Digitally Controlled Router lift with Bluetooth MLCS PowerLift Pro

[martin felder]

https://www.mlcswoodworking.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/smarthtml/pages/powerlift_pro_2.html=emb_logo

I did a search and could not find this discussed.  For years I have had a router table with the hand crank router lift.  As many of you know there are a number of very similar options available - JessEm, Kreg, Rockler, etc.

I always thought it would be nice to have a router lift that raised and lowered the bit electronically, and so I was searching to see if anything new has come along. 

I came across the MLCS option.  I could not find out too much about it.  Has anyone used one?  If all router lifts were the same price, is there any reason one would not want this and instead prefer the hand crank option?

 

[dltflt]

There is also the ready2rout lift and fence that work together. So you might want to take a look at that also.

 

[Lbob131]

I think  this  scratches  the  surface  of  what a  Felder  Format -4 profil 92m e-motion  would  be  providing.
Its  rare  to see  such  technology  deployed  in  router tables.

I  wonder  how  easy  the foot  switch  gives  micro  adjustment?

 

[Bob D.]

I know MLCS has had this lift for a number of years. I've never heard anything bad about it but I have not had my ear to the ground regarding this lift.

I did have a mild interest in getting one back when I got my WP router table and lift 10 years ago for the extension in my Unisaw, but I thought it was too new to take a chance on. I think it was less than a year old back then. That could have been a previous version too.

One plus is it makes plunge cuts in the table easy. No more dropping the work down on the bit. Hold the work still and raise the bit into the work, then move the work across the bit. Stop where you need to and withdraw the bit. Makes blind slots and such pretty easy it would seem.

 

[semenza]

I know MLCS has had this lift for a number of years. I've never heard anything bad about it but I have not had my ear to the ground regarding this lift.

I did have a mild interest in getting one back when I got my WP router table and lift 10 years ago for the extension in my Unisaw, but I thought it was too new to take a chance on. I think it was less than a year old back then. That could have been a previous version too.

One plus is it makes plunge cuts in the table easy. No more dropping the work down on the bit. Hold the work still and raise the bit into the work, then move the work across the bit. Stop where you need to and withdraw the bit. Makes blind slots and such pretty easy it would seem.

Hadn't thought of that!  That alone makes it worth getting in my opinion.  Might be time for a new router table set up.

Seth

 

[rst]

https://www.lumberjocks.com/reviews/8674 - Review by three year user

 

[Bob D.]

I see Grizzly also has a motorized lift that looks almost identical to the MLCS lift. But the interface is not as nice and no foot pedal (even as an option) available that I could find.

 

[Peter_C]

One, two, steppers away from a CNC...

Very cool toy.

 

[Bob D.]

I was back on the MLCS site this morning looking at this lift again. I noticed that the 10" tablet they offer is running Android 4.4 which has not been supported for a very long time.

Android 4.4 was introduced in 2013 and dropped off the support list in 2016. Eighteen months is the normal life for an Android version from what I could find online. The current version of Android is 12.0 which was released earlier this month on Oct 4, 2021.

It may not matter if you use the tablet nothing other than an interface with the lift which is how I would use it. If I got this I would not connect it to my home network as I don't see any advantage to doing that with the current app. It's not like a CNC where you could upload some code to the controller to be run later.

I'm only mentioning this in case anyone was thinking of using the tablet in any capacity other than an interface with the lift. A version of Android long out of date (by at least 7 years) and no longer supported will have security vulnerabilities and it's best to keep it off the WWW.

 

[simnick]

I have the MLCS lift for a few months, used for 3 projects. Still not certain if I love it, but it does allow some great stuff.
Their tablet is an old piece of crap, and I shouldn't have bought it, but I normally use iOS, so I went with the quick option. I would have been better off buying a more up to date android device. Apparently even Fire tabs can side load the app. Bluetooth connection after sleep often fail and I have to reboot.
It seems very repeatable, which is very handy in itself.
Being able to safely and easily do stopped grooves is great. I put piece in starting position, turn on router with bit under table, then raise to a pre-set depth for first path, move board. The reset board, or retract and reset board, and bring to full depth, doing 2nd pass. Prior to this I would rarely do the recommend multiple passes, as it was so annoying to get back to the right position.
I don't love the top plate. I really wish it were better machined. It is slightly rough anodized surface, when I would like a slicker material. Still not perfectly level in my table either, but might just need more tweaking. I really wish it were the incra mag lock plate, instead of the plastic ones, and their plastic plates are slightly different then woodpeckers, so you only have 4 options. Except I found an awesome parameterized SCAD file, and via trial and error can now make whatever size insert I want: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:91351
I expect in time I should be able to make notes about each bit and what height achieves what effect, particularly for interlocking joinery bits. Really easy to zero out the bit, so you can reset even after changing bits.
Now I wish the fence were the same sort of adjustable. So rather than use my router fence (in my tablesaw), I'm going to build an add-on fence to my tablesaw fence, so I can use my wixley digital fence readout to repeat the fence settings. Ala:https://vsctools.com/shop/router-fence-plans/

 

[Ebuwan]

Hello,

Any update on your feelings with it? i'm Considering the MLCS Powerlift or the Woodpeckers table.

thanks!

Ev

 

[Bob D.]

Hello,

Any update on your feelings with it? i'm Considering the MLCS Powerlift or the Woodpeckers table.

thanks!

Ev

Did you read the review on Lumberjocks. Four people all said they like it and happy with their purchase. Only some minor items that they would like to see added.

One fellow commented: "..the accuracy and ease of use on this thing is phenomenal. All of this while being a couple hundred less than a jessum manual lift, just makes it a no-brainer for me."

 

[simnick]

Using it bit more, I've found it great for doing some cuts much more safely than would be possible with any other lift. Killer for stopped grooves, with no dangerous dropping onto the bit. I'm also way more likely to do multiple passes, as I can do them reproducibly, without risk of messing up my setup.

Was running into issues keeping the plate flush to the table, and it seems it was an issue with the leveling setscrews getting vibrated loose. I needed to get the table locked down (the weight of the router used to be enough), which was tricky as the provisions for it to be attached did not match up with the sawstop extension table I was using. I also added some locktite.

Otherwise, tablet it comes with is still crappy, buy something else. App seems fine, if primitive.

Foot pedal is nice to have as well. It seems to sync the app set-points, and so if you hold the pedal down, it stops when it gets to the next set-point, not overshooting. So you don't need to touch the tablet while the router is on.

 

[Bob D.]

Here is the app user guide is anyone is interested.

I found it on their website this morning.

For those that do have this did you locate the control box above the table as they show in the instructions.
I don't know if I would want a table and the control box sitting up above the router table since my router table is in the extension of the TS as that might interfere with wide rips or prevent me from sliding the fence to the far right.

I think I would rather mount the control box below the router table out of sight and out of harms way.
Then use my own 8" tablet connected by BlueTooth to control the lift.

 

[jeh]

I've never been a fan of phone/tablet controlled tools (or anything) where the App is required to use the tool when I plan to use it for many years. I'd recommend getting a dedicated tablet and never updating the OS in it until there is an update to the App. You risk being orphaned with an app that will not run on an updated OS.

So long as you do that you should be good to go for a lifetime. Also it is probably best to not load it up with other apps or use it for any other purpose. Once they stop supporting the App it might be good to get a backup tablet and have it ready to go. By the time they have bailed on the App you'll be able to pick up an older tablet for very little.

I was very tempted by this setup, but decided to hold off. I went the Woodpeckers route and it does what I want it to do, but digital height control is such an advantage. Small companies do not have good track records supporting the software they publish to run their devices and it is because it is hard and costly and no one wants to pay.

 

[Mini Me]

The digital control system I use on my RT uses no app or OS and no tablet at all just a touch screen but the code was specifically written for the job. It controls both the lift and the fence, has job memory and a water cooled CNC spindle which is super quite. The  kicker was it required writing something like 26,000 lines of code.

 

[simnick]

My control box is under the table, on the side of the router dust box, and underneath the outfeed assembly table. I never need to touch it except when I had to reboot it to get it to re-pair to bluetooth. The tablet is on a bracket attached to my router fence. I pull the pedal out whenever I use it from under the table.

 

[Bob D.]

My control box is under the table, on the side of the router dust box, and underneath the outfeed assembly table. I never need to touch it except when I had to reboot it to get it to re-pair to bluetooth. The tablet is on a bracket attached to my router fence. I pull the pedal out whenever I use it from under the table.

That sounds pretty much like I would want to set it up. I have an old Motorola 10" tablet that I use in the shop and could load the app on for this. Still functions fine but no longer gets OS updates. I like it because it has a drop-in docking station which makes for easy charging and when docked the audio is routed to the docking station speakers so listening to music or a football game while in the shop sounds much better.

So I just use it in the shop with Wi-Fi disabled so it's not trying to reach out onto the internet for anything behind my back. I also blocked the tablet's MAC address on my router so nothing from the tablet can make it out beyond my LAN. It can reach my printers or the NAS drives but that's about it.

 

[smorgasbord]

I wish this was out when I bought my JessEM router lift back in the twenty-teens. Don't get me wrong - the JessEM works really well - it's rock solid and they had a metric conversion kit, but for the money something electronic (assuming it has an automated zero set like home CNC machines) would be better suited to how I like to work. I have DROs on my tablesaw and dual-drum thickness sander and never want to go back to analog. The many jigs and tricks that people have come up with over the centuries to compensate for analog non-repeatability simply go away. They've been time-saving game changers for me in my home shop.