Router Recommendation (Australia)

Hey Stuart, glad to hear you’re recovering well. Thanks for replying so quickly, am very grateful for the time taken mate.

Yeah that would be ace if you could get in touch with your friend at Bosch. I’m definitely interested. I have a sneaking suspicion that the Bosch POF 1200 might make things difficult. But we’ll see when the kits arrive.

Cheers,
Benji

And low and behold, the kit arrived! Woo!


Thank you @bar @hannah for getting them out so quickly.
You’ve beaten my GlowForge order to arrival by 3 years :stuck_out_tongue:

Well, with the easter long weekend starting tomorrow I guess I’m going to put the Bosch POF 1200 to the test. Will post over the weekend when I’ve made some progress. Will also get Ned’s z-axis mount printed next week and see if I can get that batch made of nylon parts.

Now back to work…stop looking at the box…back to work.

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Any news Benji? How’d you go not opening the box until after work? My kit is on way from Sydney up here to Newcastle… nail biting stuff.

Alas limited news. I opened the box. Looked over everything and then had to deal with a very sick family, both kids and wife were rather sick over the long weekend. So I didn’t get a lot done. Am hoping this weekend opens up a bit. Am going to go down to bunnings on Friday and pick up all the frame materials.

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Sorry to hear that Benji. I’ve been in a similar predicament here with our family actually! Package is on its way still, so I’ll be trying to get some time as well this week. If I find anything useful for anyone I’ll post here.

So I have a cunning plan. I have the old version of the cheap shit Ozito router, mine is about 15 years old now, but the design hasn’t changed.

the depth gauge has 3 threaded posts at the bottom so you can quickly switch heights for multiple passes. They can be removed with a screwdriver and shifter. I 2 plans

  1. Remove one of the posts and replacing it with a long piece of all thread. Over this and through the depth gauge hole insert a sleave (pipe) over the thread connected to the bolt on one end and the Z axis coupler at the other.

  2. remove the post mount entirely and replace it with a lead screw of the appropriate size with bearings connected to the Z-axis motor. using something like this https://www.gearbest.com/3d-printer-parts/pp_436456.html That one is the wrong size.

Risks - The compression is only on one size so it will either jam, or the springs may be too strong. in the latter case I can remove 1 or both of the springs

Benefits - simple to construct and cheap as hell if I bust my router to replace it. Also give me full depth control over the entire travel range

Thoughts anyone?

@Firewuff do you have a newsletter because I have also considered the Ozito as a spindle and making railed z-axis similar to @MeticulousMaynard’s Prototype for New Z-Axis

So I did a quick an dirty prototype tonight and it (mostly) works! It literally took about 30 mins start to fin. Note I haven’t even built the frame for my Maslow yet so… :wink:

Up side

  • simple and easy to build from scratch
  • potentially on this model the Z-axis motor can be directly bracketed off the router itself and not sled which would simplify things.
    *Travel is only limited by the lenght of the tubing (see the build below)

Down sides

  • Raise and Lower seem to be reversed for some reason but the is a future me problem
    EDIT SOLVED! Thanks to thispost, TLDR; use a negative number for the z-axis pitch.

  • My router stuck a couple of times raising but that probably has more to do with the fact the thing is +15 years and the linear rails have some corrosion from contact with the springs.

So the build log for my test!

Parts list (for me)

  • 1x 80mm M5 bolt. This matches the existing post on the Ozito and simplifies things, the newer models or other brands may differ.
  • 1x M5 nut, I recycled the one off the Ozito router.
  • 1 or 2 washers (optional) as a bearing surface… this kind of worked.
  • 1 length of 10mm tubing. I used Aluminum as that was all that was available at Bunnings, steel would probably be better but Al worked fine and it was easy to work with.

First this to do is remove the tallest stop in the base, the depth gauge and screw handle used to lock the depth gauge. I used the tallest stop because the thread in the base is the longest but it really doesnt matter which.

I cut a lengh of the tube. I had no idea how long I should make it so I guessed. As it turns out my proof of concept one is a little too short, it probably needs to be in the region of 15 - 20 cm or so. I ground down one end slightly on my bench grinder but a file will do the same job, this was due to it being ever so slightly too big for the shaft coupler.

Next step is to press the nut into the other end of the tube. to do this I inserted an 8mm drill bit (or what ever fits your tubing) into the pipe section. This allowed me to clamp the tube securely without crushing it.

Next I threaded the nut onto a short section of thread (it was actually the short post off the router) and used some multigrips to grab the thread.

I then use a hammer to press the nut into the end of the pipe being careful that it was centered and square as I went.

Aluminium has a tendency to deform so I used my bench vice to press the tube back around each side of the nut. The nut was loose but that really doesnt matter in the final assembly. If it was a mild steel tubing it probably would have pressed in and stayed.

Lastly I cut the head off the 80mm bolt. I would have preferred to just to buy some all thread but it didn’t come in metric sizes.

To assemble I threaded the 80mm bolt into the post base and then added the 2 washers and the nut and sprayed the whole thing with silicon lube including the router posts to make it move more smoothly.

The washers gave a smoother bearing surface than the sintered metal body of the router and to give a flat surface for the nut to press on (rather than the oversized hole that was there.

Below you can see how the tubing with the now pressed in Hex couples to this assembly

Lastly the tubing was inserted into the shaft coupler and motor. The fact the nut came free made this a whole lot easier. As noted at the top the tube is either too short or I need to trim down the thread as the thread travels up the inside of the tube and hits the coupler before the bit is all the way down, I will probably do a bit of both once I know the length of the longest bit I will be using.

At to show it all works!

There didn’t seem to be any torque issues with the motor at all that I could see. Only issue was the hex heads of the coupler hitting the body of the router but that wont be an issue if I mount the motor higher.

Improvements

  • Use Steel tubing (when I can get it)
  • Lengthen the tube to increase available travel
  • Possibly replace the thread with a different thread with a higher pitch to increase travel speed, this would require cutting a new thread in the base which has some small risks of trashing it. The current thread is very fine (0.8 pitch) so raising and lowering is very slow.

Things that didn’t work

I tried to remove one of the springs on the router to reduce the torque the motor needed, only 1 spring wasn’t strong enough to raise the body of the router, however. This may not be an issue once it is mounted on the sled as it will be horizontal (mostly) so I will retest once I have built the frame and calibrated everything.

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Hi @Firewuff great to see this working and get the info on the motor’s ability to handle the torque etc. I am going to try something similar with the base of a Bosch POF 500 - as they are easy to find and relatively cheap secondhand at the moment and have a 43mm clamp so would allow a Kress or similar router/spindle offering lower rpm’s.

Matt

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This may also be an option on the Bosch 1200 AE. There is one going cheep on Ebay at the moment https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Bosch-POF-1200-AE-Router/162566510993?epid=2256067180&hash=item25d9b81991:g:ncYAAOSwMLBaoxbn

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Also if anyone is looking at a router this site might be really useful

http://www.toolspareparts.com.au/

They are a spare parts site but have exploded views of the routers so you can see more detail at the potential at least

Ive Tried both of these
Bosch POF 500 with Kress Clamp, ran it for a few months but found Z Axis unreliable, too much freeplay
In March I bought a 1200 (£60) and used Neds modification (“Bosch POR 1200 AE Height Adjust modifications”)
Im getting great results and would highly recommend it

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Hi @Dru

Are you saying you used the Bosch POF Base with a Kress clamped in it, or a Kress base with the Bosch POF 500 clamped in it? How were you operating the Z-axis, and what was unreliable about it?

Grateful for all info!

I forgot about the 1200 AE mod thread. read that last year when I first ran across the Maslow project. may have to put some pennies aside to get one :wink:

It was a kress clamp on the bosch 500 router

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And here is the modified pof 1200
Just waiting on the ring kit

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Hey everyone interested in the Bosch POF 1200 mount that @ned made. I’ve finally got my Nylon sample made. Will be picking it up tomorrow.


I’ll be testing it on the weekend. Make sure the tolerances are good.

All going well I’ll get the batch made up. Will be in touch with everyone that’s DM’d me in Australia.

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Nice one Benji, keen to see how you go

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It’s even cheaper at Mitre 10 - $129.00!

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Yeah that’s where I got mine. Tis a good deal and it seems like most of them have at least one in stock.