DeWalt DCW600 Cordless Router to LR32 Base Plate Adapter

[Bob D.]

Been working on and off all day (in between repairs and painting in the laundry room) to draw this up and now have it ready to print. The adapter will let me use my DeWalt DCW600b or my PC450PK compact routers on the Festool LR32 base plate. I also designed a 1/4" x 40mm centering mandrel to get the router centered on the base plate. I have about 4.5 hours of print time and then I'll be able to see if this works.

More photos tomorrow.

 

[Bob D.]

Well change of plans. Started printing and then came up with a version that will use less material and I think be better overall. So I stopped the print job at about 40% before I wasted all that time and filament and will revise my design tomorrow. The mandrel came out great though first try.

 

[nicholam77]

Very nice, I'll be watching this.

I'm about to adapt my DW618 plunge router with a piece of acrylic. I ordered a 1/2"-8mm collet adapter to use the Festool centering mandrel, but it had not occurred to me to 3D print one, that is a great idea. I thought about 3D printing an adapter plate but my CAD skills are not that great. Interested to see how yours comes out!

 

[rmwarren]

Ditto, watching. I have a 1010 dedicated to the LR32 but always thought the Dewalt was a better fit, it just never hit the top of the projects list.

RMW

 

[DynaGlide]

I'd be interested as well

 

[Bob D.]

As part of my revision I woke up and realized the plunge and fixed bases have different bolt patterns. I had never paid attention to that before because, well, you just don't swap the base plate on the two bases so no reason to. I grabbed my spare fixed base and had laid out the holes for that but realized when I was revising the adapter plate that this was not going to work.

So after getting the bolt pattern off the plunge base it was easy to slide the counterbored holes over in CAD to where they need to be. Also added a foot to the outboard side of the adapter plate which will mimic the function of the foot on the OF1400. I guess the OF1010 has that too, don't know I only have a OF1400.

Many will say why go to the trouble if you already have the OF1400. Because it's a challenge and I think using the lighter cordless DeWalt will be nice.

I recently made a guide for my Bosch EVS1590 jigsaw that allows it to use a FS rail as a guide for long, straight cuts. To do that I made a shoe that fits the base of the saw and a piece to connect it to the rail. Bosch already makes a soft cover or shoe as I call it to prevent the base of the saw from scratching but I did not want to alter it so I made my own.

So next step if I get some time today is print a test piece only 1 mm thick and check everything fits.

 

[DynaGlide]

I got that DeWalt cordless for Christmas. I could see dedicating it to the lr32 especially if it's screwed down. I imagine dust collection is pretty good in that setup.

 

[Bob D.]

Did you get the dust attachment for the plunge base?

It works well. I used the one I had for my PC450 compact router.

For anyone who has the PC450PK it is identical in size to the DeWalt DCW600.
I have both and the bases interchange as do the dust collection attachments.
The PC is a fixed speed corded tool where the DeWalt is cordless and variable
speed with load sensing and an electronic brake.

 

[afish]

Many will say why go to the trouble if you already have the OF1400. Because it's a challenge and I think using the lighter cordless DeWalt will be nice.

For me its about ease of setup.  I absolutely hate wasting time setting up and swapping routers for different tasks.  When your spending 5-600 per router to leave one setup for a particular task is just not feasible. If im only spending 100-150 its easy.  I was even going to get a 2nd LR32 base plate to have one router for 5mm and one for hinge cup holes. 

 

[rmwarren]

I was toying with grabbing one of the 3D printed dingus for the Dewalt made by Toolcurve but I am partial to the operation of the LR32 pin/paddle handle.

[attachimg=1]

Bob's solution would be a no-brainer.

RMW

 

[Bob D.]

"Bob's solution would be a no-brainer."

LOL, it's proved to be more than that getting everything tweaked.
But that's mostly due to me and little stick time with CAD software.
I could draw it faster with a pencil and T-square but I tried feeding
that into the 3D printer and it balked.  [crying]

I'm printing now what I hope will be 'the one'. If not very close.
I printed a 1mm thick piece this morning to check all the hole
locations, overall size, etc. It looked good so I added in the support
for the foot which I had already designed and printed and now it's
printing as I relocate the dryer vent and change over to a MagVent
connection.

 

[DynaGlide]

"Bob's solution would be a no-brainer."

LOL, it's proved to be more than that getting everything tweaked.
But that's mostly due to me and little stick time with CAD software.
I could draw it faster with a pencil and T-square but I tried feeding
that into the 3D printer and it balked.  [crying]

I'm printing now what I hope will be 'the one'. If not very close.
I printed a 1mm thick piece this morning to check all the hole
locations, overall size, etc. It looked good so I added in the support
for the foot which I had already designed and printed and now it's
printing as I relocate the dryer vent and change over to a MagVent
connection.

Did you read my mind? I just installed a magvent this week.

 

[Bob D.]

"Did you read my mind? I just installed a magvent this week."

I didn't like securing that flange to the drywall alone. Did you add anything to back that up?
I cut a piece of 1/2" plywood about 12x12 and backed up the drywall all around the opening
then ran the flange mounting screws into the ply. Unfortunately I couldn't get it set directly behind the dryer because there is of course a stud close to center of the dryer outlet. So will have about a 1.75" offset which is within the 2" allowable margin from what I read.

The MV-180 instructions say to secure the vent pipe to the wall then screw the mounting bracket to the wall using wall anchors if needed. Then slip the tailpiece of the magnet into the vent line. but that doesn't make an air tight connection. If you look there is some space between the mounting bracket and the piece with the magnet. Don't know if I care for that. It's enough of a gap that lint and hot, damp exhaust air can leak out behind the dryer right on the wall or maybe even into the wall cavity. I'm going to anchor the mounting bracket to the wall, screwing into the plywood, then slip the tailpiece into the end of the pipe and secure it with a couple layers of metal tape. Then the magnet and tailpiece snap into the mounting bracket and it's held securely. The other half clamps on the dryer outlet with a hose clamp so should be good there.

That magnet seems pretty strong. I could see the flange loosening up over time if you're doing what you should and cleaning the vent at least once a year. It might not fail in the time I have left on this Earth but why leave a mess for the next guy.

Guess I wandered WOT on this one. Won't be the last time I'm sure.

 

[Bob D.]

Well it's very close now. I think I will do away with the foot. It's not needed. I was able to print a M4 screw thread in the piece though which totally amazes me. I have printed M12 and M6 threaded and tapped parts before but not with the thread axis horizontal. Anyway the foot is not needed and it adds considerable to the print time so it's outta here.

I have about .5mm adjustment in all directions to shift the router and adapter plate for alignment using the 1/4" x 40mm centering mandrel I made.

The Festool knobs hit the edge of the router base so need to use another style knob or a wing nut with a flat washer would probably work. I'm going to work on a knob that will fit this evening.

It's fun but frustrating at the same time. Then I think about how many rockets Elon has crashed on his way to Mars and I don't feel so bad. I'm only out a couple hours and a few dozen meters of filament.

 

[rmwarren]

Bob if you need M8 knobs let me know, I have a boatload of stuff floating around.

Love the design, so simple and likely more secure than the stock holddowns. I'm always worried the will let the 1010 shift.

RMW

 

[Bob D.]

Thanks, I'm printing some washer face nuts right now. About 36 minutes to make 6 of them.

I kept the adapter the same thickness as the OEM clear base so the router doesn't lose any depth of cut to the adapter, but there is some loss for the thickness of the LR32 base and the guide rail of course. I sized to use the original screws so you won't misplace them cause they are busy.

 

[nicholam77]

This is looking really good [member=60461]Bob D.[/member] ! I've seen examples of people using a piece of acrylic to do a similar thing, but yours looks so neat and tidy with the design, it's tempting me to try a 3d printed approach for my larger DW618. What material did you print with?

 

[Bob D.]

This is looking really good [member=60461]Bob D.[/member] ! I've seen examples of people using a piece of acrylic to do a similar thing, but yours looks so neat and tidy with the design, it's tempting me to try a 3d printed approach for my larger DW618. What material did you print with?

I am using PLA for the prototyping, but it should be strong enough to work as a permanent material for this application. There are no moving parts and no real stress placed on the part so no reason I can see for it to fail. I don't know what the size of your DW618 plunge base is but the DCW600 fits comfortably. There may be room for the DW618, but I don't have one to experiment with. And not looking to do so either. I'm just making one for my router and sharing the process with everyone here same as I did with the fence caps.

 

[Bob D.]

I found a nice knurled M6 knob on Thingiverse and printed a pair of them this morning. They are not very big but still took 47 minutes to print because of the print settings required to get quality threads this size. They came out very nice and fit just fine.

Well learned a lot this morning. Translation = FAILED BIG TIME !

Well not really, but it's not perfect. My latest iteration of the adapter base fits both the LR32 base and the router well. I do want to tweak a couple hole locations which will give more allowance for centering the router on the adapter base. But all the router mounting screws fit now so really wouldn't have to change anything but it could be better so it will be because at this stage I have the time to do it so why not.

With the router and adapter mounted on the LR32 base in the orientation I normally use the router, and I would suspect most do, is with the plunge lock lever on the left and to the back away from the user. The dust collection adapter for the plunge base exits on the left rear also in this orientation. That's where the problems start (see attached photos).

The dust collector hits the top of my knob by about 1mm. I will change to a different knob, no biggie there, just need to print a different style nut. That will let the dust collection adapter seat fully on the base the way it should, but that makes the second interference issue even worse. The dust collection adapter contacts the flip lever on the LR32 base (see photos) and it will be worse once the dust collection adapter is in its proper position.

So I though well just turn the router around 180 and try that. But that configuration has the same interference between the knob and dust collection adapter. The interference with the flip lever on the LR32 base is removed, so this will work. And it gets the dust adapter out of the way of the flip lever so you can operate it normally. Even if the dust collection adapter cleared the flip lever it would make tripping the lever difficult on the left hand side. I know that would bug me and I am sure most of you too. Only way around that is to customize the dust collection adapter which I have no plans to do.

I can use it just fine the way it is without dust collection, but I wouldn't want that.

My version of pin lock works well. I used to use a scrap of 5mm ply to hold the pin up so I could slide the base along the guide rail. Saw that trick on here from someone years ago. Sorry I don't remember who first posted it on here. The 3D printed piece doesn't work any better than the ply did, just figured I'd make one. I'm reprinting my centering mandrel in Red so it will stand out when it's installed in the router.

So more tweaking when I get time. Need to hunt down a style of knob or wingnut that will have clearance for everything.

 

[nicholam77]

This is looking really good [member=60461]Bob D.[/member] ! I've seen examples of people using a piece of acrylic to do a similar thing, but yours looks so neat and tidy with the design, it's tempting me to try a 3d printed approach for my larger DW618. What material did you print with?

I am using PLA for the prototyping, but it should be strong enough to work as a permanent material for this application. There are no moving parts and no real stress placed on the part so no reason I can see for it to fail. I don't know what the size of your DW618 plunge base is but the DCW600 fits comfortably. There may be room for the DW618, but I don't have one to experiment with. And not looking to do so either. I'm just making one for my router and sharing the process with everyone here same as I did with the fence caps.

Sweet! Looking good. Do you have a picture of the "pin lock"? I am new to LR32 and haven't heard of that.

I have a 3D printer (ender 3v2) and very limited Fusion360 skills so was definitely planning on modeling it myself if I go this route, just looking at yours as an example of what works! I've only printed in PLA so was hoping that was your answer. I don't see why it wouldn't be fine, either.

I did buy the holey rail and LR32 sled already, so I can confirm the DW618 fits as well. Similar situation with not much clearance to the screw posts, I will need some low profile nuts just like you.

Not trying to hijack your thread... just interested since I'm in a very similar situation! Thanks for sharing.