# Centering cone?



## fooser (Apr 8, 2011)

Hi Router Forums! This is my first post. I'll try to keep it brief.

I'm going to start building a router table soon. I have the Rousseau plate which I want to use in the table. I'll be putting a Porter Cable router in it.

Before I had heard about these forums, I thought in order to center a router on the plate, you needed a centering cone, so I bought one. After reading the stickies, it seems that the easiest way to center a plate is to use the Rousseau 39-1024 Router Base Plate Centering System (the one in the sticky).

My question is, I already have the centering cone. Buying the Rousseau centering system isn't a problem. But before I go ahead and buy it, is there an easy way to center with the cone? It seems more inaccurate and harder (the cone).

I searched the forum but nothing came up.


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## jlord (Nov 16, 2009)

Hi Carson, welcome.
A centering cone is desired to center your base plate when mounting to the router. You need the bit centered when using the template guides in hand held routing. Template guides are not used that much in table routing. You can use the PC base plate to center the router in the Rousseau plate. The Rousseau plate will take the place of your PC plate. Try to center the mounting as good as you can, but if you are a little off it will not hurt most operations because the router bit is round & everything works off the center of the bit. All your table routing will be referenced to the bit or the bearing on the bit. Your fence does not even have to be square with the table to work accurately.

If you feel better using the Rousseau setup to mount the router in the plate there's nothing wrong with that. It's only what $5.00 or $6.00? You only need to mount the router once. I'm sure others will come along that have this plate & share how they mounted the router.


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## Mike (Nov 22, 2004)

Carson, I would buy the centering kit for your router. It includes the transfer screws for marking the hole location which makes it fool proof every time. It also includes longer screws for mounting the router. This is the easiest way to get these items.
The centering cone is for your routers sub base plate but will do the job centering on a mounting plate. You will still need the longer screws for mounting and transfer screws to mark the hole location.


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## jw2170 (Jan 24, 2008)

Welcome to the forum, Carson


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## fooser (Apr 8, 2011)

Looks like I'll buy the centering system then. Thanks for the answers!


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## Funwitwood (Sep 8, 2011)

Good luck with the centering. Please show us a picture and tell how much effort it took.


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## rwl7532 (Sep 8, 2011)

I'm of the pat warner school of thought.
Forget the plate. Use braced MDF with Watco and waxed. The plate edge gathers chips which can bump your work ever so slightly.
www_patwarner_com

He wrote "Getting the most from your router."

Replace the MDF as needed... it's cheap.


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## rwl7532 (Sep 8, 2011)

rwl7532 said:


> I'm of the pat warner school of thought.
> Forget the plate. Use braced MDF with Watco and waxed. The plate edge gathers chips which can bump your work ever so slightly.
> www_patwarner_com
> 
> ...


Understood that a thin plate gives you extra bit height.
Maybe a reason to have both options.


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