Thread: Kreg Insert Warped

That's not good news on the plate. It's certainly showing quite a bit of warp. I made my own out of 10mm Perspex and it was very close to being flat but I had to strategically insert some small plastic shims between the insert and the Router base to get it perfectly flat. I always wondered how stable those Phenolic inserts were compared to the aluminium ones.
I am of the same mind when purchasing items nowadays. If I'm not getting a significant amount off I would rather go to the bricks and mortar store where I know I can go back to if there is a problem.
Good to see you putting some of your old toolmaking gear to good use.

I owned briefly an incra aluminium insert. I never installed it as I use the router wing on my cast iron table saw, but while I had it it was clear it was flat. The problem as I saw it with the incra unit is they cast their name into it, so a whole area had depressions in the shape of the name. It was a potential problem. I don't know if they still make them that way.

Something to look out for.

What was happening with the Acetal insert was it would pull out out of flat when the retaining screws were tightened. I was using a similar method to the Kreg levellers with two set screws, one either side of the corner holes (there is a picture at the bottom of this thread). So when I tightened the corner retaining screws the plate pivoted on the height adjusting set screws and lifted in the middle. My mind set when I first started this project was that I wanted to make as much of it from scratch as I could. I think I paid about NZ$40 for the 10mm Acetal and $30 for the 6mm I made the reducing rings. By the time GST and postage was added to the Kreg insert from Carbatec NZ it was about NZ$190 so there was also a cost saving. Or there would have been if it worked out. I'd already paid US$28 for a full set of reducing rings for the Kreg insert

I'd asked Kreg if they would refund the cost of the warped insert, but was not holding out much hope seeing as I'd purchased it from Amazon. That's exactly what they said, but offered me Kreg products to the value of US$75 which I am actually OK with. I expect I'll ask for a set of their Router Table Setup Bars — even if they do only come in olde worlde Imperial sizes. Carbatec are really good with tracking info which is telling me I should get the new insert plate today, and I can't think of any reason I can't fit the new top to the cabinet and finish the project.

My problem now is that the plywood and MDF fence I made looks just plain nasty on the new acacia top so I am going to have to do something about that. I think that will be a case of painting the existing fence black till I get round to making a new one.