Router bits

Many good bits that are accurate, will last a long time and fair prices can be found at:.

Learn about routers and bits from:

For a one man shop you could also look into

There are several.

CMT will continue to get my business until they prove they don't deserve it.

HTH

Lew

CMT gets my vote.

Dave

Palmer wrote:>Who makes good router bits? I've seen lots of price differences and I've

There's also Whiteside, Amana and Oldham. And remember, you'll usually get what you pay for. Tom Work at your leisure!

Whiteside is good value although I peronally don't think their carbide and sharpening are up to the standards of Amana. Of course, similar profiles are normally a good 20% or so cheaper, too (and sometimes much more than that). For non-production work, I'd not hesitate. I've been running a bunch of window frame w/ soft maple and the Whiteside cutters are showing the effect much sooner than I would like (and expected)...

Noone has anything good to say about Freud? Prices don't seem that out of line when I compared a few profiles against others' favourites below (Whiteside, Amana).

There was a nice article on router bits in FWW August 1999. They compared 17 straight router bits in a rather scientific fashion to test initial sharpness (first 25 feet) and final sharpness (after 250 feet or so). The test was done with melamine to make the chipout clearer; the rational is that what happens with melamine in 250' will eventually happen with bits in hard wood as well.

Their conculsions: in the VERY BEST category are Whiteside and Ridge/Carbide Liberty. In the top-4 category are also Oldham-Viper and Freud. The second-tier (but still good) bits were Amana, MLCS, CMT and Carb-Tech. The third tier is much lower quality: Bosch, Eagle, PC, Woodworker's choice; most of these start out fine but quickly degenerate into chippers. Jessada's bits kept breaking, so the results are a bit hard to interpret. I think (after Jessada sent a third bit to FWW) the results put Jessada in the midfdle of the second pack. The fourth tier is not worth your money, even though they are cheap.

You have to take these results for what they are: a very scientific test of straight 1/2" router bits in melamine. Still, one suspects that the quality of this bit may be related to the companies entire product line.

Hope this helps.

Lars