Modifying the mounting plate of a router table

I've been putting off finishing the cabinets that I've been promising my wife for what may or may not be about 2 years. Getting close now but I need to put together some raised panel doors and that requires using a gigantic router bit. The thing terrifies me when it's spinning. I'd built a homemade router table that basically consists of the router base screwed to a board and then dropped into the cutout of a bench. It technically works but things aren't quite even and nothing is a good fit so it moves around. Even with a fence that I put some work into I was getting bad results and decided to bite the bullet and buy a commercial table. 

I'd used the Bosch before and I liked it so it was the obvious choice. I rushed into it though(hey, it was on sale!) and when the description specifically called out the Dewalt routers it was compatible with I just assumed my DW610 would fit. They can't be that different right? Wrong. After I got it all assembled as the last step I go to attach it and no matter what angle I turned the plate there was nothing that lined up. There is supposedly a plate that Bosch sells to fit other routers but I've seen debate about it ever existing and in any case you can't get it now. The best there is is a flimsy plastic one. Fortunately I noticed that the plate had three un-drilled areas that looked to line up with the pattern on my routers base. "Hey, I've for a drill press, lets do this". 

With minimal planning I was able to get wonderful results so I would recommend anyone in a similar position consider this approach to either returning a good table or shelling out more money for an inferior solution or at worst a custom job from someone else. Check out the video but I've outlined the basic steps below. There are better and more precise methods but these worked for me.

1. Remove the base plate from your router to use as a template
2. Eyeball the intesection of base plate's holes locations to the mounting plate's un-drilled areas
3. Tape them together like that and turn them over
4. Use a center punch to mark the holes and give your drill-bit a good place to start
5. Find a bit that fits the mounting holes you are replicating and put it in the drill press
6. Make sure your bit is centered and drill out the holes
7. Text mount the plate before going further in case you screwed it up
8. Flip it over and find a bit that matches the countersink hole
9. Line it up the best you can and drill just enough so the machine screw head will sit below the surface
10. Try the included screws and if they fit, you're done.

The one Issue I had was that the mounting holes in my base don't go all the way through so the included screws bottomed out before they were tightened. A quick trip to Lowes on the way home from work solved that problem and now I have a perfectly mounted router and a good base.

Blogging identity crisis

I created this blog to be able to have a little more freedom with my reviews then the quick blurbs on Amazon. The thing is, it's only useful if people read them. I set about looking for tips about growing an audience online and it seems like everything revolves around networking. See tip #4 at sociallysorted. Where does one network and build relationships? I'm not about to go plastering links all over everyone's comment sections in hope of grabbing traffic. No one would like that. Goinswriter mentions guest posting. I'd be happy to share my opinion on someone else's blog, but who's? A few places mention to discover your identity. Hey! I'm great at summarizing! Its... a... blog about.. getting out my opinion on stuff I like! Yeah, that's it! Lets go look for those blogs on Google.

And here's the wall I've so gracefully face-planted into. I can't for the life of me figure out what to search for and if I can't, who's ever going to see my results come up and/or what to say what I have to say next. There are Dad blogs, Man blogs, and Survival blogs and I'll have a subset of each of those here but marketing a little of everything is hardly an identity. It could always be narrowed down to Home Automation, or Toys but I'd almost argue my identity is that I love dabbling in a little bit of everything.

Tips? Anyone? *crickets* We'll put a pin in that one for now.

For the time being I'm going to go down the road suggested on BlogHer. Make a blog that looks the part of something that people will want to come back to. What do all the big sites have? Ads! Kind of a dirty word I agree, but I'm really not interested in monetizing anything, just getting traffic through so no annoying ads in the future. I'm thinking about going to friends with business' and asking if I can put some small linked pictures up for them. Their sponsorship of the site is just putting up with me. As michellerafter shows, it's all about the links(see what I did there? Links!)

Starting out

I'm addicted. Whether or not it's a good addiction is up for debate. I recently wrote a review on Amazon to let others know how impressed I was with a product and a few days later saw that I had received some helpful votes. Little ol' me, helpin someone out. I thought, well, I've got some free time, how bout I review a few other things I recently purchased. Sure enough, some more helpful votes. The thought that just by talking about something I'm enthusiastic about was making someone's decision easier felt awesome. At that point I just couldn't help myself. I went back through my purchase history and looked for everything I had an opinion about and went to town. My reviewer ranking was sitting around a 1.5 million and the next day down to an even million. As I write I'm sitting around 83k. Woot! A hard number to measure success is always great.

Now, some people at this point might be tempted to look at how they can write whatever will get the most attention and make people happy. I suppose if all you care about is a number than yes, but I've found that if I just step back and look at a product objectively, I'm able to compare my thoughts pre-purchase with my thoughts post-purchase and I end up with exactly what a prospective buyer is looking for. Write that down and see if it helps. And that's why I'm here. I saw that companies are always looking for someone to get the word out on their product. As someone who likes getting the word out: match made in heaven. Of course lets be honest; who doesn't like new stuff to play with all the time. I really am a big kid who hasn't grown up yet. You'll see from my interests I just like to try new things and see what I can do with something.

So my interests in short: Electronics fiddling/hacking/DIY, Photography, woodworking, model aircraft, shooting(handguns and rifles), programming, PC gaming, console gaming, leather-working, home automation, military fiction/science fiction/fantasy books, automatic watches, trying to record every aspect of my life, and helping my wife take care of the cutest little girl in the world.