch the wood sliding across. I think the Porter-Cable router & table combination perfectly fit my budget and usage. Overall a good product for the money. One last tweek, the plastic guard can be rotated up and out of the way but the bottom edge would need to be rounded off instead of square to not interfere and scratch the top of the wood fence.
Being only a home user, I don't have the time, money or space to outfit a professional workworker's shop. The adjustable fence, dust collection tube and solid top will be a dramatic improvement from my 20+ year old Sears router table. This table was clearly designed before P-C introduced the 890 Series router as the table top was not drilled to accept the "above the table adjustment" knob that comes the 894 router bundle. A paper template was included to allow me to drill the two holes to accomodate the adjustment knob.
That said, I am pleased with the overall quality of this table. Had I known this I would have probably bought the 893PK or 894PK kits. I plan to remove the wooden facings and attach a single piece sacrificial fence to both sides to compensate for this. This movement is easily corrected by attaching it to the workbench (as stated in the instructions). They are also kind of short making attachment of feather boards a bit tricky.
First I found the dust collection to be less than perfect. I bought the 895PK because it came with a 2 1/4hp motor, a plunge base, a fixed base, and a wrench to adjust your bit height from above the table. It was rock steady with smaller rail & stile bits. Again this is easily corrected with an inexpensive power strip.The split fence did create some challenges in getting them aligned. all around the table. When I contacted PC about this issue, they told me I could drill out the top of the table to allow the adjustment wrench to have access to the base.
The lack of pre-drilled holes in the table are the only thing that keep me from giving this table 5 stars. The assembly was easy, the parts seem well made, and the appearance is quite nice. Overall I think this is a decent product. I do not intent to drill the table top at all. The fitting is just slightly wider than a standard shop vac hose reducing affective suction of the vac. This will serve me well until I build a custom table.
I will be looking for additional inserts that better meet my needs.The most frustrating part of this table is the pre-drilled holes for mounting and adjusting your router base. Being that this is my first router and first router table, take what I have to say with a grain of salt. It is pretty solid and only moved a little during use of a 3.5" panel bit. I bought this and the Porter-Cable 895PK router kit.
The switch could have used 2 outlets, one for the router and another for the shop vac. I did not have any expectations that this unit would be as nice or have as many features as the larger, much more expensive tables out there. It seems to be designed/marketed to hobby and small woodworking projects or to people who need a highly mobile router table. The problem is that the table does not have pre-drilled holes for this router base.
Everything is flush, level, etc. Should be an easy fix as well.There are some draw backs to this setup. Since there are only two table inserts you have very little control over that. Additionally the inserts let a lot of dust fall under the table.
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