I bought a pretty nice American Vermont router table at a thrift store a couple of weeks ago.  Paid 20 bucks for it.  It had an old Craftsman Commercial router bolted to it.  The cord was bad, but I bought it anyway . . . I mainly wanted the table.  Well, the router runs great!  Wooo Hoooo . . . but, it's missing two parts.  Went to Sears' on-line parts store and looked it up.  The collet is 8 bucks.  The nut that tightens it up is no longer available.  I've searched online for the part # and the model # of the router.  Scored a pdf of the manual, but the only thing I could find on the nut was several other people looking for the same part.  I'm wondering if I can make one.  Looking at the picture of the collet and where it goes in the router, I think if I take a nut that would thread down onto the shaft, and weld a washer a 1/4" fender washer to the top, it would push the collet down into the beveled hole in the shaft and lock it to the router bit.  If anyone has a better idea, let me know . . . I hate to throw away a good, heavy duty router because of a missing nut.

I need #31 and #32 in the diagram below.  I can't believe that the collet is still avalible but the nut isn't.

Thanks KC!

I am trying to rout a groove in some 2X4s and 2X3s to frame the lattice around the stage.  I can't find my router guide for my Ryobi router, and that router won't fit the table I bought.  The collet and nut from my Ryobi is about half the size of the one the Craftsman.   

I finally decided to just cut the grooves with my Shopsmith.  After an hour of digging, I got to it and pulled out of the garage so I'd have room to work.    The saw blade is too narrow, so it takes two passes.     I'm almost done with the 2X4s to run along the bottom, but my Shopsmith has started running hot and tripping the breaker if I get it under much of a load.     I've got a fairly new 10" table saw but it's at my cabin in Trion locked up my storage building.  I think that's where my edge guide for Ryobi router is at too.    

On a brighter note, I did manage to get my state income tax filed before the deadline.  It's bad when preparing your income tax return is less frustrating than woodworking!   

KC . . . did you ever get a chance to look and see if you had the parts to fix this router?  I don't need it for anything right now, but I just tripped over it . . . again.  I either need to fix it or scrap it before I break my neck on it.