Craftsman Professional HPP Router Table

Nice table has it's problems. April 30, 2012
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I've owned this for over a year. Setup was not difficult- but I mounted the top only as an extension wing on my table saw- which took more time but made it much more stable. If you want to use it on it's legs, you MUST bolt it down to something to keep it from running away from you. The router plate, on which the router base is mounted, is machined cast aluminum. It takes a bit of time to fit it exactly into the table, but it feels strong and reliable. Although this table is probably manufactured by Bosch (theirs is nearly identical), I had to drill an access hole in the plate to allow me to reach the height-adjustment screw in my Bosch router base. The fence works okay- has a built-in dust port for shop vac connection, but no way to catch shavings thrown below the table. Bigger problem is that on mine, the fence is not 90" square upright, and I have to add shims to it's backside to correct that, which is a pain in MY backside. There is a channel along the top edge of the fence which allows for mounting of supplied featherboards and transparent safety guard. This works fine, but the featherboards require spacers to work correctly, and the spacers tend to fall out whenever I remove the featherboards and I have to retrieve them from the workshop floor. Parallel markings on the tabletop are supposed to help align the fence, but markings are about 1/8" thick, so are not good for fine-tuning. They get you close. A deeply-grooved Craftsman Logo cast into the tabletop creates terrific opportunities to nip your fingertips (or the workpiece) as you try to smoothly guide a miter guage through a cut. Aside from the painful pinches, it can cause a wiggle in the process - something I bought a router table in order to avoid. If the tabletop were smooth, this would be a much better product. The miter slot contains bolt-holes which allow surface mounting of the supplied featherboards. Unfortunately these holes also give your miter-guage bar something to catch on as it moves through the slot. A bit annoying. I've never been able to get my miter guage to slide smoothly through the slot. The dual-outlet switch allows you to control your shop-vac and router easily. The safety switch requires you to lift a little door in order to turn it on (which is great) and you need only press against the switch to turn it off (also great). The legs, which I don't use, are plastic- as are featherboards, insert rings, blade guard and switch cover. Nothing has broken on mine, but every time I remove or insert an insert ring, it feels like the little nubs are going to rip apart. I am very cautious with the insert rings.

Professional and it has cheap plastic leggs. January 05, 2012
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When I buy Professional that is what I expect, not cheap plastic leggs that I'm afraid will break very easy. The plastic side storage compartments, well the covers easily fall off if you move the table very much as when you are carring it to a different location. Then everything inside falls out with the cover falling too.

Craftsman Professional HPP Router Table - Sturdy an great to use January 05, 2012
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After looking at various router tables at ***** (mainly the Bosch), and, after reading the favorable reviews concerning the Sears Craftsman Professional HPP Router Table, I decided to buy one and I purchased it online using PayPal. It arrived at the store location near me, several days before indicated, which was great, because I had three Christmas gifts to finish before Christmas.

The table is sturdy. The solid aluminum table top and extruded aluminum fence make it strong and durable. I know the the table top will never warp due to heat and moisture. It took me about 1 1/2 hours to assemble. The instructions were clear and easy to follow. I liked putting it together knowing I was going to do a good job. I had no problem with the base being plastic, after all, about 10 years ago I actually purchased a plastic Honda lawn mower - its better then steal when used properly.

Just after I assembled it, literally, I was using it. I made three stained glass windows and also made three octagonal wooden frames that needed a router profile to finish them off. The frames came out perfect - I had never used a router or router table in my life. A couple of weeks prior to buying this table I purchased the Craftsman Profession Router. I especially like to ability to raise and lower the router bit using the speed tool. It makes it quick and easy to raise the height of the cutter. Both of these tools are great. I have no regrets and would recommend both of these tools to anyone.

The plastic bit holder and tool holder on either side keep coming out. I glued them into place - no biggy.

I don't do many reviews. I figured this was a good enough product to write one.

A very good table. nice fence. January 05, 2012
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This is a good table.  I have enjoyed getting use to it.  The table is big so you have a lot of surface area to hold your wood.  The Aluminum construction is strong so I know the table will last.  It took some configuration with the router until I got everything lined up right. At first I was having to access the router from the front and back.  this was difficult.  I now have the router reconfigured so I can reach everything from the front.  I was disapointed the the table did not come with a miter guage.  The miter slot is standard size (3/4")so I can add one, but they are fairly expensive by themselves.  I would also liked to have seen fixed nuts in the table for the router plate.  It is a difficult two handed operation to get the nuts on or off if I want to remove the router plate.  I expected to do this for changing router bits.  Instead I have to remove the plate inserts each time I change the setup.  This works fine but I am conserned about the life of the plastic tabs poping the insert in and out all the time.  I hope replacesments are easliy available.  I would also like to have seen the fence be able to move back far enough to allow the plate to come out.  As is the fence must be completely removed.  Adding to this the fence bolts are much longer than the need to be, making removal more difficult.  I will be looking for replacements for these.  The bit guard is nice to have but not the best design.  in order to work on the bit high adjustments I have to remove the guard or use a welding clamp to hold it our of the way.  I have seen better designs that allow the guard to lift up and to the back to be out of the way.  I like the switch being tied into two plugs (one for router one for shop vac).  However since the shop vac can stay on the router table all the time the plug is hard to get to.  I have had to add a short extension cord to allow me to unplug the shop vac with out getting under the table to do so.  I would move the plug to the outside, maybe on the back.