Router Advice

Biggest factor is budget - how much do you want to spend ?

 

Some people rate / some people hate the Erbauer router on our hosts site

I have tried the Triton TRA001, 2400w really powerful, smooth although a little tall but for the money probably the most powerful at that price range

 

I would buy a table insert and build your own table and fence system. You can get a good quality one for about £50

 

Bought a DeWalt from Tool Station about two years ago. Shop around for best price. Don't have the model number to hand but its big and heavy but is well on top of the job. Had loads in the past and this beats them all.

 

There is a DW625 which is an excellent piece of kit 1/2 it is around £250 , most of the others are cheaper but 1/4 collet

 

Definitley go for a 1/2" router, as it offers the option of using 1/4" & 8mm collets.

Avoid the Erbauer router, non spare spares.

Triton TRA001 a very nice router, tried one some time ago, rather impressed with it, can be found for £200 or less, go through quidco, topcashback will save a few more pennies.

http://www.toolstop.co.uk/index.php..._medium=base&gclid=CK2TvsLPwc8CFUI_Gwod3z0Blg

 

One negative point with the Triton, you need the Triton TGA250 12pce Template Guide Kit, as you can use bushes without the adaptor plate, which is annoying, but Bosch & some others do the same.
But, the router is designed for the RTA300 Router Table, which you could easily fit into a work top, you seen often them on Ebay cheap.

http://www.yandles.co.uk/triton-dual-mode-precision-plunge-router-tra001/p13953

 

RTA300 Router Table fitted to wooden bench.

 

Good site that KIAB toolstop, infact i used them only last week to replace my Ryobi 1/2 Router which is donkeys old now.

i went for this one the

Dewalt DW625EKT 1/2 Inch Variable Speed Plunge Router

http://www.toolstop.co.uk/index.php..._medium=base&gclid=COWqn5XRw88CFYYV0wodI4IC3g

brilliant piece of kit

 

Had several of these before I moved on to Festool. The only thing to note is that the collets are prone to cross threading on the shaft. At £150 to fix a very expensive slip

 

Ouch!

 

Yep, I loaned one of my routers to the old boy carpenter a few doors down and didn't realise when it came back he had cross threaded it. Looking on the forums it is a common problem. I put both DeWalt routers and couple of others on eBay and bought a Festool 1400 with a CTL MIDI. Very impressed so far

 

If looking at the DW625 and thinking about using in a table consider the Trend T11 as well. A few ££ more but basically the same machine except the T11 has a built in router lift through the base. Wot I have and works well.

 

I have used loads of the DW 625 and the Elu it came from and never had a problem with cross threading and can't see why there should be.
We have a scissor lift jack under our table router at work.

 

How bizarre - just google it and the first one ...

http://community.screwfix.com/threads/damaged-dewalt-625-router.16530/

 

Must admit after this thread I went out to see how easy it would be to cross thread, and after testing I thought it would be really difficult. Surely everyone starts the nut off with fingers and any tightness would be felt straight away, or have peoples nuts got so tight through crapped up threads that they have to spanner from the top? I do have a separate nut for each collet so the collets are always clipped in to the separate nuts, which helps initial alignment.

 

I have 3 routers and a trimmer,one Elu 1/4 collet,one Makita 1/4 collet and a Makita1/2" collet,the trmmer I bought new in a sale,the others I picked up from 2nd hand tool dealers and a car boot sale.Best buy had to be the small Makita,it was bought from an old guy for a tenner,like new it was.I wondered if it worked and he assured me it did,saying I could return it to him if I wasn't happy,it ran like a new one,perfect.Never had any problems with any of them all though to be fair I don't use them professionally,I did buy one of those cheap router tables from Aldi and the Elu is permenantly attached to that.
I,m fairly new to routers,only been playing with them on and off for about 4 years although they came in handy when a mate was renovating a 1920's house.It had a fancy dado all the way through and a piece got damaged and thrown away,due to the age he was unable to replace it and was faced with removing the lot,something he didn't want to do.I got 2 3mtr lengths of moulding and glued them together,this gave almost the right shape but not quite,I then ran it through the table machine and ended up with a piece identical to the original but about 1.5 mm bigger(it soon blended in with a bit of sanding).Result was one happy mate and a sense of satisfaction in being able to keep the house in it's original condition.