Aldi Router Table

is the router table worth getting, or can i do most things with the router handheld?

I have just bought a Powercraft 1200W Router from Aldi for =A320 to use doing woodwork on my new old house.

Ive never used one before.

They are also offering a router table for =A325

should i buy the router table, what advantages would i get?

Reply to
dicegeorge
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Get or make _a_ router table, but that one's just far too small.

They're easy to make. Even fences are easy to make. Google. Even my own site has one somewhere.

Router tables are useful for two things: When the router / router cutter is too big to use handheld, or when the workpiece needs to be supported well. For really big things (sinking a lock mortice into a door) then you take a small router to the work. For fairly big moulding cuts on long lengths small strip, then you can use the Aldi table. In the middle though, let's suppose using a round-over cutter on the edge of a tabletop, you need a table because the cut is big but you also need a table a couple of feet square just to support the big heavy chunk of timber you're chucking around.

OTOH, if it's Aldi then it will be cheap. Better that than nothing.

Reply to
Andy Dingley

You local library should have woodworking books, including ones on using Routers. They will show you how to make such things as jigs for rebating hinges into doors, how the various accessories work, etc. Trouble is, you'll probably end up wanting to buy a proper router.

MBQ

Reply to
manatbandq

And the compressor to drive it.

Reply to
Steve Firth

I have just bought a Powercraft 1200W Router from Aldi for £20 to use doing woodwork on my new old house.

Forget the table as their router doesn't fit it. If you want the table take the router back and buy another cheap router from screwfix or elswhere.

Reply to
George

snip

Eh? The powercraft table doesn't fit the powercraft router? Are you sure? (I quite fancied the pair for the price!)

Reply to
gerry

Unless they have altered the dimensions of the routers base plate? then yes I'm sure.

Anyway buy the table and buy this router which might? fit the table...

formatting link

Reply to
George

Its not if you were to incorperate into a TV cabinet on castors or make a table to insert it into the table.

This table is fine for the price and can be adapted to suit the operator.

£25 is an excellant price to pay considering screwfix and other places are selling it for £80 as a ryobi model. :-)
Reply to
George

Mmm... Shows what it's really worth. Manufacturing cost can't be more than a tenner.....

Reply to
Andy Hall

It does, I know :-) I would have used the router I have already (another cheapo one) but annoyingly there's no way to lock the power on - you have to hold the switch the whole time.

The PowerCraft one on offer at Aldi has a lock for the trigger switch, and a separate switched socket with green and red power buttons so to use it in the table just leave the power trigger locked on and switch with the buttons provided.

HTH, Pete

Reply to
Pete

It shouldn't have.

While this is convenient and obvious for a router table, routers that can be hand held are no longer supposed to be sold with a switch lock.

Reply to
Andy Hall

And shows why people shop at places like Aldi...

Owain

Reply to
Owain

And lots of wood to carve with it.

Which will need a new shed to keep it all in.

Owain

Reply to
Owain

If you google this newsgroup for the last time Aldi sold their router and table combo (a year or so back?), you'll find lots of other incredulous posts about this.

TBH it was so bizarre I can't believe they weren't inundated with complaints, so I'd be quite surprised if it hasn't been sorted.

David

Reply to
Lobster

yeeessss.......

Reply to
Andy Hall

Which is a right royal pain in the arse if you're trying to use it in a table.

Reply to
Skipweasel

Many years ago I had a Black and Decker circular saw, which could be attached to a saw-table adapter thing on the side of a Workmate, converting it into a sort-of table saw...

Anyway - the kit came with a red plastic stick thingy with a sprung C-shaped grip at one end, which you clipped around the handle/switch of the upside-down saw, which switched it on. The handle of the stick protruded beyond the table, where it could easily be knocked with a hand as and when required, killing the motor. Sounds very Heath Robinson to write it down, but it actually worked extremely well, both in keeping the saw switched on reliably, and being very easy to switch off.

Expect it would be against all the regs these days though...

David

Reply to
Lobster

It was the time before the last one that didn't fit, I picked up a router and table last time which fitted, but was held in place so loosly that I took the table back.

Steve

Reply to
Steve

Has anyone got a link to the official spec for this?

AFAIR, there's a "get out" clause on this which permits switch locks, provided that they're not accessible when table mounted. The idea is that a "locked on" router can be installed in the table (power off, obviously), then controlled by an external switch on the table. The idea of taking this router (and its evil locking switch) out and then using it handheld (clearly a guaranteed cause of Instant Death) is a matter for the user, not for the supply of equipment regs. It's the same loophole that allows heavy dado sets to still be sold.

Reply to
Andy Dingley

It's one of the Machinery Directive things, but I can't find the link at the moment.

My understanding was that lock on is no longer permitted on hand held routers and that since most can be used for either, manufacturers go for the line of least product liability.

Reply to
Andy Hall

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