Problem with router adjustment

[ss]

I am not used to working with routers so maybe its me thats not doing something properly. This is a cheap B&Q router. When I put a bit in the router and depress the router the bit barely protrudes below the base plate, in fact when I used it a few days ago I had to `not fully insert` the bit so it would protrude further to allow me to do the job in hand. I have checked all the depth stops etc and nothing I can see should prevent it pushing down further on the slides. When fully depressed on the slides there is still approx an inch of slide to go at the base plate end. This does point to something jammed in the slide mechanism but thought best to ask here before I start to rip it apart. I suppose the question is ...should the router depress for the full length of the slides?

[newshound]

Sounds to me like typical cheap router syndrome. If it is new-ish I would take it back. Otherwise you might as well strip it. If you have much to do, throw it away and get a decent one.

[dom]

Yes, the router should depress right to the end of the slides.

Have a look at the rotating turret, sometimes they catch on the body.

[ss]

Its not new (4 years old) was sons he tried using it and passed it to me, I have used a few times since then and seem to recall it went to the end but wasnt sure.

Its not catching on the rotating turret.

[newshound]

At a guess, it could be an alignment problem. You have two pillars with two reasonably close fitting bushes linked together. So if the pillars are not parallel, it might move at one end but not the other. I'd start by taking off the base plate, then generally loosening stuff until it starts to move. But I would not spend much time on it.

[John Rumm]

A good one will plunge far enough that the bottom of the chuck/collet actually passes through the hole in the base plate. Not all of them will do this - but they should at least get close.

The depth of the collet will me more than you need - so yes you can sit a cutter deep in the collet, and this may limit the reach. With a cutter that has say a 40mm shank, you only need say 15mm or so of it in the collet to get a good grip (in a 1/4" machine).

You can't read much into how much travel appears to be on the plunge mechanism, what matters is how far the chuck moves with respect to the base plate.

[ss]

This one was well short. Anyhow I have now taken the router apart, not too difficult and the router drops down about another inch in the disassembled state. I will give it a good internal clean and then look more closely at it but initially it looks like the spring mechanism inside the slide could have been the culprit although I havent worked out how as yet.

[ss]

Update...looks like there isnt much I can do, I seperated the body and the bottom half drops so that the collet hits the deck, this leaves a gap of about 1 inch gap from the upper part of the body. So I then took the top half of the body and only inserted it on one side (one slide) on to the slide and it bottoms out on that slide (you can hear it feel it inside the main body) at that point the gap between the collet part and the main body remains at 1 inch so it aappear that unless I cut the slide it aint going any lower. I will just have to make sure I dont insert the cutter fully when using it.

[GMM]

I had an old 1/4 inch B&Q router that I inherited from my father and it had all sorts of issues including, interestingly, that it ran off centre compared to the base (so couldn't be trusted to follow a guide). Tinkered with it for ages but never really got it right as there isn't any real adjustment.

Evebtually I went and bought a Trend T4 which, though expensive (and getting poor reviews), is a (relative) joy to use.

I think the issue with cheapo power tools is that if you get a good one, they can be absolutely fine but your chances of getting a duffer are quite high.