Editorial Product Review:Amazon.com Product Review:A benchtop router offers significant advantages over a handheld machine. It's safer, because you're moving the wood over the bit instead of the other way around. It's also versatile, allowing you to do a number of cuts that aren't possible with a handheld. And because it has a fence, it gives you a degree of control and precision that is simply impossible with freehand routing.
Because you're sliding the wood across the surface of a bench router, it's important that the surface be as frictionless as possible. The RA1181 features a generous 27-inch long by 18-inch wide table that's made out of slick but durable cast aluminum. In addition, he surface near the fence is rough-ground to minimize surface contact, which further reduces friction.
Though the caveat 'some assembly required' applies here, the manual is clearly written, and I found the setup process to be straightforward. Once fully assembled, the RA1181 attaches to just about any workbench via the leg assemblies, which have flat 'feet' that you can clamp to the table. You can also use the pre-drilled holes to screw it to your work surface if you don't need it to be portable. (Note that most benchtop routers need to be mounted on a smaller table-using a standard worktable may leave it uncomfortably high.)
Once secured to the table, the RA1181 is very stable, and can handle high-horsepower routers and larger work pieces without bucking. The cast aluminum mounting plate accepts a variety of routers-and not just those made by Bosch. The fence is good and rigid, and is adjustable from 0 to 3-3/4-inches wide.
This is a great little machine, and its portability and capacity for bigger jobs makes it as good a fit on the job site as it is in the home workshop.
--Josh DettweilerWhat's in the BoxTwo adjustable featherboards, three mounting plate insert rings, one adjustable clear guard, one starter pin and guard, two outfeed fence shims (1/16-inch thick), appropriate router mounting hardware
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Buyer Reviews
Average Buyer Rating:
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Table is not flat
When I laid the straight edge accross the table to level the throat plate I discovered that neither the table, nor the throat plate were flat. If you will be using it for joinery it will not work for you.
Customer Rating: 
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Wonderful Router Table, We love ours!
We examined many router tables prior to making our selection of the Bosch Router table. We have mounted a Milwaukee router to it and it is been a pure pleasure to use since then. We are wood carvers and this has been a wonderful addition to our tool set.
We were lucky enough to get this on sale from Amazon with free shipping. We mostly use this router table for creating profiles on our wood carvings.
Customer Rating: 
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Bosch Router Table
Very nice table. I especially like the featherboards that come with the unit. Router plate is easy to level, but assembly is a bit tedious; took about 3 hours
Customer Rating: 
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Not Bad
This table is pretty good, but not a dream. It takes a few hours to put together and adjust it properly. My table is concave by about 1.5mm at center. Should be flat, but the router plate can be adjusted up and down, which makes it possible to compensate for this problem. Still, this is a new product, and should have been made better. Definitely disappointed with Bosch's quality control here. To be fair, I haven't contacted Bosch yet, but will do at the end of my current project. The precision in the fence adjustment is OK, but not great - fine for a beginner. The plastic legs seem a bit flimsy, but are holding up for now. I can see this table lasting 2-3 years if used moderately (weekend carpenter), but maybe breaking after that. The plate attached to my Hitachi router without any problem. I think the table will serve my purposes (non-pro, moderate use), and I'll likely keep it because I need a router table right now, but if it were easier to dissassemble and send back and I had another table for the current project, I'd probably return it because of the production flaws. If I could do it again, I'd buy a more expensive and better table.