I Have A Ryobi R163 Router And I'm Looking To Add A Speed Control Unit To My Router Table To Use With It. I've Read That In Time Some Speed Control Units May Ruin The Router Motors......i Would Like To Know If This Is True And If There Is A Speed Control Unit That Will Not Harm The Router
. Most any woodworking store will have the controller that you are looking for. Rockler or Woodcraft for sure.
Typically a speed controller will not harm a router motor. It is advised to NOT use a combination of speed controllers. If your router has a speed control built-in don't use an external also.
ADRTE wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@diybanter.com:
Old-style speed controllers worked by varying the voltage to the motor. This was not good, since lower voltage would lead to the motor overheating.
Modern speed controllers work by varying the duty cycle of the AC line current, and are safe to use with router motors.
That said, the aftermarket controllers you can buy from (as Leon suggested) Rockler or Woodcraft are not particularly cheap, and are not particularly durable. You might consider if, in the long run, it wouldn't be better to simply get a variable speed router, like a Bosch, to replace the Ryobi.
John
Speed controls for universal motors (the kind with brushes) are useful, and relatively easy to build. The simplest (but not the cheapest) is a vvariable autotransformer (Variac, Powerstat, lots of other brands). A ten-amp unit will cost $200 or so (and will be useful for many other tasks). Heavy, expensive: not a great solution.
Easier, is an electronic switching version, and many routers have such systems already built in. Buying a second router is the easy fix here.
External 'dimmer box' type speed controls are available, BUT they aren't generally considered good practice, because they're not sized for the motor, and because the switched signal generates RF hash. I've seen these in the $10 to $50 range, but they are all 'buyer-beware' items, IMHO. You MUST NOT USE A LIGHT DIMMER, that 'resistive load only' warning is serious.
The "dimmer" style of speed controller won't harm the router as long as you don't stall the motor. Running a router at low speed isn't such a good idea.
THANKS ILL KEEP THAT IN MIND ON MY OLD ROUTER AFTER REVIEWING EVERYONES RESPONSE IV'E DECIDED TO INVEST ON A NEW VARIABLE SPEED ROUTER
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