Gang,
My 18 yr old craftsman router has developed a bad bearing and the unit needs to be replaced. I am looking for suggestions and I would like something that will fit my Craftsman router table. I also want both 1/4 and 1/2" collets.
Thanks,
AL
Craftsman is made by Ryobi today. It may fit your table, but no other brand will unless you drill new holes or buy an adapter. As long as you are upgrading, why not look at a new table? If your is like mine, there are vastly better tables on th e market or can be easily made. Ed
I had been thinking about replacing the table, then I made a new fence and up until today, I was doing ok. I need to do something soon as I need to complete a couple of projects I am working on.
Would it be safe to buy another Craftsman if its really made by Ryobi?
Al
I gave my Craftsman away. I have a DeWalt 621 plunge and a Bosch 1617 EVS mounted in the table. Big difference IMO. If you are doing simple roundovers, the Craftsman is OK, but for more precise work, you will find other brands better. Ed
I am a Ryobi fan, most all the time, but I did have a bad experience with the Ryobi router a couple years ago. It had a blade lock that engaged two flat slots in the shaft, on top of the unit. I don't know if that is the way they are made today, but if it is, watch out.
A bit got tightened too sharp, or it worked in tighter, and when I went to take it out, the locking mechanism slipped and then broke. All it was was a thin piece of mild steel engaging the slot, and it bent outward, and then broke. Badly under engineered, IMHO. I would not buy one if it had a shaft lock on top again.
The adaptor that Sears sells is pretty inexpensive. If it were me and I did not want to chage the table, I would get a decent router and buy the Craftsman adaptor. Then if or when you do change tables, it really isn't much of a loss.
Dave Hall
I'll bet I had that one, too. I think the bearings and or brushes went. I used it VERY hard.
Crap Ed. The older Craftsman routers were fine. I'm still using one from
1969 and another from 1973. There never was and probably won't be a precision issue with Craftsman or Ryobi. I borrowed a Ryobi 2HP from another sub on a job recently. I was very impressed, so needing a new router, I bought the router from HD for $99US. Never got to use it. None of my jigs or bases came close to fitting it. I couldn't find template guides or any accessories to fit it (not even Sears). Returned it unused to HD for a refund. Still needed a router so I bought a PC 693VS combo set from Amazon.com. $199US, but it had a nice edge guide and a $25US rebate. Like I said before, the Ryobi was an exceptional router for the price and you wouldn't go wrong buying one. It didn't match my need. HankI had the same problem about 8 or ten years ago. The cast aluminum table did not lend itself to drilling new mounting holes and the current crapsman router at the time only had an insert for the 1/4 bits which I was told to avoid. I bought a Bosh 1613EVS and salvaged the fence from the router table and built my own out of some 3/4" factory made melamine particle board. DON'T get the 1/2" stuff. It doesn't work. I supported it on all 4 sides with 2x3" lumber.
I bought one of those fancy inserts to mount the router on. Sorry I can't find the name of it. But it had knock out centers for different size bits. I did this after the "Plexiglas" like stuff I bought at Woodworkers Warehouse warped and cracked. It was worth the money.
"Frank J. Vitale" wrote in news:gc1jb.55956$ snipped-for-privacy@newsread1.news.atl.earthlink.net:
If the one with the knock out centers was Rausso (SP), I have that one too. Isn't too bad except the inserts are VERY hard to take in and out. I wound up shaving almost all of the locking lip off just to be able to get them in and out without resorting to a hammer. After the lips were shaved, I've had no problems with it. The other advantage is that it has holes predrilled for most every kind of router. I used it with my craftsman till it died and also for my current 3HP Makita plunge router.
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