Ive got to hang 30 fire doors next week, and looking for a router thats light weight but powerful/accurate enough for routing intrumisent strips nicely. Budget is only £100 to £150 as I already have a couple of heavy duty routers and intend to use it for occasional handy little jobs once its main use is done with. I would appreciate some recommendations to save time. Thanks very much.
Try the little bosch laminate trimmer/palm router, it might be just what you need, doesnt need to be mega powerful for running in intumescent.
I'd agree with Goldenboy - the small Bosch....3-year warranty too if you register it online. Two great money-saving tips: 1. Use Google's shopping search www.froogle.co.uk - click here- to search for the best price. Type in the item description and it brings up every internet seller of the item, along with their price. Re-sort the results by Price (low to high) and you can see who's got the best price out there. 2. Once you've found the vendor you want to buy from (say it's XXTools), do a Google search for "discount voucher for 'XXTools'". You can usually get at least another £10 off.
Another vote for the makita 3707 for light work. Though with that number of door I would suggest you use a bearing guided intumescent cutter, far quicker than using the router on the edge of the door with a fence. You have the door flat on a couple of saw horses and run round the edge of the door with no risk of the groove wandering. You will need a 1/2" router for it, keep the little one for hinges of lock faceplates. Jason
use this and the time you save will pay for itself and buy you a bosch palm router * P [Edited by: admin]
I have (deep breath) Big Makita, Trend T3, two big tritons, bosch palm, and an old elu. For all trimming and little routing jobs, edge moulding etc I use the little bosch, the additional bases that seem to be thrown in foc now are very useful, especially the tilting base and the big base with the handle and dust extraction
Thanks for the advice guys, I went for the Bosch GFK600. No problems with the strips, also good for hinges. In fact Im just using it for the hinges for the next batch now and have set my Makita router up for the strips. Together with some nice new trend bits, the job is going very well. Cheers, Daz.