I’ve been in the market for a cast iron router table for some time but couldn’t find anything suitable. The most common model repackaged by several manufacturers mounted the router with a series of t slots and could not easily accommodate a router lift or a router with one inbuilt. The Axminster table is a beautiful piece of kit but expensive, unjustifiably so in my opinion. Then, quite unexpectedly, Lumberjack tools brought one to market. In the RTS650, £249 buys you a generously sized cast-iron top, a bench top leg stand, aluminium fence with sliding faces and offset bars, NVR and universal insert plate. But is it any good?
Information on router compatibility, specific dimensions and tolerances were limited. I put these questions to Lumberjack and received quick, informative responses, though their own information on compatibility was also limited.
To cut a long story short, I bought one. I did so at a discounted price from Lumberjack, which I am grateful for, in return for my sharing my thoughts with you. My review will remain unbiased however, and lumberjack have not asked to view any content prior to publication.
The RTS650 router table arrives well-packaged in a cardboard box with moulded polystyrene insert. The single 1-star review for this table I was able to find suggested issues with the packaging but I did not find any issues besides broken polystyrene, par for the course. In its heroic self-sacrifice the polystyrene did its job and spared the table any damage. The first part out is the cast iron table top, wrapped in plastic and coated in a black protective oil.
Two folded steel legs bolt to the underside of the cast table to form a compact bench top stand. The bolts for these are shipped in the underside of the table and a hex / Philips key is provided to fasten them. I was surprised at the lack of cross rails especially given that there are mounting holes in the right places, but the stand is sturdy without them. Large rubber feet are also provided.
Router Mounting
The router is held by a carrier plate which has four countersunk M6 holes pre-drilled to mount a router. Here’s where things get tricky. The factory hole pattern doesn’t follow the Trend ‘TBC’ standard, which is the most common pattern found on the base of many if not most routers.
It is likely you’ll have to drill your own holes, but doing so necessitates accurate centring of the router and placement of the holes. The plate has a 75 mm centre hole so you have no point of reference to centre the router if your router bit isn’t centre of its base. You will also need to countersink them to an M6 socket screw, which will prove a challenge as the plate is a hard steel that is very difficult to drill and even harder to machine countersink profile without the right drill bits or access to a mill. If your holes are even fractionally out, or your countersunk recess anything other than perpendicular, the router will be skewed and the bit won’t end up square to the table.
I would rather Lumberjack provide a plate with a TBC pattern, which would be a more universal fit to the vast majority of routers likely to be used with the table. Better yet, revise the table top to follow the now universally accepted standard of a 10 mm rebated insert plate that mounts from the top, as there are universal insert plates on the market drilled for every pattern you can think of.
I ditched the included plate and made a carbon fibre replacement to the same dimensions and thickness as the original. You could do the same with a sheet of Tufnol, or an aluminium plate – both of which are workable with standard woodworking tools.
To make your own or drill the original I’m providing this handy PDF TBC pattern template for you to use. All credit to my good friend Gary of Garp Designs for drawing this up. Print to 100% scale on A4 paper and be sure to drill the holes the correct way round on your plate, based on the desired orientation of the router.
I precisely centred the router to the centre of the plate using a centring mandrel mounted in the router and a reference hole in the plate. I marked the hole positions with pointed screws installed into the router base and drilled the mounting holes on an accurate pillar drill. I was surprised then that the bit isn’t central of the aperture when the router is mounted to the table.
My plate is an exact replica of the one supplied, made to a tolerance of 0.1 mm. Either my table has been machined incorrectly or this is a universal issue, but it does mean the scales in the table are useless, not that they’re much use to me anyway.
I also note some movement in the router. Standard top-mounted insert plates have levelling screws to support the hanging weight of the router. Though the plate here is smaller, it is only fixed at the four corners so the weight of the hanging router is sufficient to flex the plate if the router is moved. My carbon plate is less susceptable to this even than the included steel plate, yet there is still some movement.
The table is supplied with four m6 screws to mount the router and four M5 screws to secure the plate to the table. The screws are soft alloy and the heads strip easily, so I swapped them for stainless socket screw equivalents. The insert plate mounts beneath the table in a recess which includes 4 machined mounting pads. This is important, as the system gives you no way to level the plate within the table and thus no way to square the router bit to the table top.
The Lumberjack mounting method has some advantages. The table top surface is perfectly flat and uniform right up to the insert plate and the extra surface area you gain in the cast iron table by not cutting a large section out of the middle should increase the rigidity of the table. The smaller dimensions of the plate and the reduced distance between its mounting screws should make it less susceptible to sagging – it doesn’t in reality – not that sag should be an issue with a quality aluminium, phenolic or steel mounting plate.
There are disadvantages too though. The system will not be compatible with American-style router lifts, however, or any modern lift that I am aware of including the UJK Router Elevator. The insert plate is specific to this table and aftermarket plates aren’t available to purchase without contacting Lumberjack, while there are countless plates available in the more common sizes.
I’ve been spoiled by my Rutlands lift, which was the most accurate routing system I’d used until the bearings in the motor disintegrated in a horrifyingly rapid chain of events which by some miracle destroyed only the router and the cutter. I’ve never believed in a higher being, but one was certainly looking out for me that day.
You cannot fit a lift to the Lumberjack table without some serious modification. Even cutting the rebate for a standard plate is not possible due to how the underside of the table is machined. I hope Lumberjack will revise the table to take standard insert plates. There are some routers on the market now with inbuilt above the table adjustment from Triton, Trend, Makita and Bosch.
I purchased this table intending to fit one of those but as I needed the table up and running for a project, I installed the resident workshop Dewalt DWE625. Those routers will suffer the same issues in combination with this table that I discuss in the following paragraphs.
The Table
Assembly of the table, not account for the custom mounting plate, is very straight forward. Including unpacking, cleaning the cast table and applying and buffing three coats of machine wax, assembling the table took this blind guy half an hour at most.
The table top has a smooth ground finish, as do all four edges, with slight 45-degree chamfers on the top edges. There were no sharp edges or burrs that I could find that would be likely to cause injury. The underside of the table, besides the machined outermost edges and a few purposely milled flat surfaces, is painted for rust protection. The table has some weight to it but it’s not unmanageable even with a router mounted.
The table has an 80 mm cutter aperture and a removable insert plate with levelling screws to set it perfectly level within the table recess. The insert plate is 105 mm in diameter. The insert plate aperture is 65 mm, and a set of reducing rings are supplied to close the cutter aperture to 6.3, 12.7 or 25 mm depending on the bit you’re using.
I would like to see a 10 mm reducing ring as that is a common diameter for router alignment bits, and perhaps 25 and 55 mm also. The plate is simply held in with 3 screws if you want to make zero clearance plates of your own. If you want to make insert rings, they are 70 mm diameter with a 2.5 mm underside rebate.
The table top is 40 mm thick, 650 mm wide by 400 mm deep and 375 mm from the bench top to the table top surface. The maximum router height that can be fitted beneath the mounting plate is 360 mm. The mitre slot is 19 mm wide x 9.5 mm deep, and 25 mm wide at the bottom of the t slot.
A common and valid concern with cast table tops at the cheaper end of the market is their surface finish. The lumberjack table surface is buttery smooth after a few coats of Axminster machine wax, allowed to dry for a minute and then buffed to build up a layer of protection that also makes material slide effortlessly. The milled recesses, such as the bottom of the mitre slot and the lip inside the insert recess are also smooth – not polished, but perfectly smooth.
Likewise the sides of the fence slots, the underside of the fence slots where the square t nuts ride, and even the machined feed direction arrows in the table. I tried to find fault with the table finish, but I can’t. It’s up there with the cast iron finishes I’ve seen on the Axminster professional router table, their professional table saws, my father’s record bandsaw and my Axminster professional lathe. The level of finish is simply outstanding.
The Fence
The fence comes pre-assembled needing only to be bolted to the fence slots in the table top using the included square nuts and elongated knobs, which are slightly higher than the fence for easier access. The fence is identical to the fence on the Rutlands table this is replacing besides a different finish and minor differences in the face plate slot length, though the knobs on the Rutlands are a tad larger and easier to grip.
I find it interesting that the router mounting is so different given that the two products likely came out of the same factory. There are scales set into the table for adjusting the fence, though the fence slots should be 20 mm longer to extend the cutting capacity. You get a maximum of 40 mm between the centre of the bit and the fence faces, though oddly the fence can slide forward in its slots far beyond the bit.
There is 149.5 mm from the centre of the mitre slot to the centre of the bit, so the router could have undoubtedly have been positioned further forward in the table to increase the cutting capacity.
The finish isn’t faultless, and unlike the Rutlands there are no plastic strips on the underside of the extrusion to stop it scraping across the table. The fence faces are ever-so slightly prominent of the extrusion at the bottom edges, so the fence angles back slightly and is about 0.5 mm out of square with reference to the table. I corrected the issue by applying strips of clear plastic labelling tape to the raised sections of the extrusion bottom. The fence now glides across the table top without scratching it, and the faces are perfectly square to the surface.
The fence includes a pair of aluminium offset bars to step out the left-hand face for planing operations. When you’re not using them they store in handy slots on the fence extrusion. I don’t carry out surfacing operations on a router table as it’s safer, more efficient and more accurate on a planer, but if you don’t have a surface planer or combination thicknesser this is a useful feature for squaring up stock.
The fence extrusion is 80 mm high. The faces are 20 mm thick, 655 mm high and 290 mm long and appear to be a solid phenolic material. The fence offset bars give you offsets of either 0.8 or 1.6 mm. The aperture between the fence faces close to 22 mm and open to 125 mm. The fence has a 63.5 mm dust port for extraction from above the table.
The dust extraction works remarkably well for edge moulding and edge rebating. If you’re slot cutting the material covers the bit, so dust is dispersed from the side or downwards. The only way to manage this is by connecting your router’s inbuilt extraction with a t fitting to the port on the back of the fence.
The fence has 8 mm t slots running along the front above the sliding faceplates, along the top and on the rear directly behind the slot on the front. These are useful for mounting featherboards, the included guard, jigs, flip stops and other accessories. The rear slot is used to mount the dust extraction port and the front is pre-fitted with the L-shaped bit guard, which is adjustable in height and functions as it should.
The NVR
The NVR switch bolts to the left-hand leg frame. It includes a large emergency stop paddle, an overload reset switch and a pair of outlets. Euro outlets in fact, a curious decision on a product for the UK market imported by a UK company. You get a UK to European plug adapter in the box to connect your router, but it’s a cheap, flimsy thing that doesn’t inspire confidence given the high current draw of these devices.
Dual outlets I a nice idea as it allows you to connect a dust extractor to the table and control it with the NVR, though the outlets are wired such that the current draw of a 1200W extractor and a typical router – 1000W minimum, often at least 1500W or 2000W – would exceed the rating of the NVR, to say nothing of starting the two simultaneously.
The outlets are at least grounded, though the earth contact in one of the outlets broke after inserting and removing the plug adapter just once, so one of the outlets is now unusable. A couple of trailing UK sockets would be a safer, more reliable solution.
The Mitre Gauge
The table comes with a mitre gauge which is relatively well put together with a solid aluminium t bar and cast fence. There is no mechanism to take up play between the bar and the mitre slot but it is a relatively good fit with only a little play. The angle stop function is primitive and itself has some play. There are three adjustable screws to set the zero position square to the fence, and 45 degrees in either direction.
The table has a standard 19 x 9.5 mm t slot which will fit just about any aftermarket mitre gauge, featherboard and jig so better gauges can be used. I may try to improve it in a future post as I do like the fence casting and the quality isn’t bad. If it’s the only gauge you have, it will work fine and is better than some I’ve used.
Limitations
With a new plate made and the router installed, I noted immediately some limitations. The first is that, without a collet extension, smaller bits cannot be used. Here is a standard 6 mm roundover bit, with the Dewalt set to its maximum possible plunge depth. Only the top of the bearing peaks above the insert plate, so using this bit without a collet extension would be impossible.
Likewise smaller 1/4 inch and 1/2 inch butters for slotting, grooving, rebating and edge moulding. Only large panel cutters will be usable without an extension, and even then likely not at the limits of their blade. And chances are they won’t fit through the unusually small aperture in the insert plate. Long straight cutters are usable too, though they are typically only available in larger diameters (10 mm and up) for obvious reasons.
I can’t stand collet extensions. It’s just 1 more thing to break at 20,000RPM, and the more interfaces you introduce between the bit and the collet, the more runout you have. In contrast, a lift system with fixed-base router can raise the top of the collet itself level with or even beyond the insert plate, so bit height is never a problem. So, too, can most routers when mounted in a standard insert plate.
This limitation may also affect routers with through-base bit changing such as the Triton TRA001, where the only means to lock the spindle requires the collet be lowered through the base. In these cases the collet likely won’t clear the table top sufficiently to give you access to change the bit.
The second major limitation is the cutting depth in relation to the fence. The 40 mm cutting depth isn’t enough to cut a centre slot in the middle of a typical 4 inch (100 mm) drawer side, or a moulded groove in a door with wide stiles. Why the fence can slide forward so far beyond the bit is a mystery to me. It’s as if the mitre and fence slots are intended for a version of the table top that takes a standardised insert plate, and converted to the ‘hanging plate’ method of mounting as an afterthought, but with the router mounted much further back than it should be. It’s virtually unusable for a lot of common table routing applications.
Summary
The Lumberjack Pro Series RTS650 has all the makings of a great router table for the smaller workshop. Its cast-iron table is generously sized, dead flat and impeccably finished. It even has machined standoffs in its underside should you decide to mount it directly to the top surface of a cabinet. The fence is nicely thought out with plenty of accommodations for jigs, featherboards and excellent dust extraction. The leg stand is sturdy and the perfect height to be situated on a standard workbench. The mitre gauge is better than most included gauges, and the slot is standard so any standardised gauge or jig of your choice will fit.
However, the table falls short in two key areas. The NVR switch has poorly constructed, fragile euro outlets. At best they are an annoyance, at worst a safety risk.
By far its biggest limitation however is the router mounting. You can’t use standard, readily available plates. The included plate is challenging to drill in a way that guarantees accuracy. The means of mounting leaves too much distance between the router and the table, meaning small bits cannot be used without collet extensions. The table cannot accommodate standard lift systems. And the position of the router puts it too close to the fence and miles from the mitre slot.
For these reasons, the Lumberjack RTS650 does not meet my requirements. Lumberjack does offer the RT1500 router table with an integrated lift and motor that I would be interested in trying, although it is primarily marketed to the DIY community and not a substitute for a professional table routing setup. It could provide an interesting comparison. The design choices made in the development of this table leave me perplexed, as if it were not subjected to any practical real-world testing in development.
I like Lumberjack tools a lot. I’ve used their dust collectors extensively and put them through hell with great success. I have a couple of their router bits and a few other accessories and I’m consistently impressed by the value their machinery appears to offer when I have seen other woodworkers using them. I also appreciate their support of the woodworking community.
But as it stands I would only recommend this table to those who are only looking to use large, long bits or who don’t mind collet extensions, and in situations where the limited cutting distance won’t be an issue. Most of those users probably already have a table, or would seek something more versatile. It seems they’ve missed the mark and haven’t considered the use case for a ‘professional’ router table, nor has router compatibility or versatility been considered in the design. Hopefully there can be revisions to fix its flaws, as a cast router table at this price point is still a gap in the market yet to be adequately filled.
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