BOSCH RA1181 Benchtop Router Table

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Because you're sliding the wood across the surface of a bench router, it's important that the surface be as frictionless as possible. The RA1181 features a generous 27-inch long by 18-inch wide table that's made out of slick but durable cast aluminum. In addition, he surface near the fence is rough-ground to minimize surface contact, which further reduces friction.

Though the caveat "some assembly required" applies here, the manual is clearly written, and I found the setup process to be straightforward. Once fully assembled, the RA1181 attaches to just about any workbench via the leg assemblies, which have flat "feet" that you can clamp to the table. You can also use the pre-drilled holes to screw it to your work surface if you don't need it to be portable. (Note that most benchtop routers need to be mounted on a smaller table-using a standard worktable may leave it uncomfortably high.)

Once secured to the table, the RA1181 is very stable, and can handle high-horsepower routers and larger work pieces without bucking. The cast aluminum mounting plate accepts a variety of routers-and not just those made by Bosch. The fence is good and rigid, and is adjustable from 0 to 3-3/4-inches wide.

This is a great little machine, and its portability and capacity for bigger jobs makes it as good a fit on the job site as it is in the home workshop.--Josh Dettweiler

What's in the Box
Two adjustable featherboards, three mounting plate insert rings, one adjustable clear guard, one starter pin and guard, two outfeed fence shims (1/16-inch thick), appropriate router mounting hardware

Anyway, I had no trouble with the assembly, although had to spend some time with the leveling of the middle plate to try to get it just right. I purchased a new Bosch router at about the same time, so I don't know how well it works with other brands. I've had no problems with it. Read other reviews, here and elsewhere, of this router table, and all reviews were good (except for those who said it was difficult to assemble or some apparently early problems with inserts, I think). The table is sturdy, allows for through the table adjustments, has the very useful feather boards (one more for the table might have been helpful), and has a good set up with switches and outlets. It did seem to have quite a few mounting holes, however, for other brands of routers. The table size is good.

When I laid the straight edge accross the table to level the throat plate I discovered that neither the table, nor the throat plate were flat. If you will be using it for joinery it will not work for you.

We examined many router tables prior to making our selection of the Bosch Router table. We mostly use this router table for creating profiles on our wood carvings. We have mounted a Milwaukee router to it and it is been a pure pleasure to use since then. We are wood carvers and this has been a wonderful addition to our tool set.We were lucky enough to get this on sale from Amazon with free shipping.

Very nice table. Router plate is easy to level, but assembly is a bit tedious; took about 3 hours I especially like the featherboards that come with the unit.

Should be flat, but the router plate can be adjusted up and down, which makes it possible to compensate for this problem. The plate attached to my Hitachi router without any problem. To be fair, I haven't contacted Bosch yet, but will do at the end of my current project. The plastic legs seem a bit flimsy, but are holding up for now. This table is pretty good, but not a dream.

My table is concave by about 1.5mm at center. Still, this is a new product, and should have been made better. I can see this table lasting 2-3 years if used moderately (weekend carpenter), but maybe breaking after that. I think the table will serve my purposes (non-pro, moderate use), and I'll likely keep it because I need a router table right now, but if it were easier to dissassemble and send back and I had another table for the current project, I'd probably return it because of the production flaws. It takes a few hours to put together and adjust it properly.

Definitely disappointed with Bosch's quality control here. If I could do it again, I'd buy a more expensive and better table. The precision in the fence adjustment is OK, but not great - fine for a beginner.