I have to say, I built John Heisz box joint jig and I NEVER had a single issue. I never even had to step back and think, "I wonder what he means here"...not to mention the excellent build videos that help. Anyways, like the box build, everything appears to have worked out smooth as intended! Excellent skills Jay, and good projects start with good plans.
Your workshop tour came up as a suggestion, but I wanted to say thanks for this project. I built this quite a few years ago, except adapted it to a home built table saw instead. I built it out of 16mm melamine, added a pivotal hinge so the saw can go 45 deg and just greased the sliding bits with candle wax. It's still going well to this day. Cheers
Jay, I started to watch this and thought "I don't know if I have 8 minutes right this second may have to watch later" just finished watching and never once lost interest enough to check the time. Aside from woodwork your video production is GREAT. Keep up the good work!
John Cessna will sell you a plane! John I bought your plans and built the router lift 2 years ago and it works great. And the build also increased my skill level with wood working. Thanks Jay for showing how it went for you with this build. Lane
Thanks to Jay for showing this. I'm a new subscriber to you as well John and hadn't seen this yet. I'm definitely going to purchase these plans when I build a new cabinet. Have you toyed with a mod to adjust from the top? I'm wondering if something could be made with a flexible screw driver extension.
rochat Maybe a toilet snake, or possibly the flexible line in a weed eater, but you'd have to support it pretty well to make something that flexible to work. Top feed should be relatively easy to design. Matthias Wandel has a video or two you can also check out. Pretty sure he has something like your after. Worth a shot anyways.
rochat 7:27, see the top 3 layers including the router mount of course, you would only need that part of this design and on one side or the other you could incorporate the thread all and mechanism to move it up and down making it adjustable from the top and over all uses less materials. Hard to show my imagination in a text, but maybe you will see it if you pause the video long enough and use the good ol imagination. Totally doable.
HostileHST I see what you are saying. I think just sticking with the design and using a hand crank will do just fine. I need to come up with a solid cabinet design first and go from there.
awesome build, im actually building a router table at the moment, new to routing and been trying some new things out. so far so good but still need to build the base and maybe some drawers. GREAT TO SEE ANOTHER RED WINGS FAN!!!
Jay, well after watching your video a couple of times I decided to buy John's plan and make one for myself. I installed it in the extension wing of my Ridgid r4512 table saw. Works great!
Well done, your router lift is now also in belgium, it works so good, thanks man, i am busy to build my new shop, i hope its ready before winter ! Greetings from Belgium
Jay you are the man and Thank you so very much for this lift and pattern shown here. People Buy the plans they are worth every penny. with a few minor adjustments i was able to make this into a motorized lift for under $20 extra! All i did was buy a window motor for a Audi A4 (i think A4) rear window $12 then wired it to a window switch (momentary on up and down) i picked up off ebay for $3-$5 got some 3/4" reinforced hose and clamps to match to use as couplers (so if it bound it would slip) then cut down the height adjust threaded rod to the length i needed and made a motor mount using 1/2" MDF. very easy and the motor turns real slow so micro adjustable from dead bottom to top in about 75 seconds so very slow but very very smooth. I was looking for something like this because i was building my own custom 42"x32" router table and wanted as few holes on the top of the table as possible and this matted with the kreg precision insert (the one with no holes for mounting the router where you have to drill your own holes for custom mounting) but with this lift there is no need for that. Just mount the align the lift and router to the insert and screw it in and you are done ending up with a very slick looking router table with only the four mounting screws showing on the top of the insert. So once again Thanks Jay PS I want your table saw!!! what brand is it
Man ... You are fast. Lol. Nice project. Having a drill press now will make this project easier. First... Maybe a drill press table. In some places in the video I didn't know what you were doing. Gonna check out the plans.
nice build. it needs a quick and tool less mounting of the router and a way to zero and find adjusting markings. the way it is designed it is very simple engrave them to the diagonal slant plate, with that facing and accessible to the user. A small lever for hand fine tuning can be mounted on the rod for that purpose.
I made a variant of this in metal. The vertical platform that is constrained to slide vertically I changed into a horizontal platform sliding on linear bearings on vertical rods.
Jay Bates A drill bit as a quicker than quick spacer on the cross-cut sled for the dado width?! Genius! Already subbed and thumbs up. Wish there were more kudos.
Freak, LOL. You make everything look easy. The whole woodworking community with you, John, Izzy, Steve Ramsey, that Drunk Guy to name a few is awesome but such a time waster for me. Keep it up mate.
Well Jay it seems like a neat idea but doesn't look very strong or accurate. Pin nails? It also looks like it has a great deal of slop. I watched the video but didn't see it in use. Do you have a video of it in use?
Nice video of the build Jay :-) Being your third build of John's lift, can you comment on the lifts capabilities and any weaknesses? Any tips on building it - anything you would do different or have done differently over the last few builds? Thanks in advance!
Jay Bates, excellent build of John's router lift. I still can't decide between John's and Mathias' lifts. What type of 3/4" plywood is that? One face looks significantly whiter than the other.
John's plans call for 1/2" ply. The only decent ply I could find locally is primed on one side. The entire lift can be made from 2' x 2' of 1/2" ply and a few 3/4" scraps.
Just built this myself and was going to do a build video as my first one, but you beat me to it :) Great video! I don't have access to Baltic Birch ply here so I used the cheap stuff... That, coupled with the constant high humidity, makes me wonder how long it will stay true and sliding smoothly... During testing I realized it works great without the supports sitting on the table sideways too... With as well thought out as the plans were, I might go ahead and buy his advanced box joint jig plans too. Out of curiosity, what are you doing for mounting to make sure the bit rises exactly perpendicular to the table? I did a pretty good job lining up my glue ups, but I'm sure its not perfect. Also, any thought on adding a digital readout? Should be easy with a 6 inch kit from eBay...
I feel like I just been rode hard and put up wet .....again. lol. another great video, dude. One question though. did you glue melamine together with exterior wood glue? ....any details you wanna add about that bro?
I have obviously been remiss in my keeping up with your video's. I know you sold the old table saw & bought one you were not happy with. What table saw are you using now?
Fantastic build as usual, but it does make me gringe seeing a precision measuring tool being used to score marks in wood. Unless of course you have two and keep them separate....
Jay or anyone , can you comment on the best types of plywood to use and not use for making projects such as the lift? Is is shop grade or cabinet grade etc.? I would be interested in hearing from anyone's experience in the various types available at most big box stores.
The more ply's the more stable the piece will be in the long run. I have gotten to the point where I have no problem spending a few extra bucks to get a nicer sheet of ply. Sooooo much less of a headache in the long run. But in the end, get what your budget can allow.
Off topic question, what tablesaw do you have. I was thinking about a portable table saw. But i hear everybody saying i really need a cast iron one. And the portable ones are almost all alu. The big cabinet saws are not really for sale in my country sow i have to import. Also i would really like to make a sled for it. And the portables are a bit to small for that, or no?
I have to disagree with the statement that you "have to have a cast iron top". I got a portable Craftsman 21829 on sale and it uses an cast aluminum top and wings. Is it superior to cast iron? No. Does it do the job? Hell yes and and I'm incredibly happy with it. I've built extension wings and inserts to suit my needs. I'm sure that one day I'll upgrade to a more powerful saw, but this portable saw of mine does everything I want it to do. There is no rule anywhere saying that you have to start off with the best tools. You can even start with a used bench top table saw and build a cabinet around it with bigger wings as your first project. There's a video around where some guy did just that with his cheap Ryobi. In my opinion, an accurate fence and a good blade is far more important than cast iron at this point. Start with something affordable and upgrade as necessary.
Ok, thanks for clearing that up. Everywhere i go on forums they say cast iron is the best. And prob is, but like u say. If a alu top can do the same thing for alot less money, i'll go with that for my first saw. I was looking at the Dewalt DW745RS with the rolling stand. Not the cheapest, but i prefer Dewalt over Bosche or any off the Chinese multi brand ones.
It will far more easy install and linear actuator instead... usisng a linear movement with diaganaol directim to create a vertical movemente clever idea
I applaud your efforts but a Jessem router lift is $214 on amazon. Ive been around the block on this till finally realizing this is stupid, just buy the damn router lift. It’s better in every way.
All four of your comments on my channel are negative in nature. Is everything OK? You're trashing a router lift build and saying just buy one instead. Yet you left a comment on another video of mine about a DIY fence on your bandsaw. Therefore, your bandsaw fence is stupid, and you should just buy one, correct? Is that how it works?
whew!!!! after all that, it's miller time :) by the way, what did the wife say when you chopped off a chunk of the bed post :), great video by the way, thanks
Gordon Steeves hahaha! crack a cold one for me Gordon. My fridge is empty. I actually found the headboard against a dumpster. Made several projects from it :)
4 years later and this is still one of the best lift designs. I sold my JessEm list and I'm looking to build one
I have to say, I built John Heisz box joint jig and I NEVER had a single issue. I never even had to step back and think, "I wonder what he means here"...not to mention the excellent build videos that help. Anyways, like the box build, everything appears to have worked out smooth as intended! Excellent skills Jay, and good projects start with good plans.
Your workshop tour came up as a suggestion, but I wanted to say thanks for this project. I built this quite a few years ago, except adapted it to a home built table saw instead. I built it out of 16mm melamine, added a pivotal hinge so the saw can go 45 deg and just greased the sliding bits with candle wax. It's still going well to this day. Cheers
Jay, I started to watch this and thought "I don't know if I have 8 minutes right this second may have to watch later" just finished watching and never once lost interest enough to check the time. Aside from woodwork your video production is GREAT. Keep up the good work!
John Cessna will sell you a plane! John I bought your plans and built the router lift 2 years ago and it works great. And the build also increased my skill level with wood working. Thanks Jay for showing how it went for you with this build.
Lane
Making it look easy, Jay - great job and thanks for using the plans!
Thanks to Jay for showing this. I'm a new subscriber to you as well John and hadn't seen this yet. I'm definitely going to purchase these plans when I build a new cabinet. Have you toyed with a mod to adjust from the top? I'm wondering if something could be made with a flexible screw driver extension.
Thanks for making them!
rochat Maybe a toilet snake, or possibly the flexible line in a weed eater, but you'd have to support it pretty well to make something that flexible to work. Top feed should be relatively easy to design. Matthias Wandel has a video or two you can also check out. Pretty sure he has something like your after. Worth a shot anyways.
rochat 7:27, see the top 3 layers including the router mount of course, you would only need that part of this design and on one side or the other you could incorporate the thread all and mechanism to move it up and down making it adjustable from the top and over all uses less materials. Hard to show my imagination in a text, but maybe you will see it if you pause the video long enough and use the good ol imagination. Totally doable.
HostileHST I see what you are saying. I think just sticking with the design and using a hand crank will do just fine. I need to come up with a solid cabinet design first and go from there.
Great job! Bottom actuated lifts are the only way to go. Love John's design. Your videos are awesome and they keep getting better man.
Thanks Izzy!
I ws thinking the same thing Jay.
I bet this week's winner was John Heisz :)
awesome build, im actually building a router table at the moment, new to routing and been trying some new things out. so far so good but still need to build the base and maybe some drawers. GREAT TO SEE ANOTHER RED WINGS FAN!!!
Jay, well after watching your video a couple of times I decided to buy John's plan and make one for myself. I installed it in the extension wing of my Ridgid r4512 table saw. Works great!
Awesome news. Be sure to let John Heisz know!
Well done, your router lift is now also in belgium, it works so good, thanks man, i am busy to build my new shop, i hope its ready before winter ! Greetings from Belgium
you make is seem so simple. Cannot wait to start building shop furniture. This is on the list of things to do.
Third one. Maybe that's why you built it so fast. ;) Nice job. John has some nice stuff and you showed a straight forward build.
His plans make it really easy to build.
Very nice. I always seem to learn something new from your videos.
Jay you are the man and Thank you so very much for this lift and pattern shown here. People Buy the plans they are worth every penny. with a few minor adjustments i was able to make this into a motorized lift for under $20 extra! All i did was buy a window motor for a Audi A4 (i think A4) rear window $12 then wired it to a window switch (momentary on up and down) i picked up off ebay for $3-$5 got some 3/4" reinforced hose and clamps to match to use as couplers (so if it bound it would slip) then cut down the height adjust threaded rod to the length i needed and made a motor mount using 1/2" MDF. very easy and the motor turns real slow so micro adjustable from dead bottom to top in about 75 seconds so very slow but very very smooth.
I was looking for something like this because i was building my own custom 42"x32" router table and wanted as few holes on the top of the table as possible and this matted with the kreg precision insert (the one with no holes for mounting the router where you have to drill your own holes for custom mounting) but with this lift there is no need for that. Just mount the align the lift and router to the insert and screw it in and you are done ending up with a very slick looking router table with only the four mounting screws showing on the top of the insert.
So once again Thanks Jay
PS
I want your table saw!!! what brand is it
Awesome! Be sure to let John Heisz know! The table saw I have is this: jayscustomcreations.com/2014/10/thoughts-on-my-grizzly-g0690-table-saw/
Man ... You are fast. Lol. Nice project. Having a drill press now will make this project easier. First... Maybe a drill press table.
In some places in the video I didn't know what you were doing. Gonna check out the plans.
Easy to follow, but so fast you'll have to stop stream a lot to look at details. Very clear. Very useful.
The best of the best Jae, your videos are great and ultra training. "Saludos" from Lima, Perú!!!!
I've been too Peru! Best trip ever! Greetings from Poland!
Awesome build Jay. Great plans John.
Thanks and yeah the plans are great!
that is a simple but ingenious idea. great work.
Great plans by John!
That's cool. Looks like it works really well.
Easy as pie!
Man you can work fast! lol I like the shop sounds better than music!
Great video, Jay! I loved hearing the sound of the tools on wood...and your t-shirt!
Thanks!
Clear video on the build. Good job!
Brett
Nice plan. Great project Thanks a lot
nice build. it needs a quick and tool less mounting of the router and a way to zero and find adjusting markings. the way it is designed it is very simple engrave them to the diagonal slant plate, with that facing and accessible to the user. A small lever for hand fine tuning can be mounted on the rod for that purpose.
Great job! Always thought this design was very clever.
It's a really straight forward build. Great plans.
I made a variant of this in metal. The vertical platform that is constrained to slide vertically I changed into a horizontal platform sliding on linear bearings on vertical rods.
Jay Bates A drill bit as a quicker than quick spacer on the cross-cut sled for the dado width?! Genius! Already subbed and thumbs up. Wish there were more kudos.
brilliant Jay! I enjoy your woodworking videos a lot but this one is very ingenious. Looking forward to discovering more of them.
Nice job Jay on the project, and the video. Being from Michigan, I also like the Red Wings hat.
Another great video, Jay. Love the work shop. Seems like you've gotten lots of new tools since I first saw you on Lumber Jocks.
Freak, LOL. You make everything look easy. The whole woodworking community with you, John, Izzy, Steve Ramsey, that Drunk Guy to name a few is awesome but such a time waster for me. Keep it up mate.
Nice job Jay.
Thanks Marc
Well Jay it seems like a neat idea but doesn't look very strong or accurate. Pin nails? It also looks like it has a great deal of slop. I watched the video but didn't see it in use. Do you have a video of it in use?
Nice video of the build Jay :-) Being your third build of John's lift, can you comment on the lifts capabilities and any weaknesses? Any tips on building it - anything you would do different or have done differently over the last few builds? Thanks in advance!
Jay Bates, excellent build of John's router lift. I still can't decide between John's and Mathias' lifts. What type of 3/4" plywood is that? One face looks significantly whiter than the other.
John's plans call for 1/2" ply. The only decent ply I could find locally is primed on one side. The entire lift can be made from 2' x 2' of 1/2" ply and a few 3/4" scraps.
it works well. Great job!
IDK man seems like a lotta Work! All that in 8 minutes? JK. Outstanding Engineering Sir. subscribed.
very cool ,I gotta make myself one !
Nice job it works well.
Thanks! It's a great design.
101% happy and satisfied of what i watched. ALL perfect even the speed of the video. congratulations. thnks 4 sharing
Only Chuck Norris could have finished that faster :) Great build. Heading over to John's website to check out the plans.
Only Chuck!
Jay Bates
William:in the box below there is a link to john heizs website where you can buy the plans.
Jay:great build:-)
Parabéns, por mostrar todos os detalhes da montagem do projeto.
Excellent build Jay.
This has been added to my build list.
Regards.
Bob
Parabéns! Congratulations! Very good work and thank you for sharing.
Muito obrigado.
Noticed you're still using the new Grizzly. Did they fix the alignment problem you had?
Different Grizzly. The G0715p with trunnion issues was returned. This is a G0690 that I am very happy with.
good job, buddy
Just built this myself and was going to do a build video as my first one, but you beat me to it :) Great video! I don't have access to Baltic Birch ply here so I used the cheap stuff... That, coupled with the constant high humidity, makes me wonder how long it will stay true and sliding smoothly... During testing I realized it works great without the supports sitting on the table sideways too...
With as well thought out as the plans were, I might go ahead and buy his advanced box joint jig plans too.
Out of curiosity, what are you doing for mounting to make sure the bit rises exactly perpendicular to the table? I did a pretty good job lining up my glue ups, but I'm sure its not perfect. Also, any thought on adding a digital readout? Should be easy with a 6 inch kit from eBay...
That's incredible.
Hi Jay. Very nice build! Super like. @ 4:28, did you use a normal nut or a nylon locking nut to secure the thread in place?
I feel like I just been rode hard and put up wet .....again. lol. another great video, dude.
One question though. did you glue melamine together with exterior wood glue? ....any details you wanna add about that bro?
+Washboard Jackson I didn't use melamine. This was primed one side plywood.
Good video and useful jig, thanks.
Hi I like your router lifts do you have a preference and why.
wow. It seems you´re in a hurry. The fastest ever lift built !!!
Hey John, he is wiining you by 5 sec!!!!!!!!
Great Work Jay !.. Thanks for sharing :)
Where do you get your vitamins? :)
Nice build! I like how you used the wooden clamp as a base for drilling!
I get my vitamins from my caffeine tree out back!Yeah, I was tired of moving the table up and down to use my tiny counter sink bit.
you were sawing 2 holes in both small shelfs( 1 hole is for the metal tread...),, but what's the use of the second?
great vid. so whats your secret, your table saw seems to kick out hardly any, if any dust? thanks
See his video about "Does Your Dust Collection Suck". He maximized the collection in his table saw.
Here's an article on it: jayscustomcreations.com/2014/03/tackling-table-saw-dust-collection/
Nice work!
I have obviously been remiss in my keeping up with your video's.
I know you sold the old table saw & bought one you were not happy with.
What table saw are you using now?
Grizzly G0690
Fantastic build as usual, but it does make me gringe seeing a precision measuring tool being used to score marks in wood. Unless of course you have two and keep them separate....
You've got some skills Jay!What gauge is your nail gun?
I used a 23 gauge pin nailer for this. Just 5/8" pins to hold things steady.
Jay or anyone , can you comment on the best types of plywood to use and not use for making projects such as the lift? Is is shop grade or cabinet grade etc.? I would be interested in hearing from anyone's experience in the various types available at most big box stores.
The more ply's the more stable the piece will be in the long run. I have gotten to the point where I have no problem spending a few extra bucks to get a nicer sheet of ply. Sooooo much less of a headache in the long run. But in the end, get what your budget can allow.
Hola como se llaman las tuercas que pones en la madera esas que se enbuten
Nice job!
Great video, Where are you planning on mounting the lift?
Making a compact wall mounted table soon
Off topic question, what tablesaw do you have.
I was thinking about a portable table saw. But i hear everybody saying i really need a cast iron one. And the portable ones are almost all alu. The big cabinet saws are not really for sale in my country sow i have to import. Also i would really like to make a sled for it. And the portables are a bit to small for that, or no?
I have to disagree with the statement that you "have to have a cast iron top". I got a portable Craftsman 21829 on sale and it uses an cast aluminum top and wings. Is it superior to cast iron? No. Does it do the job? Hell yes and and I'm incredibly happy with it. I've built extension wings and inserts to suit my needs. I'm sure that one day I'll upgrade to a more powerful saw, but this portable saw of mine does everything I want it to do.
There is no rule anywhere saying that you have to start off with the best tools. You can even start with a used bench top table saw and build a cabinet around it with bigger wings as your first project. There's a video around where some guy did just that with his cheap Ryobi. In my opinion, an accurate fence and a good blade is far more important than cast iron at this point. Start with something affordable and upgrade as necessary.
Ok, thanks for clearing that up. Everywhere i go on forums they say cast iron is the best. And prob is, but like u say. If a alu top can do the same thing for alot less money, i'll go with that for my first saw. I was looking at the Dewalt DW745RS with the rolling stand. Not the cheapest, but i prefer Dewalt over Bosche or any off the Chinese multi brand ones.
What is that slide call that you're using on your table saw to cut those pieces of wood I'd like to make one are there any plans thanks
Did you use 1/2 or 3/4 wood
GOOD STUFF THANKS JAY
Thank you Alan. I appreciate it.
Thanks Jay. I have to say though, the speedy video kept making me think about you loosing a finger at any moment :)
I'm dangerous like that...
Jay Bates We all know you guys use stuntmen for all those dangerouse machine works!
Hi Jay, good job and nice idea. I looked on your page but plans for this project are not able to find. Can you tell me when you put them? Thank you
Salvo Vitale they are not on his site. These plans are done by John Heinz I build it ca. The link is in the description
thanks jay..grate job..
It will far more easy install and linear actuator instead... usisng a linear movement with diaganaol directim to create a vertical movemente clever idea
Awesome bro I am big big fan 4 u really good
Very nice good job
Wait...I missed something...what happened to your Ridgid table saw???
Hola. buenisimo lo que haces. por favor me podrias enviar el plano con la medidas. Gracias
Muy bueno ..saludo desde Puerto Rico
I applaud your efforts but a Jessem router lift is $214 on amazon. Ive been around the block on this till finally realizing this is stupid, just buy the damn router lift. It’s better in every way.
All four of your comments on my channel are negative in nature. Is everything OK? You're trashing a router lift build and saying just buy one instead. Yet you left a comment on another video of mine about a DIY fence on your bandsaw. Therefore, your bandsaw fence is stupid, and you should just buy one, correct? Is that how it works?
Very , very good , thanks .
It would have been helpful to know what was being built at the beginning of the video. I found it hard to follow why the parts were being made.
Lol that was some fast work:)
Awesome....What kind of coffee do you drink? I need some of it!
How far we’ve come eh bud?!
Hi Jay, great job, what´s brand is your table saw?, thanks.
whew!!!! after all that, it's miller time :) by the way, what did the wife say when you chopped off a chunk of the bed post :),
great video by the way, thanks
Gordon Steeves hahaha! crack a cold one for me Gordon. My fridge is empty. I actually found the headboard against a dumpster. Made several projects from it :)
Excelente trabajo!!!! muy bueno..
Fantastic!
O Sr. está de parabéns
nice job making the lift into a power lift
Esta muy ingenioso el invento
este si que es un buen elevador. gracias
mais um brasileiro inscrito Valeww Brother
Does anybody know the name of the table saw he is using?
Nice, but why do you need that much travel on a router?
What is the white finish on the plywood and do you buy it like that?
Thx
***** That was a white primer. It came like that. It was the only sheet in the thickness I needed that I could find that day.
like will there be prints and will you show putting in a router table
There are plans available. Click the link int he description. Yes, I will put it in a router table later
Thank you very helpful