On Wednesday, November 28, 2018 at 5:35:34 PM UTC-8, pyotr filipivich wrote:
Greetings

I have a harbor freight router table, which "mostly works".

However, the problem I'm having is getting 1/4 collets tight to
hold the router bits.

I'm not sure about your model, but my HF router had some grip issues,
and it was the taper into which the collet seats, that was the problem.
Running the router slowly (20VAC instead of 110) with a slip stone to smooth
the bore, followed by a little cleaning, got the thing to grip
much better. You can apply a small quantity of grease on the threads
of the closer, and on the exterior of a collet, too.

Metal polish and some working of the closer nut to polish the threads also made
a difference.