Bench Dog 40-300 ProMax Router Table Review

The Bench Dog 40-300 ProMax Router Table is Bench Dog’s top of the range complete router table package including all of their top router table components – the ProMax RT Cast Iron Router Table Top, the 32-inch ProFence32 and the ProCabinet Baltic Birch Base.

There are many benefits to a floor standing router table, and if you’ve got the space in your workshop, and you’re looking for an enclosed, cabinet-style, floor standing router table, the Bench Dog 40-300 ProMax is one of the best router tables on the market for size, stability, and durability.

The Bench Dog 40-102 ProMax claims to have the largest, flattest, most durable router table top on the market! Made from one solid piece of 1-1/2″ thick cast-iron this router table top measures 32″ x 24″  and weighs nearly 100 pounds, so it’s certainly got plenty of table top real estate and the cast iron means that as well as being very heavy and therefore stable, it absorbs vibration much better than other materials.

The surface of the table is machine-ground to within .008-Inch which makes it about as flat as you can get, ans with cast iron you know that if it starts out flat, it stays flat.

The downside is of course that you’re not going to be carrying it around with you anywhere, but if you’re looking for portability this isn’t the router table for you.

Or, to be more accurate, lack of one! This is the biggest downside of this router table – at a cost of $850 you shouldn’t have to buy a mounting plate in order to use the table.

The Bench Dog 40-300 ProMax has a plate opening measuring 8-1/4″ by 11-3/4″ to take the Bench Dog ProPlate. There are 4 different ProPlates to choose from (which is probably why they don’t supply a ProPlate with the table), pre-drilled to mount your specific router, and it fits over 20 of the most popular router models.  There is an integral 12-point plate-leveling system which levels the plate flush with the table surface as well as locking it in place.

With a top-of-the-range router table like the 40-300 ProMax, a lot of people will upgrade immediately to a router lift and not bother with one of the ProPlates to mount your router.

If so, you need to make sure you get the right one because router lift mounting plates come in two standard sizes – 8-1/4-Inch by 11-3/4-Inch and 9-1/4-Inch by 11-3/4-Inch and the cut-out in the 40-102’s table top is the smaller size, 8-1/4-Inch by 11-3/4-Inch.

Obviously Bench Dog’s own model, the Bench Dog Tools 40-150 ProLift Router Adjustment System is designed for their tables, but most other manufacturers such as JessEm, Kreg, Incra and Woodpeckers use the larger 9-1/4-Inch by 11-3/4-Inch size on their tables and the default router lifts on sale from these manufacturers are the larger size.

Apart from Kreg they all produce a version to fit Bench Dog/Rockler tables, but you have to make sure you get the right one. We’ve put together a table showing the various lifts from the major manufacturers that fit the 40-300 and those that don’t.

Finally, if you’ve already got a router lift and you’re thinking about buying a Bench Dog router table, check the dimensions of the router lift first.