# trouble adjusting the depth of my Craftsman router



## JohnnyB60 (Jun 15, 2009)

Hello everyone, just in case you haven’t seen my introduction, I’m one of the new guys trying to learn a little something about my router. 

I’m having a lot of trouble adjusting the depth of my Craftsman router with the plastic depth adjustment ring. I’ve been told to lubricate it which, I was hesitant to do, but I sprayed WD40 on the threads anyway. It helped a little, but not much. I don’t ever remember it being easy and I avoid using it. I’m now wondering if I’m missing something. 

I’m going to try and post a photo, but I want to know how far is the lever suppose to rotate. It only moves 90 deg and I think it should loosen up more than that.


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## Mike (Nov 22, 2004)

90 degrees is normal for the adjustment locking lever. There may be crud between the router motor and base. Cleaning and wiping dry should take care of this. Some of the models need adjustment, a few have ball bearings which love to take flight. I would take the router to Sears and ask for assistance with it. That way if they screw it up they will replace it with a new one or at least send it to repair at no charge.


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## JohnnyB60 (Jun 15, 2009)

Thanks Mike, I tried to take the base completely off to see what’s up, but it only goes to the end of the threads and that’s it.


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## tdsapp (Apr 23, 2009)

Wow, that looks exactly like the router I am just replacing. While taking a look for some information I discovered that Ryobi did a bit of building of routers that were labeled as Craftsman. It might be the same design so this link might help a bit.

www. m-and-d.com/pdfs/ryobi_tool/R161.pdf

You will have to copy and paste the URL to your browser and remove the space between the . and the "m". I don't have enough post to be able to add URLs to my messages. 

Tim


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## JohnnyB60 (Jun 15, 2009)

tdsapp said:


> Wow, that looks exactly like the router I am just replacing. While taking a look for some information I discovered that Ryobi did a bit of building of routers that were labeled as Craftsman. It might be the same design so this link might help a bit.
> 
> www. m-and-d.com/pdfs/ryobi_tool/R161.pdf
> 
> ...


It sure looks like the same one. I have to go to work now, but I’ll take another look when I get back. Thanks Tim.


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## JohnnyB60 (Jun 15, 2009)

Tim, that Ryobi is the same router as the Craftsman. I want to ask you if you have trouble raising and lowering the base. Is there any way to jump to fast forward or do I have to turn that adjustment ring every time?


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## tdsapp (Apr 23, 2009)

I did not have a problem adjusting the bit levels. It was a bit tight but nothing major. What I had a problem with was it staying in the same place once locked. I would lock the adjustment, and when I turned on the router I could see the yellow wheel spin and the bit would start to drop. That made it very hard to do anything with the router. 

I still plan on pulling apart the router and see if there is anything that I can do to fix it. I just used it as an excuse to get a new tool that had more features. ;-)

Tim


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## JohnnyB60 (Jun 15, 2009)

tdsapp said:


> I did not have a problem adjusting the bit levels. It was a bit tight but nothing major. What I had a problem with was it staying in the same place once locked. I would lock the adjustment, and when I turned on the router I could see the yellow wheel spin and the bit would start to drop. That made it very hard to do anything with the router.
> 
> I still plan on pulling apart the router and see if there is anything that I can do to fix it. I just used it as an excuse to get a new tool that had more features. ;-)
> 
> Tim


It sounds like you have the exact opposite problem that I do. Mine is too tight and don’t want to move and yours is too loose. I wonder if there is a way to adjust the lock.


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