Advanced Beginner is what i'd call myself. I want to purchase a new router that will be sufficient 'till i get further along into more complicated things later. I'm currently attracted to a Milwaukee model that comes with a fixed base and the plunge base. I'd like something powerful enough to put in and out of a router table and mostly work with red oak.
thanks for any and all input.
The 1 3/4 HP single speed is not reccommended. The 2 1/4 HP unit VS is. I had several Milwaukees and always liked them. The single speed
1-3/4HP is a screamer and just not very useful.I have since bought the Ridgid kit and really like it. Certainly good value. The plunge base is smooth and the dust collection is pretty good....for a router that is. A silly as it may seem, the LED lighting built in to the Ridgid is actually quite useful.
Still hard to beat that 2. 1/4HP Milwaukee though...... the extra money might be worth it, depending on your wallet.
As a beginner myself, the only advice I can give is to make sure the model you end with has a depth-stop lock. Mine hasn't (Bosch POF500A - or if it has, I can't bloody find it!), which makes it a bit of a bugger to use on more precise work.
If it doesn't have a way of fixing the depth rod you can easily fix it - just add another nut on the depth rod and jamb them together to lock the depth.
Here's some expert advice from Pat Warner:
Bob S.
Freud units (in the old days) always took a different, nonsymetrical bolt pattern, base plate. Sears tools were Freud also, then. This can be a pain in the arse trying to buy the "odd" base plate for a router table.
Nice soft-start unit I have but plates were harder to get.
thanks for any and all input.
Cheers for the suggestion, but there isn't a way to do this. I have in the mean time, however, figured out a way of making a depth lock by using some threaded rod and extending it through the plunge-handle holes. It'll be a bit Heath-Robinson, but then again, all the best things are!
I, of course, had to Google Heath-Robinson and found myself, nose-deep in a wonderful world of fantastic silliness. I was not aware of the man and his work ( although some prints look familiar) and I have no idea how that ever escaped me. Thanks for that!
r
I have the 2-1/2 HP Milwaukee *and* the same size Bosch. If you're inclined toward the Milwaukee, get it. You won't be disappointed. I have the *big* Milwaukee in a router table and it's terrific but it's too heavy and too strong for hand held use......IMHO.
Max (of RORT)
Oops. read 2-1/4 instead of 2-1/2.
Max
Funny that no one has yet mentioned the Triton TRC001. Plunge routing, powerful, built in above table height adjustment, essentially all the options anyone would want in a first time router purchase including decent price point.
Tritons , they are brilliant . The TRA001 is an older model and dosent have the above table winder ,It's mounted permanently in the router table and is a real workhorse.No big deal to reach under to use the hieght adjuster and crank it up . The smaller one is used for hand held stuff and with the D4R-Pro dovetail jig. I also have a very old Makita BR3200 , its a damn fine machine and has never given any trouble at all.
LOL! A staple of school-boy daydreaming in science lessons!
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