More information on the Safety Guide Pin…

A question from Dan,

I received your email about positioning the safety guide pin for base plates with 1 1/2″ hole, I have your router table with a larger Hitachi router mounted on a plate with a 3″ hole for using larger bits, could a saftey guide pin be used on it, and where to position it? Thanks.

Rick’s Reply:

My Answer…

I hesitate suggesting the using the big hole plate with a safety guide pin because the distance between the pin and the bearing is going to be to far apart to operate safely. Between the pin and bearing you are going to have a 2.5 to 3.0 space that can trap the piece between the two and shoot the pieces out like a gun shooting a bullet. See section A of the sketch.

So my short answer is do not add the safety guide pin to the big hole plate. Also the cutters you use are usually a raised panel bit, which means the cutter starts cutting at the outer edge of the Big Hole Plate. See section B of the sketch. This leaves no support for the operator to work safely.

Thanks Rick

Here is my second kick at the computer voice over…