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I have a Bosch POF 1200 AE router which is nice and I like it. However I do not understand (and could not find on the internet) what are these three additional holes in the base plate.

What are they for? (see red arrows)

The user manual doesn't seem to mention them.

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the holes go up to the other side

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It's so that you can screw other stuff to the base. This might be official attachments (some manufacturers make these for doing things like cutting out certain shapes etc.) or it might be some kind of self-made guide jig for example. It can also allow you to fix the router into a "router table" setup or similar. Basically any time you want to fix something to your baseplate or attach your router to some fixture.

An example of this might be for cutting out large circles or ellipses, like this ellipse jig which fixes to a board and also to the router base:

enter image description here

(This particular one is from here and there are also other kinds of jig on Trend's site.)

There are also "universal" sub bases sold which look like this one: enter image description here

Basically this has holes in just about every combination you could ever need, in order to find the right holes for your router and for a particular attachment. In this way you can often make jigs and attachments which were made for (for example) a Makita router work with a Bosch router and so on.

Sometimes these holes are also to attach things to the top of the base such as a dust collar for a vacuum/extraction attachment but in your case you already have one fitted.

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  • So you would attach another base? What would be the exact purpose for this? You mentioned 'cutting out certain shapes', but that can be done with the stock base too. Would you be referring to something like i.pinimg.com/564x/08/ba/31/08ba31e26610c2f988a265c4a56a1fb8.jpg ? Apr 17, 2018 at 21:44
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    I've updated the answer with an image of an ellipse cutting jig as an example (and a link to the website it is from, which has other kinds of jigs you might attach to a router base).
    – WhatEvil
    Apr 17, 2018 at 21:48
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    @AndreiRînea The image you linked to in your comment is a good example too. If you google for "homemade router base attachment" or similar you'll get a whole load of different jigs people have made for different tasks. You can get really clever with it and the right jig or fixture can save you an awful lot of time.
    – WhatEvil
    Apr 17, 2018 at 22:02
  • I only searched for the image after your answer, I didn't know it beforehand. :) Apr 17, 2018 at 22:23
  • Yep that's cool. You're allowed to ask questions on here even if you already know the answer, and then answer it yourself anyway - it can be a good way to share knowledge.
    – WhatEvil
    Apr 18, 2018 at 12:46

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