Long ago I bought a DIY green line Bosch router POF 1200 AE which served me well for all the years. Recently, I bought a plunge saw with guide rail for perfect straight cuts and found out, there’s an adapter plate FSN OFA for a router that can be fitted to the guide rail, with which one can achieve those perfect straight lines with the router, as well. I briefly checked the manual for the adapter plate to see if I could fit my POF 1200 AE router to the plate. Unfortunately, the manual listed only professional blue line GOF router models (and some models from Festool, Mafell, DeWalt, and Makita) but I decided to buy it anyways, as I was sure I find a way to fit a POF router to it, as well.
After I unpacked the adapter plate, I thoroughly checked all the pre-drilled holes marked from A to I on the plate only to find out, that none of the holes align with the screws on my router’s base plate. The closest I could fit was one C hole, but it was putting the router slightly off center. That meant I have to either modify the adapter plate or the base plate of the router or manufacture a new base plate for the router. I found a model for a modified base plate on the web to be either 3D printed or CNC milled, but I do not have access to either of those so I ditched that idea. Instead, I decided to go the simpler route and drill new holes through the FSN OFA adapter plate.
I positioned the base plate as in the picture bellow and drilled three 4.5mm holes through the aluminum adapter plate.
After that I countersunk the holes to keep the screws flat with the surface.
Freshly drilled holes.
Countersunk holes.
Detail of the countersunk hole.
Since the bottom hole was located under the blue plastic and brown composite part, I reattached them to the plate and drilled through with 4.5mm drill. Then I used larger 10mm drill bit to widen the holes in the plastic and composite part. Finally, I marked the new holes with green permanent marker as a homage to the green DIY line.
4.5mm pivot hole.
Widening the holes with 10mm bit.
Three new holes ready for fitting.
Marked the new holes for future reference.
My old POF 1200 AE router has five screws, so I can keep the base plate tightened to the router with the two remaining screws, while leaving the three screw holes open for fitting to OFA adapter plate (the holes should fit also the old POF 1400 ACE model).
Two screws holding the base plate, while three holes are ready for fitting to FSN OFA.
POF 1200 ACE fitted to FSN OFA adapter.
POF 1200 ACE fitted to FSN OFA adapter.
However, as I checked the images of the new POF 1200 AE/POF 1400 ACE routers, the current models have only three screws (the ones I used for fitting the router to OFA plate). So you will have to undo all three screws every time you want to fit the router to OFA adapter plate if you have the new model, or drill the two missing holes (I believe the two threaded holes in the aluminum plate of the router are still present – please leave a comment below to confirm if you have the new model).
The next project will be upgrading my POF 1200 AE model with fine adjustment depth knob as featured on POF 1400 ACE model. Will post an update how it goes.
Hey man, this is a lot of inspiration. I think I will go this way as well.
One remark: The new POF 1400 doesn’t have the extra holes in the base plate, meaning that the design of the aluminium cover of the baseplate has changed as well. Once your remove the plastic cover you see that they have got rid of those holes entirely.
Now one question: There are three larger holes that go through the baseplate (the plastic and the aluminium layers). One on the curved side of the baseplate serving simply to keep the latch of the protector screen if you install it in place. And two others very close to the flat edge of the baseplate right next to the groove hosting one of the parallel guide bars. These, apparently, don’t serve any function. At least I can’t find anything about them in the manual or elsewhere.
The question is: Can’t we use these three holes instead to attach FSN OFA? True, the wholes are not threaded, but (1) one can thread them. (2) One can use a not, like a wing nut, on the top side of the baseplate to fasten the screw coming from below, and three of those will have enough grip to prevent the router from wobbling on the adapter despite the wholes not being threaded.
I appreciate your response. I am thinking of placing the order ASAP.
You can still use the existing three holes with screws and drill the holes in OFA plate as I did. I think it will be much simpler as opposed to using the other three unthreaded holes – first, you would need to find out, if you can align the baseplate to OFA plate in a way that will enable you to drill the new holes through OFA plate. Second, if you want to thread the holes, you will need to use much larger screws and drill larger holes/countersinks. And third, if you use wing nut, you will not be able to fit the protector screen back onto the router.
Btw. I don’t own my Bosch 1200 AE, anymore. I needed small one-handed router so I sold 1200 AE and bought Makita RT0700CX2J. It fits OFA plate without need to drill holes and such.
Hello, you say that your Makita RT0700CX2J fits the OFA plate, but I can’t manage to do so. Would you agree to share a picture, please ?
Thank you, best regards
Hello Arnaud, I use the bigger two-hand base and remove two screws from the base as shown in the picture. On the OFA I use holes marked as D. The router bit is shifted a bit off center the OFA plate, but that is not a problem at all.
Thank you very much !