Bosch RA1181 Benchtop Router Table

BOSCH RA1181 Benchtop Router Table 27 in. x 18 in. Aluminum TopI put it together. Haven't yet put it to use. I'll only speak to what I can tell from the assembly.Great instructions! Bosch has gone to great lengths to take all guess work out of the assembly process, something other manufacturers should take a lesson from.The paper booklet is much better than online manuals, although I used both at different times.For those of use who think manuals are an unnecessary imposition on our God-like intelligence; I suggest you read the manual at least a little in advance of the parts you're assembling. It might save you some assembly-disassembly-reassembly. Don't ask me how I know. You know how I know.Ever wondered which bolt is the #10-16 x 1/2" and which is the #10-24 x 1/2"? The paper booklet has a true-to-size print of each and every bolt, washer, nut, etc. that solves the mysteries of identifying an incredibly large number of parts that come with the router table. How many parts is a large number? There are 161 parts, a few of which are for other models of Bosch router tables. A key identifies each part with a number that matches the true-to-size part's representation in the booklet.BTW: I didn't notice any Chinesium fasteners whose Philips head screws round out with the slightest bit of aggressive twisting of the old driver bit. All the fasteners are of a quality you might find in something like automotive manufacturing.All the main component parts are solid and well-made. Plastic is not all made the same. Time will tell how the plastic components hold up, but I expect they'll do just fine.I was very surprised at how sturdy the aluminum fence was. The same for the aluminum router plate and table top. I did not expect them to be so heavy. When I was removing the table top from the carton I wondered, due to its weight, if it was steel rather than aluminum.Leveling the router plate: I've seen reviews that made comments about the difficulty of leveling the router plate and aligning it to the same plane as the table top. I found no problem with this at all and verified the results with a TSO MTR-X triangle. I didn't go so far as to get out a set of feeler gauges to look for thousandths of an inch differences, but I don't expect to be routing components for use on Space-X. It's woodworking, not rocket science!Price: I got a terrific Black Friday price of $172.81, or so I thought. It's still (12/20/24) listed at about the same price on Amazon.I am not a connoisseur of router tables. I did the usual due diligence one might expect a penny pincher to do when making a purchase that offers the best of everything at the lowest price available and I think it went a lot better than expected. I wasn't looking for a table that cost $400 or more. I wasn't looking for the largest table or one that attaches to a Festool MFT. I wanted a table I could use in the basement or out on the driveway and pick up and carry to a job site without too much muscle strain that was suited for making moldings, dados and so forth.I was first looking for a table with a two part fence so it could be used for jointing. I admit to being disappointed that the best table I found did not have that feature. It took a while to find a Youtube video that spoke to this problem. But Bosch solved it by including two 1/16" "Jointing Shims" that slide behind the out feed fence to allow edge jointing in increments of 1/16" to 1/8". It's not an infinity of adjustments but then no fiddling is required to set up the table for jointing. Just slide a shim behind the fence and you're ready to go. So, that may actually be an advantage over two separately moveable fences that require careful alignment to get the right cut on an edge joint.I rarely give five stars but I think they are well deserved in the case of the Bosch RA1181 and the great Amazon price.For $175, how can you go wrong?

This table is great for beginners. I was able to make my own door without any issues. Makes me want to come up with other projects just to use it.

I bought this table to run a bunch of moulding for several rooms in our house. I have run a couple hundred feet of stock through it now and have to say that it is a good little table for the price, with a couple of caveats.Assembly was a bit complex, but not to bad. The parts list was rather hopeless for identifying the various bolts but everything was specialized enough that it was pretty obvious what was supposed to fasten "where" when everything was all laid out and compared to the diagrams. (If the parts list had either had actual "real size" illustrations for the hardware, or had sorted the hardware into various plastic baggies with codes on them, it would have been much easier.) I like pictures better than words and the pictures were lavish and detailed. The step-by-step instructions were pretty straightforward as well, once I was able to identify which bolt was which.The lock nuts that were supposed to keep the bolts to the legs and the main table all failed. All the nuts jiggled out from router vibration and a couple got lost before I noticed the problem. In its favor, it has a total of 8 bolts to mount the table platform to the legs and remained stable during use with 4 of those bolts completely loose! But, it was a simple matter to replace the missing nuts and lock washers (common sizes) and add a little teflon tape wrapped around the all bolt shanks to secure them in place. The original hardware (that wasn't lost) now is holding fine with the addition of the teflon tape under the nuts.The mounting plate for the router is a nice solid plate with a total of 6 different mounting configurations for various routers. It will mount just about anything on the market, apparently. A big plus is that it also includes all the various sets of hardware required for each mounting configuration. (It's quite a hefty packet!) If your router is on the list, it's not only compatible, the necessary mounting hardware is included.Here is the list of compatible routers from the owner's manual - it would have been nice to have this when I was shopping:Bosch Models 1613 series, 1617 series (fixed base only), 1619EVS;Craftsman listed as "most Craftsman 1/2" collet routers";DeWalt DW616, DW618 (Fixed base only);Hitachi M12VC;Makita RF1100, RF1101;Milwaukee 5615, 5616;Porter Cable 690 Series, 7529 plunge router and 892-895 series (fixed base only);Ryobi R161, R162, RE170, RE180 PL;Skil 1810, 1815, 1820, 1825.I used this table with my Craftsman and tried to use it with the Makita RF1101. The problem there lay with the Makita design, however, not this table. The router mounted beautifully to the table and bit replacement and cutting depth was a dream from the top, but the motor base would not stay locked in place in an undermount setup due to Makita's deficient lock lever design. (If you're curious about the particulars, please see my review of the Makita RF1101). This was a crying shame IMO, since the Makita is supposed to be a real workhorse, unlike my burned out Craftsman. I will be trying this table with the Milwaukee 5616 next, as soon as it arrives...This table has some nice features:* The off switch is very sensitive and the lightest touch will shut everything off instantly. Nice safety "panic" feature.*The on switch is under a flap which must be lifted to power the system on. If you accidentally bump this area, it defaults to the "off" switch, so no accidental "power-ons".* There is a "lockout" feature on the power switch with a removable key. I have children and it is a simple way to ensure there are no accidental power-ons without having to unplug the power cord every time I'm in and out fitting pieces into place on projects inside the house. The only drawback is that this is all plastic and will likely wear out with constant use. Also, it only comes with one key and there is no way to use the table power switch without it, so don't lose, break or misplace it!* The table has a two outlet power strip attached to the main switch so you can plug in a second tool (like a dust collector) to switch on and off with the router simultaneously with the push of the main "On" switch. Very nice.* The table top itself is a nice heavy metal and adds a nice weight to the piece, for stability against vibration. The legs are predrilled for bolt mount to a bench and also have indentations for a secure clamp mount option.* There are three removable collet plates with various interior diameters. With these out, bit changes with my Craftsman were a snap from the top! There is plenty of room to get a chuck wrench in there to loosen the collet AND my finger to hold the lock pin in place! The back of the table is wide open, however, so reaching around with a second wrench below shouldn't be too much of a problem, assuming the mount configuration allows convenient access to your particular router's chuck opening. (This would be the same for depth adjustment as well, depending on how your router handles that.)*Since it just rests in a slot on the table top, the mounting plate lifts off fairly easily for removal of the router and access to under-the-table if you need it without actually having to crawl under the table, or completely remove the router.*not shown in the picture, the featherboards also mount to the horizontal table to give you both top and sideways pressure for greater control of your stock. I only wish this thing came with two more featherboards as a standard! The funky washers for the featherborads fall out every time I remove one from the fence, however, so not a very good design there, but once mounted, they apply consistent pressure to the stock as it feeds.*the back side of the fence has a mount for a circular hose for a dust collector, although it is too large to accept the end on my shop vac. I will need to find some sort of adapter for that.Some of the drawbacks:*As mentioned above, the locknuts failed to keep the leg bolts secure until extra measures were taken.*The method to level the mounting plate on the table seemed a bit wonky. There are a series of bolts set in hex nuts. Turn the bolts until they are at the proper height to level the plate, which rests on the flat bolt heads. Good so far, except that the bolts and nuts rest loosely in special slots in the table. This is fine, if your table is permanently mounted in place, but the moment you pick it up to carry it somewhere, or turn it over (to check the loose bolts on the legs, maybe) they all fall out! The fix for this is to have the mounting plate in place with the fence screwed down tight and then they are secure. I guess Bosch didn't figure you'd ever pick the table up or turn it over for any reason without the mounting plate on it (as was the case when I had to fix the leg bolt issue)*the mounting plate is made of a brittle alloy metal and it somehow had about a 1/4" triangle piece somehow chip out of it during assembly. It doesn't affect the function any (thank goodness), but it's clearly not a high quality material.*the side pockets for the accessories and cord wrap only slide in with gravity to hold them in place. Moving or tilting the table risks these falling off (and spilling the contents while I have my hands full of view-obstructing table *sigh*). I would prefer if they had at least one bolt to secure them in place, since I'm always moving this in and out of my shop to setup for my runs. A little super glue or a shot of hot glue ought to fix that I guess, since it's a plastic-to-plastic mount already.*I'm not too wild about the fence design. It is really an "eyeball it" kind of grade, with big, fat, bulky hash marks for a gauge. Some sort of feature to keep the fence square & parallel would be nice. I have to fuss with it to get it set just right, and when I tighten the knobs down, the fence still shifts slightly. Not a table for precision demands from the fence! (That works fine for me, since I do the total run for each room at once to ensure all my stock matches, but it would be a deal-breaker for some folks.) And, I may as well ignore the hash marks completely for how useless they are (to be fair, the wide variety of routers it mounts makes the tolerances pretty variable to begin with). I measured and marked my own set directly on the plate and always measure each stock run directly anyways.*Most of the body is lightweight plastic and all the accessories are plastic. I have to be careful so I don't overtighten anything or I risk breaking knobs, specialized washers, etc. I am meticulous and careful with my tools, so I expect I will get many years use out of this table, but it will require a bit of careful handling to see it through with such lightweight materials. I am a "hobbyist" level of use and this table is good for that. I would not use this table if I were a professional shop or did freelance DIY work requiring its daily use.I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 for the lightweight materials and the issues described above. Once I resolved those issues, however, this table is really convenient and easy to use. I have to admit that I love it! The fact that it mounts such a wide array of routers is a real plus, since I am finding that I'm rather going through a number of brands trying to find a router that will do what I need. I have not needed to replace the table as well, thank goodness. The only way it could be better would be all metal accessories and metal parts, which, of course, would drive up the price. So, in conclusion, it is an excellent value for its price.