1/2" Router for Router Table / Suggestions?

[keithw86]

There is more than a grand difference between SawStop, new Unisaw, or Powermatic ("exceptional") and Grizzley or X5 Unisaw (very good), but I agree with your points.

Festool makes a pretty nice router but the premium is closer to 100% than $100. I wouldn't put a Festeringtool in a table, but I wouldn't hand-hold the OF2200, either.

Not this carpetbagger, either. ;-)

[Lance Spaulding]

the T

1/2" router.

I'd leave

inch

appreciated.

I bought this craftsman router about a month ago and have been very happy with it:

looked at a lot of combo routers in the $200-$250 range and ended up choosing the craftsman based on the extras it included (D base, built-in LED lighting, rip fence). As an extra bonus it went on sale for $150 a couple weeks after I bought it so Sears refunded about $50.

Lance

[Larry Jaques]

Crapsman ARHA Rules!

-- Know how to listen, and you will profit even from those who talk badly. -- Plutarch

[Lance Spaulding]

and

sale

ARHA? Is that supposed to mean something to someone?

If you dont like crafstman products, dont buy/use them. I've had bad luck with some of their products in the past (mainly gas-powered) but both of my craftsman routers have worked great. Also note that Wood magazine just did a review of multi-base rounters and, while the crafstman wasn't their top choice, it did well in their testing.

Lance

[Woody]

I did what you're planning several years ago. Here are "required" features of the router:

1. Must be able to change bits above the table, preferably without buying additional base.
2. Must have enough power (3HP+) to power panel-raising bits.
3. Support both 1/2" and 1/4" bits
4. Built-in dust collection
5. Variable speed
6. Slow start
7. Plunge-capable for in-table use

I originally used a Dewalt 625 as my table router, but upgraded to the Triton:

years later. Biggest reasons were for the above-table bit changing and integral dust collection. I've been *very* pleased with the machine. I've never used it outside the table and virtually never lift it out.

~Mark.

[Doug Winterburn]

Perhaps late model Craftsman routers don't exhibit ARHA (Automatic Random Height Adjustment). I have 4 routers, one of which is an older Craftsman model 315.174921 and was my second router. It is the only one with ARHA and has caused grief several times while plowing out dados as the bit automatically slowly dropped while routing in spite of keeping the shank a good 1/8" from bottoming out and tightening the crap on the collet. I use an older Rockwell for that operation now and have never had the ARHA problem with that router or the other two.

[Larry Jaques]

Automatic Random Height Adjusters

Do google searches on the AHRA and Craftsman (crapsman) on this group for the past decade and a half. You'll get a real eyeful, Lance. I stopped using anything Searz in the early '80s after donating a gallon of blood and pound of skin (literally) to the Crapsman Gods. Fukkem all.

Oh, sure, sure. Thompsons WaterSeal is still selling well, too, but you wouldn't get me to purchase any of it, either.

-- You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club. --Jack London

[Morgans]

Which is only to say that some other manufacturer does not have that problem, since Craftsman does not make its own power tools.

In the case of a 315 product number, that is made by Ryobi, or prior to Ryobi, the Diehl Mfg Company.

A list of these codes can be found at: