Question
I have an 890 Porter Cable router and am using a Leigh D4 jig. The issue I have is the guide collar on the router. I can never seem to get it perfectly centered. I have tried different collars with the same results. I have to hold the router exactly in the same position in and out of the fingers in order to avoid gaps in the joint. I suppose I could rout the joint with the router one way, then turn it 180 degrees and go through the fingers again to be sure the cut is centered, but I shouldn’t have to, should I? If the router turns even a little, gaps appear between the tails and pins.
Rather than switching bits back and forth, can the joints be cut using a setup with two routers and still get a good fit? I don’t have that second router, but would buy one if that would work. Is Porter Cable the way to go?
Forum Responses
(Solid Wood Machining Forum)
From contributor D:
Half the routers we've bought are out of center. There is play in the face plate of the base, the retaining ring and collar, and the base itself as it's tightened around the motor. It's a time consuming pain loosening, tightening, and banging things around to get a collar centered, so when one was set up for a certain task, like routing hinge mortises, everything was reefed down extra tight and we left it alone. My guess is overtightening the aluminum base warps it as well, but I've seen plastic bases out of whack too.
