I am fairly new to woodworking and routers, which leads me to my question. Will a 1 3/4 hp be enough for most jobs, I am between the PC 690 and the 890 series of machines, also the Bosch 1617 seems to be popular. Mostly it will be used for edge forming and some dado cuts, the main reason is price the money not spent on the router can go into bits. Any help will be appreciated. Thank you.
Check out the PC 690VK.
A plunge base is essential if this is to be your only router.
Don't be too concerned about hp (mostly manufacture myth in any event). Don't be too concerned about buying "bits", just get them as you need then.
I have the 690 with the fixed and plunge base and did not regret it......Brian
For general purposes the dual use, plunge feature is probably more practical than horsepower concerns. The ones you note will probably be fine. I have an older 17xx series plunge set and couldn't be happier.
Horsepower becomes more important when you start turning the bigger bits in a table. The ones your are looking at now will work fine in a table for most cutting.
Give the Milwaukee 5616 EVS a look. Rated at 2 1/4HP and although in agreement with Swingman about HP rating being mostly hype, this one has enough balls for me to believe the rating is close, if not more. (Around
165.00 US$ on Amazon.)I also like the Hitachi M12V. Gobs of power, not very elegant but all of it functional..and the plunge action is good enough for what I do. (Around 155.00 US$ on Amazon.)
I use both routers daily (I have more than one of each) , and I push them pretty hard. Not a hiccup yet. I like them much better than the PC routers I have destroyed over the last 20 years.
YMMV
Horsepower is an issue if you plan to do considerable rail and stile routing for cabinet doors. Even more important is the need to have a variable speed router if you plan on using massive router bits. I would also suggest you purchase a plunge router. If you become more than a novice woodworker you will want to purchase more than one router, at which time you should look at larger horsepower tools. Additionally; you will likly be doing more table routing where larger HP machines can substitude for a Shaper.
Go with the PC. I have been using them for years and they are great. I do like Bosch tools but they have irritating problems such as the switches clog with dust and fail I have had two friends buy the Bosch kit on sale at Amazon and both switches failed max
I forgot a standard router comment. "You get what you pay for" applies to routers as much as any woodworking tool. Cheap machines with poor depth locks waste wood and raise bloodpressure. However, the ones you mention in your post should be fine.
The only problem I had with the interchangeable plunge base for the 690 is that the router guide was not concentric with the bit. I could not get good dovetails with the Omnijig. After every test PC service told me they can't hold the tolerances close enough to make them symmetrical. max
Maybe I'm missing something ... why use the 690 plunger base with a dovetail jig?
You'll probably need the plunge feature at least 2% of the time.
thanks for all of your advice I think I'll go with the PC for now
Completely unsupportable and irrelevant statistic ... nonetheless, he will have it when he "needs" it.
: > You'll probably need the plunge feature at least 2% of the time. : : Completely unsupportable and irrelevant statistic ... nonetheless, he will : have it when he "needs" it. : : -- :
HTH Pop
that router will be fine for those applications.
Surprised no one has mentioned
-John in NH
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