The standard fence will not move far enough back so I removed that and setup a length of pine timber with clamps.
Setup the fence so the router bit is centered on the frame and set the bit height for the first pass using the homemade router scissor lift – see next pictures.
The ALDI router and router table combo of course has no convenient way to set the bit height, you have to push up with one hand against the plunge springs while trying to eyeball the small set square for height and then hold it there (now painful wrist) then struggle with the lock lever – hopeless!
Did some research on the Net and none of the homemade router lifts were really suitable for a entry level setup like the ALDI Work Zone router combo or the Bunnings Ozito one, there is simply not enough room underneath.
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Anyway…I came up with the idea to make a scissor jack and it took three versions to get it right. With some weight testing Version 1.0 collapsed because the thin timber arms were not strong enough. Above is Version 2.0 with arms made from flooring laminate and they work really well but…the pivot arm blocks could not take the load, you can see the bottom one has split. Version 3.0 is the above with bigger blocks – all good.
To overcome the space issue the jack sits below the bench top in a suspended cradle – see next pictures. The router itself has it’s own cradle which sits on top of the jack.
Above you can see the scissor jack itself, held with a clamp for a few weeks to check working operation.
The threaded rod (jack screw) simply extends out to the front edge with a large homemade knob for height adjustment. Due to the length of the rod that bit of timber has a slot to engage and hold the rod so the jack does not snap past it’s balance point – one way or the other.
The slide tracks on either side of the inner frame are done, now to repeat the process on the inside of the outer frame.
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