# Mounting an Old Craftsman Router



## Frankj3 (Oct 6, 2014)

Happy sawdust y'all!

I have two VERY old Craftsman routers.....both 1-1/2 HP. One was my Dad's and the other was my Father In Law's. Both routers are in meticulous condition.....a tribute to these two fine men and their work ethics.....and "thanks" for taking care of your tools.

My question is, I want to dedicate one of these units to a router table. Should I use a Craftsman table to ensure mounting without any issues? Or do y'all think I can mount them to a better grade of table and not experience any major issues?

I want to use the routers from these two fine men.....paying homage to them if you will. Obviously, I have ZERO experience using a router table. All of my experience is using them freehand.

Thanks in advance for your input and replies.


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## yvius (Sep 18, 2014)

*Router table*



Frankj3 said:


> Happy sawdust y'all!
> 
> I have two VERY old Craftsman routers.....both 1-1/2 HP. One was my Dad's and the other was my Father In Law's. Both routers are in meticulous condition.....a tribute to these two fine men and their work ethics.....and "thanks" for taking care of your tools.
> 
> ...


I have the same router and it is on a table. You can attach the router to any table. You have to watch if the plate on the table has 3 holes for holdin the the router. Mine ( your, the router on the right ) is mounted on a cheap table. The difficulty is to adjust the hight under the table. But it works.


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## DaninVan (Jan 1, 2012)

Hey, Frank; I've got the one on the right as well... my first router. 
Yours is decidedly 'cleaner' than mine. 
It must be over 30 years old by now? Maybe 40?


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## Programer (Jan 10, 2015)

I got the same router on the right. Have it mounted in a rockler table. They have the plate 
to fit the router. Works very nice.


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## Frankj3 (Oct 6, 2014)

Thanks guys. Yep, both of them are better than 30 years old. But they run like they are new. I did change the brushes out in the one on the right. Not sure what has been done to the one on the left. All I know is they are both work horses.

Thanks for the table input. I'll look more into their mounting plates to get an idea of the mounting issues I may run into.

Thanks again for taking the time to reply. That's something I can never repay y'all for.


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## suds (Aug 25, 2008)

I also have the router on the right. I bought it in the mid to late 70's and we used it on one bookcase and maybe a total of 3 hours and it has been sitting ever since. Recently I mounted it on a plywood "plate" between 2 Festool MFT tables and it has worked great. Glad to hear that it was a good machine. Found a PDF online for the owner's manual also.


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## GoodRice (Feb 11, 2015)

Wow! Those are BEAUTIES!!! They look like they just came from the factory!!!


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## Frankj3 (Oct 6, 2014)

Thanks John. Both my Dad and my Father In Law were old school.....take care of your tools and they will take care of you. I get that from them.....I can't stand to put my tools away dirty. They might not be "spotless" but they are cleaned and ready to work next time.


On another note, I was given a 10 or 12 year old Delta 12" portable planer by my Brother In Law. He says he only ran 2 boards through it then never fired it up again.

It was covered in dust and cobwebs. I had to tear it down to clean it up. After about 2 hours of cleaning, I fired it up. I still need to do some minor tweaking on the infeed table but otherwise it's in great shape.....now. On the right side of the planer I get a small kerf on the leading edge of the board; maybe 1/64" or less.....just enough to see and feel.

But for free, I can afford to invest a few hours labor and greasy hands.


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## BrianS (Nov 7, 2004)

Nice Frank. My first router was a Craftsman, mounted in an aluminum topped Craftsman table. They do a LOT of work. As others have said, they will mount in almost any table. You just have to center them in the hole. And, in case you haven't noticed, there are 2 areas on the forum that have an assortment of manuals available for download in PDF format. You might check there if you need a manual.


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## Frankj3 (Oct 6, 2014)

Brian, believe it or not, the original manuals are in both of their cases. I tell you, these two men took care of their tools! LOL

I'm going to buy me a table soon. Then I will split time between this forum and the mounted router forum.

Unless something drastically changes, my main mode of work will be freehand cut signs.

Thanks for your reply.


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