I have been in the Hobby now for close to 40 years and I have six routers in the shop... 4 of them are permantely mounted in Router tables... 2 regular tables, one Horizontal table, and one overhead pin router table the last 2 are used for hand use....one is a plunge because that feature is sometimes needed...the other has the standard base and it honestly gets the most free hand use....
You listed features to look for below...
Ok I will agree with you on that
None of mine even have 2 Hp Never had a problem with lack of power
Again None of mine have this and maybe I do not know what I am missing..
Again none of mine have it.
"Presision" is hard to define...BUT I agree
Only if you have a pile of old 1/4 in bits on hand... I do but rarely use them
IF I had only one router I agree...
Lol.. the floor does a great job in my of "collecting" dust in my shop
Bob makes good point here, but let me clarify a tad.
Some day you may end up with multiple routers. What's good in one situation is bad in another. For the most part extra power comes with extra weight. You really don't want a 3HP monster for freehand work, but you do want a 3HP monster mounted in your table to raise (or is that raze?:-)) panels.
Jamming every feature into your first router is not necessarily the way to go. Ultimately multiple purpose routers are the best place to end up.
Variable speed IMHO is a necessity for the 3HP monster but becomes less of an issue with smaller machines.
FWIW freehand routing kind of scares me. I have a monster mounted in a table that does 75% of my routing, 10% with a big laminate trimmer/small router for freehand work.
Get this: The remaining 15% is done with hand planes, table saw and/or sanding (a block plane does a fine job of putting on a small chamfer).
I agree with the last part 100%. However keep in mind, I was responding to another persons questions about routers. The person was looking for a good starting point and most of the features I mention are pretty standard at the mid range level. In most cases, it's less than $50 difference between the cheapy and an entry level router that will serve him well. If he's only going to buy one router, then he's probably better off getting some of those features now and spending the extra few dollars. Rather than realizing down the road that he's made a mistake buying the cheapy and really should have bought a router that is more versatile. Merry Christmas
I was striving for versatility for the person who buy's a single router.
Mine has 1 3/4 HP. Never had a problem myself. But today, 2HP routers are pretty common. I have the soft start on mine, which was suprising for a router I bought on sale for $69 CDN, and I've never owned a router without that feature, but I hear start up torque in some router can be quite surprising. The variable speed feature is nice. I learned that cutting a deep rabbet. I turned down the speed and it did a lot nicer job in the Red Oak I was working with. Frankly, the larger the bit diameter, the lower the speed is a good safety practice, and has been mentioned fairly often in this group.
Most variable speed routers have the electronic compensation built in. If the router bit slows down, the electronics will automatically adjust the power to keep the speed uniform.
The precision depth which I don't have on mine. Mine's a turret depth stop in 1/8" increments. It's a pain if you have to re-setup to replicate a profile which you cut two or three days earlier. PC is selling mid range routers with precision depth control that supposedly is accurate to 1/128th of an inch. Never tried it myself, but it sounds real good compared to the depth stop that I have on mine.
Most routers that will take a 1/2" bit, will also have a provision for the 1/4" bits. Writing both sizes was just for clarity.
As for the plunge base. I've read about people complaining it is a lot harder to control the router etc. The balance is different. Maybe that is true, maybe some people feel more secure with a fixed base. I think a lot depends on how you personally hold the router and what you get used to doing.
As for the dust control. Some have vaccuum attachments that go through the handle. Some have this little "stupid" plastic attachment that mounts to the router base which seems to get in the way, and interfers with the ability to do a full plunge with the router. Like you, I choose to get thoroughly covered in dust and use the shop vac to clean up afterwards. But generally speaking, some form of dust control is a darn good thing.
I bought the Bosch 1617 kit a couple of years ago with the case and the separate plunge base. Great tool for any starter. Essentially two routers in one set. I thought the wooden ball handles were kinda unique and attractive. However, after several hours of use they really seem to enhance the way the non-plunge configuration handles. Good all around tool and enought power for respectable router table performance.
Everybody's saying 'get 1/2" shank bits'. Remember, the guy's a newbie, he can't be expected to have any perspective and the way the issue has been presented he might get the idea that he should never, ever get a 1/4" shank bit for any purpose, which, since there are a number of useful bits that don't _come_ in 1/2", is going to cause him no end of heartburn.
I think a caveat is in order there--any bit you buy that has a cutting diameter of 1/2" or more get with a 1/2" shank. There's not much point in getting a bit with a 1/8" cutting diameter and a 1/2" shank, even if you could find one, and there are some cases such as keyhole cutters where smaller shank diameter is pretty much necessary to function.
So, use 1/2" shank bits where the extra metal clearly adds strength to the bit, but don't be afraid to use 1/4" where a 1/2" just has a little tiny cutter sticking out of a huge chunk of metal.
Really depends on what you do. But usually the accessories that come with it are rather flimsy.
"J. Clarke" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news1.newsguy.com:
Yeah, the implication there was "don't assign much value to any accessories provided with the router, because you're not likely to find too much use for them". In other words, base your buying decision on just the router itself.
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