Customer Reviews

Bench Dog 40-028 PWR400 Power-Loc Auxiliary Router Table Lighted Power Switch

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Like all Bench Dog products the quality and ergonomics of this switch are top notch. And like all Bench Dog router table accessories the price of this switch is a little steep. (Hence the 4 stars)
Installation was a snap and I love the option of either mounting it high on the router fence or low under the miter slot.
Use of the switch is straight forward and I like the safety button you have to depress in order to turn it on.
Sure beats squatting down to turn on the router!

The switch is good quality but that is to be expected for the price. The electrical cord could be a couple/three feet longer. The mounting scheme seems to be an engineering afterthought. I expected better -- seeing as it's a BenchDog switch for a BenchDog router table -- and would not make this purchase again. After purchasing this switch, I found another for $13 that I'm sure would have served just fine...a far cry from this 40-something dollar mistake.

It's a good switch, but didn't install as I had anticipated.
I had intended to mount it on the bottom miter track slot, as per instructions. According to the specs for the switch, 'all new Bench Dog router tables come equipped with this slot'. However, the new Bench Dog RT150 ProTop I just purchased did not come equipped with this slot! I did not want to mount it on the fence. It was pretty easy to come up with a good alternate mounting solution. But, if I had known this, I would have purchased a less expensive saftey switch locally.
I guess the 'new' RT150 they sent me wasn't their newest.

The "turn on" part of this design is well though out. You have to make a deliberate double action to turn on the tool.

Unfortunately, the "turn off" part is not nearly as good. A switch like this should immediately turn off with a single slap. Instead, you have to work the slide lock before you can turn the tool off. It's almost as hard as turning it on, and in an emergency (e.g. you get clothing or a finger caught in the router), it's worse than useless.

I ordered this switch for my new router table. While waiting for it to arrive, I found a Rousseau switch on sale at my local Woodcraft, so I got it. I found the Rousseau easier to mount on my specific router table, so I got the idea of mounting this Bench Dog switch near the right side of my table saw. I plug my dust collector into it, and I can flip the dust machine on, then the saw, do my cut and reverse the process shutting down. Turns things on, turns them off. The bracket is a little confusing to figure out, especially if you read the instructions, so do what all guys do - don't use the instructions and just find a way to make it work. But it will mount into a t-slot for above-router-table mount - a great safety feature.

Little need be said about this except that it does what it is intended to do - it makes it far more convenient to turn an under-table mounted router on and off.

These are designed to be be mounted every way but inside out. However, I inset mine into one of the router table legs, to get it fully out of the way, while leaving it accessible from the working area of the table.

The only real drawback to these is the price, in light of that the job could be done with a standard light switch and 120VAC receptacle. I have mixed emotions about the switch's safety design, which makes it nearly impossible to accidentally move to the ON position. It, not infrequently, requires a couple attempts at master the flowing movement necessary to deactivate the lockout and move the switch to the ON position. Regardless, that is a single handed (or finger) operation which, once you get used to the flowing movement required, is not significant and can be chalked up to as a [very] small price for the added safety.

All of Bench Dog products are built the same - high quality. This is no exception, although expensive, sometimes I don't mind paying a little extra when you get quality. Plus much or all of Bench Dog items are Made in the USA!!

I've been working on what I wanted in a router table for awhile and decided to built my own router table into the right extension of my tablesaw which I built to my specifications.
I wanted to use a switch and a miter slot and when I stumbled upon a BenchDog aluminum extrusion for the outer edge this was the perfect switch for it.
Although I struggled with the price and thought about other options I went with this.
You can bolt it to that piece of aluminum and you can move it slide and turn, depending on what side of the table you're going to work on. That was an added bonus for me.
So far so good. I have a router table that look like it was purchased. But then it was wasn't it, I just put it together and routed a hole where I wanted the plate to go. Could just buy the thing all done and saved some time? Well I did use better supporting material making it match my equipment and there's something about making your own stuff that's more satisfying. So much for saving money building yourself. But if I really was interested in saving money I could have just bolted the router to a piece of plywood and clamped it in a vise.