Extending the baseplate of my palm router with a piece of acrylic dramatically improved stability and accuracy.
Calling it a “DIY baseplate” is a stretch — it’s literally drilling 5 holes in a piece of off-the-shelf acrylic.
For how easy it is, the payoff is huge. If you own a palm router, this is a great little upgrade.
Stock Baseplate vs. DIY Baseplate
Comparison between the stock baseplate and the DIY one.
Stock baseplate
The stock baseplate that came with the router.
It’s held to the router body with just 4 screws.
Remove those screws and the baseplate comes off.
DIY baseplate (finished)
The router with the DIY acrylic baseplate installed:
The much wider footprint lets you rout across a bigger area with way more stability.
Here’s how to make it.
Building the DIY Baseplate
I used 5 mm-thick acrylic. Just an off-the-shelf acrylic sheet with a few holes drilled.
About the acrylic
The acrylic I used:
180 mm × 320 mm (~7″ × 12.5″), 5 mm thick
Thinner sheets flex too much, so 5 mm is about right.
It’s an “Acrysunday”-brand sheet from the home improvement store, about 2,000 yen (~$13).
Also available online:
Drilling the acrylic
Time to drill.
First, remove the stock baseplate.
Just 4 screws. Comes off easily. The screws are 4 mm dia.
If I drill matching screw holes in the acrylic, I can mount it to the router.
Lay the stock baseplate on the acrylic and mark the 4 hole positions with a marker.
Drill the marked positions with a power drill.
Screw is 4 mm, so I drilled 5 mm holes for clearance.
The center needs a bigger hole for the router bit to pass through.
I used a hole saw on the drill — 38 mm hole.
(Hole saw bit was about 1,000 yen at the home improvement store.)
Center hole done.
All the holes are drilled, but the 4 screw holes need a counterbore so the screw heads sit flush.
I used an 8 mm bit for the counterbore.
Screw heads flush with the surface — no protrusion to drag on the workpiece.
※ Use flat-head (countersunk) screws.
Done!
Mounted on the router:
The wider footprint makes routing across larger workpieces dramatically more stable, like in this photo:
If you own a palm router, definitely worth trying.
Related Japanese article: DIY router table (English version forthcoming).
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