Pin It

Self-centering router base

I recently built and wired a gazebo. I didn’t want conduit intruding on the woodwork, so I buried the electrical supply in a post. That meant cutting a groove in the post for the wire: a good job for my router and a 1/2-in. straight bit. It would have been even easier if I’d had a self-centering router base. Because I didn’t have one, I put one together.

As shown in the drawing, I outlined the base of my router on a piece of 1/4-in. Lexan. I marked the hole for the bit and three screw holes for attaching the new base to the router, and added circular “ears” on opposite sides of the base for guide pins. I bandsawed out the new base, smoothed the edges and set about finding the guide pins. In my miscellaneous-hardware drawer, I found a pair of nylon pins for a bifold door. I chucked a 3/8-in. bit in the drill press and bored holes, equidistant from the bit hole, in each ear for the pins. The pins’ shoulders rest on the top of the base, where I secured each one with a couple of drops of adhesive. As shown in the drawing, rotating the router so that the pins bear against the sides of the workpiece centers the bit as it plows its groove.