R22002 Router Z-Axis Slop Control with Bungie Cord / Fire Hazard

The R22002 router height adjustment isn’t exactly what you would call “precision”. There’s some slop/play in the arm on the lead screw (the arm is the thing that rides up and down the lead screw… the thing with the orange tab). There have been solutions posted on improving the slop by adding bushings to the arm that I haven’t tried, but would like to. However, at a minimum, you should add some downward pressure on the head of the router so the play is managed. The most common way of doing this is to install a bungie cord, rubber band, or something else elastic over the head of the router. Here’s an example of one installation.

image

I like that the user inserted bolts into the location where the arms used to be as it keeps everything close to the body so it doesn’t interfere with the ring kit. Unfortunately, I don’t have the correct size bolts to do the same, so I just have just screwed a couple eye hooks into the sled next to the router base and used a piece of elastic string from a disposable dust mask. You don’t need a lot of tension and you don’t have to get fancy, but keep in mind that the force of a “spring” is proportional to the amount it is stretched so you need to find a balance such that there’s not too much tension when the router is raised and not enough when it’s lowered. If the tension is too high, the router may pop out of the control arm and slam into the workpiece. This happened to me once but I was watching… had I not, there would have likely been a fire. If the tension is too low, then you haven’t mitigated the slop. I ended up tieing knots in my string (thereby shortening it) until I found the happy medium.

4 Likes

I would take the time first thing to do the “Z” bushing stabilizing fix. I tried to not add the “Z” fix and my router did fine, for a short time, then everything went very bad. I finally broke down and spent the $5 and installed the bushing and washer. The difference was night and day.

Be warned that you need to use a strong adhesive to connect the bushing or it will fail. I used 2P-10 (a type of wood super glue) and it failed after about a week). I had to break it down and redo it. The second time I used a $2 two part epoxy from Harbor Freight. This seems to be holding well.

Note: 2P-10 is amazing for holding wood parts together when assembling. It is not cheap, but holds wood great and sets in seconds.

With my zip tie bungee method, I can adjust the tension by pulling more bungee through the zip tie - if the tension is too high it will pull itself through the zip tie before it pops the router out of the z axis groove. The bungee should be a little long for this to work.

To get the zip tie through the router vent easily, fold the end in like this


and stick it into a vent slot with the router off and unplugged. when inserted to the proper depth, the tip should spring out and you can pull it back out of the adjacent router vent and then zip tie it around the bungee tight - as tight as you can get it with your fingers, it should dig into the bungee a little bit, but not break the router vent obviously. When the proper tension is achieved you should be able to pull the bungee through the zip tie, but it should take a bit of force to do it. When you’re satisfied with the tightness, use a flush cutter or wire cutters to snip off the end of the zip tie.

You want to do this to both sides of the router, with 2 zip ties. any extra length is pulled through the zip ties in the middle of the bungee on top of the router. the actual downward pressure on the router is not on the top of the router, but rather occurs on the vents where you have zip tied it. The plastic on the rigid router appears to be glass fiber reinforced, so it should be plenty strong for this application.

3 Likes

Good advice, I tired a couple of glues that didn’t work to attach the bushing, but JB weld sure did work!

1 Like