# Harbor Freight/Rousseau router plate



## davewest (Feb 22, 2008)

I bought a harbor freight router plate for my milwaukee 5616 and surprisingly enough, it sags! Imagine that.

Rousseau's plate is also 9 x 12 so Im leaning toward getting one. Anyone know what the radius is on the corners of the rousseau? HF is 1/4". 

Anyone vouch for the "guarantee" rousseau offers on their plates, "never to sag"? Any other plates out there that would fit the 9 x 12 rabbet i have in my top?

Peach tree sells an aluminum plate, but Im leaning towards frugality, again  MLCS sells one too, but they advertise is as measuring "about" 9 x 12, so Ill pass there.

Thanks for any tips.


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## bobj3 (Jan 17, 2006)

Hi Dave

The key to get to lay flat is the lip...that holds the plate..and the weight of the router..
It must have support or it will sag...in the center..



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## davewest (Feb 22, 2008)

bobj3 said:


> Hi Dave
> 
> The key to get to lay flat is the lip...that holds the plate..and the weight of the router..
> It must have support or it will sag...in the center..
> ...




The plate is mounted ok, it just sags under the weight. The lip on the HF plage is only 1/2" wide, as is the rousseau. Without try to do some type of stepped rabbet, I think Im stuck with a 1/2" lip. Im fairly the problem here is just a cheap plate. I should have known better.


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## woodman51jfk (Dec 15, 2007)

.....having a countertop business in the same shop..we went the "it's available, it's free, it's easy " method, and used a cutoff piece of 1/2" corian / wilsonart solid surface for our insert.....it isn't going to sag any time soon, and with the new Triton 3 1/4 hp router, it only require a small center hole.


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## Dave Bishop (Mar 30, 2008)

The Rousseau plate has 1/4" radius corners. I used the Rousseau template to cut the recess in my router table, and it came out 9-1/16" x 12-7/64". I have had a 3-1/4 hp Ryobi RE-600 mounted on this plate in a 1" particleboard top for several years, and have no measurable sag. I liked the molded-on centering rings on the bottom of the plate that allowed me to center my router dead-on; I dislike the swiss-cheese look of those universal plates. I recently replaced the stock screws that hold the corner-huggers with longer ones and stacked on some plywood pieces to bridge the corners under the table, thus preventing the plate from lifting out of the table. I have been very happy with this plate.


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## AxlMyk (Jun 13, 2006)

My Rousseau doesn't sag one bit. In fact, the long edges have a little rise to them. Hasn't been a problem.


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## RookieGuy (Mar 5, 2008)

Mine sagged bad under weight of a Freud 2200.
Had to replace with an aluminum one from Rockler to hold it up.
The Rosseau was fine with a smaller PC router - 690 series. Freud just to dang heavy for it.


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## bobj3 (Jan 17, 2006)

Hi RookieGuy

See next post


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RookieGuy said:


> Mine sagged bad under weight of a Freud 2200.
> Had to replace with an aluminum one from Rockler to hold it up.
> The Rosseau was fine with a smaller PC router - 690 series. Freud just to dang heavy for it.


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## bobj3 (Jan 17, 2006)

Hi RookieGuy

The key is to give it a place to support the weight, see below 
Let's call it a Bridge, support on two ends or more to hold the weight..

It's like having a 2 x 4 hanging off the edge of the roof if more than 1/2 of it is hanging over the edge it can't support to much..  ( Support/Weight Balance ) 

Glue in support blocks if the hole is cut over size.  

The Harbor Freight is 9" x 12" it's made this way so you can drop the router in the hole with the handles still on the router unlike some router plates that are square...that makes it hard to drop them in the hole with the handles still on the router unless you turn the router on a angle and then slide it in the hole...



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RookieGuy said:


> Mine sagged bad under weight of a Freud 2200.
> Had to replace with an aluminum one from Rockler to hold it up.
> The Rosseau was fine with a smaller PC router - 690 series. Freud just to dang heavy for it.


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## kp91 (Sep 10, 2004)

Good Tip, BJ


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## bobj3 (Jan 17, 2006)

Thanks Doug

So many don't think why something is made the way it is...

Engineers are smart for the most part but they do know how to design things, they may not how to use them but they are sharp..  they go to school for many years to get it right...now if they would only stop designing special tools to work on the things they design ... and just use what we all have in the tool box ...LOL

I just rebuilt a tran.and I had to buy 3 special tools to fix it... 


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## kp91 (Sep 10, 2004)

Ain't that the truth about tools... first Allen screws, then Metric allen screws, then Torx, then Inset torx, then Sure-drive then........ Of course, you have to buy the whole set because you aren't sure which sizes you're going to need, Oh well. 

Of course, having that one tool you use only once every 7 years right when you need it, it's worth it!

As for the router plates, I won't beat on the engineers as hard as they deserve some times (I did suffer thru machine design and materials myself), but they do bear a bunch of the responsibility matching function with the bean counter's desires.

Sometimes it's a simple oversight. Start with a small aluminum insert. A 1/4 inch ledge works great. Change to Phenolic, the ledge still does OK. A bigger router is produced, needs a bigger hole, so a bigger plate, but you keep the 1/4 inch ledge. A lot of tiny changes over a long time can have dramatic changes.


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## RookieGuy (Mar 5, 2008)

Thx BJ - I shoulda posted the issue here before I popped for the new plate. I'll pass the tip and plate along to my son and he can benefit.
Thx again.


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## bobj3 (Jan 17, 2006)

You'er Welcome RookieGuy

Don't get me wrong Rosseau makes a good plate but it's be high in price for me and I don't care for the bumb (high spot ) in the center of the plate many have this type of plate installed and it works well for them but to me it's like a bumb in the road,it's a very small bumb in the plate and the board will go over the bump just fine but at some point the board will come off the hill and change the cut on the bit, it's not a big deal on short stock but on long stock it may show up,,,,with a small error...


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RookieGuy said:


> Thx BJ - I shoulda posted the issue here before I popped for the new plate. I'll pass the tip and plate along to my son and he can benefit.
> Thx again.


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