first router recommendations?

Hello,

I'm looking to buy my first router; what would you suggest?

I've read the FAQ and that says you ultimately buy two: a small one to use handheld and a larger one for bench-mounted work. Which do people buy first?

I am confused about the handheld work; when would you do this? I would have thought a router "up in the air" was dangerous and that you would always have the work piece lying on a bench to work on? If so, shouldn't the size and weight of the router be irrelevant?

Which collect is more useful 1/4" or 1/2"?

I read that for big cutters you need slow speeds of 8000 rpm. I have found this Erbauer router at Screwfix:

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goes from 8,000 to 23,000rpm. Has anyone used this one? If not, what does it sound like from its description?

I've also found this one:

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a lot of machine mart's routers say "call for availability" which suggests they are being discontinued? This one seems to have the "advantage" of an 8mm collet; would I use that or is it marketing? IIRC I read that it is useful in a 1/4" machine where a cutter is not available in 1/4" but is available in 8mm. OTOH since this machine is

1/2" would it matter?

Spec wise it seems similar to the Erbauer both have 60mm plunge and this one's speeds are from 7.400 rpm to 21,600 rpm.

I notice that the Erbaurer model says the speed is constant under load, which I presume is a good thing but I could not find anything to say what happens to the Clark model under load.

Or am I barking up the wrong tree; should I be looking for a 1/4" model first?

BTW there is also a Clark table:

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that any good?

Thanks, Fred

Reply to
Fred
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AFAIK 'bench mounted' is where you have the motor underneath the bench and the cutter sticking up (much like a bench mounted circular saw ) and you move the wood against/past the fixed cutter whereas 'hand held' is where you clamp the wood to the bench and then move around it with the router.

You can also use a hand held router on work which is already substantially built and therefore not suitable for being pushed past a bench mounted router.

Could be wrong, of course :-)

Reply to
David WE Roberts

Unless you're certain you need the clout of a 1/2" router, buy a 1/4".

You don't say what you're going do be doing with it. As a rough guide, making doors and windows is 1/2" stuff, anything smaller is 1/4" stuff.

Now I have both, I find I use the 1/4" much more of the time - i.e. anytime I don't need large cutters.

Forget other collet sizes, they're not important.

For an outstanding 1/4" router look at the Bosch GKF600:

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comes with a very comprehensive set of decent-quality accessories (but no cutters), and hunt around - you should be able to find it for around the 100 quid mark.

Reply to
dom

Exactly my experience.

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have a Makita 3620 which is well over 20 years old, no soft start, no variable speed, no spindle lock - but its still my favourite router (I have

3). Rated at 860w, thinks its 1200w.

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Reply to
The Medway Handyman

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>I have a Makita 3620 which is well over 20 years old, no soft start, no

Reply to
Usenet Nutter

Sorry, perhaps I could have been clearer. I was thinking that if you have a piece of wood on your work bench and you are using a hand held router downwards on that wood, surely the weight of the router would not matter as the work bench would be taking the weight of the router?

Reply to
Fred

Thanks. I wonder why so many of the cheaper models seem to be 1/2" rather than 1/4" if the 1/4" is more useful?

I'm not sure yet ;) I understand that once you have one you do things you never imagined with it. I am certain I won't be making windows though but I would like to try a bit of carpentry: making mortise and tenons, dovetails, etc. and making decorative rebates.

Thanks. That's a known, good, brand at the same price as the budget models I listed.

Reply to
Fred

Whilst you are actually cutting, quite probably :-) However you have to pick the damn thing up, lift it to and from the work piece and re-position it. You also have to hold it steady against the work piece whilst you are cutting, and push it along to make the cut. All these things could take more effort with a heavier router. On the upside a heavier router is likely to be more stable and less jerky when you are cutting.

For an extreme view, consider using a 100gm router or a 20Kg router. One would be easy to handle but very unstable when cutting. The other would be a bastard to pick up but very stable when cutting :-)

I think another poster has already said that the lighter one gets used more.

Reply to
David WE Roberts

Happened to have noticed a couple of current deals on this at Axminster:

No idea how this compares with other possible suppliers.

Reply to
Rod

if you have a 1/2" collet router you can get adapters (or collets) for smaller sizes.

if you have a 1/4" collet router you can't use 8mm 10mm or 1/2" bits

Reply to
Jerome Meekings

Don't forget the "trimmers", where the bit is offset from the main shaft. I use mine as a one-handed mini router for all kinds of jobs where the standard baseplate design wouldn't allow access.

Reply to
Stuart Noble

DrayTek.

Reply to
Steve Firth

Good choice!

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

If you've never used one before, I think you'd be best off with a cheap and cheerful Elu clone (most of which seem to last pretty well despite the price):

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Reply to
mike

I'm also looking for a first router, so I jumped on this thread.

The GKF600 looks very small to me. I'd expect to see something with handles on the side, not one that you just grip with one hand. Is it significantly less powerful than other 1/4" routers, or is it about the same and just missing the handles?

The jobs I have in mind are for the accommodation inside a small boat. Rounding off edges of thick ply, and making cutouts in it. At some point (probably not for some months) I want to build a new chart table with fancy sliding / lifting top. The very first job is a small one though (in terms of router power) - grooving thin ply sheets to make them look like planks expertly fitted together :-)

Is a 1/4" router likely to suit this work, do you think?

Pete

Reply to
Pete Verdon

My advice is still to have two (at least) routers, one very light for

1/4" lightweight work hand-held (mine is an ancient B&D D4), and a serious 1/2" 2-3 Kw job, mostly used in a table (Freud in my case).

For your application, rounding over, a 1/4" is probably what you need - it's not the thickness of the wood that matters but the diameter of the round-over ( = amount of wood taken off in a pass). When hand held the weight of the machine affects accuracy and safety as well as effort, due to fine vs coarse motor control of your muscles!

Buy a 14" machine now, and then, when the Chart Table job comes up, buy a 1/2" one.

R.

Reply to
TheOldFellow

Good & popular routers:

Happy Shopper no-name 1/4" Works as a freehand router, probably hard to adjust for depth. Limited in life, but very cheap.

Happy Shopper 1/2" More power than you need, chance to use in a table. Still has the ergonomics of a hedgehog and is hard to adjust. Still cheap.

Elu 96 & copies Good copies are well made, cheap ones aren't. Obsolete and inconvenient design with inadequate depth control and bizarre 8mm collet. Overpriced and waste of money.

De Walt 621 One of the best routers ever, especially freehand, but in the UK you have to buy the 1/2" collet separately.

Freud 2000 Workhorse for years, especially in a table. Usually a good price. Decent depth adjust, but not so easy as the DW621 or Triton racks.

Triton (from Toolstation) Interesting design, good table router with easy tool change.

Both, or else the one you need, depending on how much money you have and how quickly you need to have the job done.

When the workpiece is too big to handle safely across a bench, or it's already fixed to a wall. Otherwise pass the workpiece over the bench.

In practice, the other way round. A cutter pointing upwards is dangerous, but mostly only if you sit on it. It isn't going anywhere - you can even arrange a guard over it.

Moving a cutter over a workpiece is always much worse. It's pointing downwards at you, and it's travelling. It's very easy to slip with it, or just to tip the router base and gouge something (workpiece, bench, or you).

There's also the problem of freehand plunge work, where you push the router head & cutter down against a spring onto a depth stop. This sounds safer, as the cutter retracts, but in fact the need to push down makes things much less stable. I, and most of the USA, almost never do this, but instead use routers pre-set to depth.

Light 1/4" has some use for moving over big things, especially detail mouldings. Table routers can be heavy. Heavy freehand work is where it becomes awkward - plunging on the edge with a 1/2" router and a large cutter (i.e. a large hole in the base) is most unpleasant.

Almost always 1/2", unless you want a lightweight freehand router.

Yes. You'll appreciate a soft start too.

Erbauer kit is generally cheap & cheerful, doing the job well enough. First checkpoint on any router (i.e. first corner cut for price) is the depth control.

one:

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with the Erbauer.

They're both evolutions of the Elu 96 / DW 615 family, with the addition of an utterly useless dust extraction port and a hopefully better depth control. But I'd trust Erbauer more than Clarke.

Incidentally, any 6mm collets, tooling or shims (except on a laminate trimmer where it's all you have) should be thrown away on sight, in case they're ever confused with 1/4" kit.

Catches fire?

table:

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you have a spare 40 quid, your router fits it (most don't) and it's long enough (most aren't). Otherwise build your own and make it a decent size. Mine is 1/2" MDF on a 2" deep timber frame, all held up on its own Workmutt clone legs. Then with a separate NVR switch & isolator added.

It's certainly worth getting a push block to save your fingers. Axminster do plastic sets (good if you also have a jointer), otherwise make your own from ply and stick neoprene wetsuit/mousemat to it.

Reply to
Andy Dingley

Sometimes I wonder why stuff like that exists - and suspect it might only do so to try and convince the buyer to go for the more expensive product...

Just found this to say about the 621:

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replacement base is a nice idea, but I wonder how well it wears... the standard base certainly looks like it'd make the tool prone to tipping. Not sure what his point is about it being a waste in a table - just because it's a nice router to use freehand, or is there some issue for table use that other models don't have?

Wonder how well the vacuum tube works, too? If it's crap, hopefully it can at least be removed so it's not useless *and* in the way.

(I'm sort-of in the market for a router - in that I'd quite like to get one sometime in the next year - so I'm reading the thread with interest. I think I'm more inclined to use one in a table* than freehand, though)

  • probably a homebrew table; the cheap end of commercial offerings just seem too weedy to really be useful.

Hummmmmmmmmmmmm, *smoke* ? :-)

cheers

Jules

Reply to
Jules

Multiple sub bases are a good idea on any router. Bits of scrap clear perspex, a little work with a jigsaw and away you go. This is especially true on a router like the Freud 2000 where the large power becomes an excuse for large cutters and a big hole through the baseplate. It's very difficult to use this router stably hand-held without making a spare baseplate with a small hole in it.

There are better depth adjusters for table use than the DW621

The great virtue of the DW621 is that it's one of the few freehand routers with dust extract that works, and doesn't get in the way.

Reply to
Andy Dingley

to be true. Andy Dingley posted a reply recommending them too but he said there were good copies and bad ones and I'm not clever enough to know which is which!

Reply to
Fred

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