Harbor Freight Router Table - 91130

[fred.collins]

I recently purchased this router table:

was $179 - a 20% discount coupon I had. The on-line price was lower than the in-store price, but my store matched the on-line price. The total cost including tax was about $150 which included the router. The store I purchased it from was in Westminster, Colorado. The table itself is not bad for the price. What the picture does not show is that some of the parts, namely the side pieces on the upper base are blue plastic. It's not a huge issue because there's metal underneath. The cut-off switch is very nice. The table itself reminds me of the Bosch or Ryobi ones I've seen. It's light-weight, but not too bad. The fence is actually quite nice - extruded aluminum stock. The router seems under powered at only 1HP. I'm going to be doing some fingerjoints with a 1/2" shank bit and I'm a bit worried. I have a 3HP router that I was thinking about retro fitting to the table. It seems compatible. That was also a Harbor Freight special at $49. I only use my woodworking tools on a periodic basis for repair of wood trim pieces for jukeboxes and pinball games. If your local store will honor the on-line price and give you the 20% off with the coupon, then this seems like a good deal. The main short coming appears to be the router itself. The table insert is stamped steel. Not as nice as the upscale inserts, but not really that bad either.

[LRod]

I believe this summarizes every report of a Harbor Freight purchase I've ever seen. I just don't get it.

[Vic Baron]

Being one who occasionally buys from HF I think it's more an info piece about HF to respond to the "HF is all junk" posts. I've found their quality control sucks big time BUT if you can pick through stuff, you can find very good quality for a low price. Point example - 15.99 3/8 18v cordless drill with keyless chuck. The BATTERIES for my other cordless tools cost me more than that. I bought 4 of them a while back - work perfectly.

Vic

[cm]

Their nail guns are a fantastic value.

cm

[Jim Stuyck]

I was thinking of citing pretty much the same "not too bad" remarks that LRod did. But I didn't. Rather, since there are some Harbor Freight retail stores in my general area, I decided (long ago) to actually handle the merchandise they sell rather than, or before, ordering online.

Some vendors are like that: Pig in a poke. There's a new Northern Tools a couple miles away: I'd touch in the store before ordering online. Some stuff is crap, some gives good value.

Others, like maybe Rockler, I'd buy from their catalog or online store even though I could drive to a retail outlet. Or LL Bean...I trust them, too.

Jim Stuyck

[P1nZ]

Some things I've got from HF have been absolute crap. For $150, I was looking at a really cheap table top router table. The HF table was better and included a workable router.

Rockler does make a table that's under $200. Perhaps that would have been a better deal if I had a router that was compatible with that table. With the Porter Cable router it's closer to $400 including shipping.

I would agree that you need to handle any HF product. Do not buy sight unseen.

Jim Stuyck wrote:

[Scott McAuley]

I was looking at that router table last time I was in their store. Actually looked pretty decent and includes the router. I have one of their $15.00 4 inch angle grinders and it works flawlessly. The $11.00 pnuematic cut-off tool is also a great buy.

Scott.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

I had one cheap router and router table in my life. I'll never have another. I gave it away as IMO, it was not good enough to take anyone's money for it.

After you use it for a while, reread your description, go visit a buddy with a real table and 2hp router and see what you are missing.

[CW]

For less than $200.00, you could have made a router table that is like ones that you will see in professional shops all across the country. Take a piece of mdf or plywood the size you want the top and screw a couple of battens along what will be the bottom to prevent sag. Drill a hole big enough for a router bit to stick through and drill router mounting holes concentric to the center hole. Screw router to it, set across two sawhorses. A strait board and two C clamps make up the fence. This table, and the PC 690 to mount in it, will cost well under $200.00 and do anything you could want short of raised panels.