Lightweight router recommendations?

[Nick Payne]

I have a large, heavy, 1400w Hitachi router that is getting on for ~35 years old. It's a survivor from my boatbuilding/furniture making days, and while it's great for heavy duty jobs, it's too heavy and a bit too much of a handful for jobs such as cutting saddle slots and binding channels. Does anyone have a recommendation for a fairly light weight router with a 1/4" chuck for light duty jobs.

[DarwinStrings]

I use a edge trimmer for that sort of light weight stuff. I have a old Makita with the metal housing and a plastic Makita as well (I think the plastic on I bought recently was about $270) they are both excellent but only time will tell if the plastic one is as good as the metal one, oh and the depth adjustment is crap but that don't bother me anyway. I reckon any brand will do as long as the bearings are good so the run out is minimal.

Jim

[Tonxi]

I have big routers too.
I just bought a 400W Ryobi laminate trimmer from Bunnings for $99.
I made a circle jig for the base and it works great in the tests I have done for rosette channels. The height locks firmly and it isn't too heavy.
That is all I have used it for at this stage, but,so far, so good.

[ozwood]

Hi,

I have two Maktec Laminate trimmers, one I paid $129 from Gasweld for and the Other I got at the Sydney wood show for $109 , I really like them , one is permanatly attached to my Binding jig . Makita design but made in China , seem just as good . one has done a heap of work, no prob's.

Hope this helps

Paul.

[kiwigeo]

My favourite router is a Trend T5. The Porter Cable laminate trimmer gets alot of use too.

[Kim]

I have a metal body mak trimmer like Jim mentioned and they are a good robust trade class tool. I also have a light weight ryobi scored from a flea market for $20, same plastic sleeve hight adjustment as the Mak trimmer and that is OK for quick easy stuff so it went into my first hand held binding jig and it was cheap enough to leave there. I also have a Festo 1010. These have a 1/4" collect and are a dust free, smooth cutting joy to use but you do pay for the privilege unless you can scout around and pry a used one from a dead man's hand. Finally, in the light weights I have an old Bosch PF50...These older ones are really just a converted die grinder with a 43mm flange to accept the base and other euro style fittings. Look for these light weight Swiss made beauties second hand on Ebay and flea markets and you will get a great 1/4" router and alloy base with locking handles depth stops with micro adjuster and all the trimmings for a song. All parts such as collets and bearings are still available so they can be bought back to new cheap and easy and will last for years

Cheers

Kim

[Trevor Gore]

Nick, The Bosch P50 is a great lightweight router. I've had mine for over 30 years and it still works fine. A near equivalent is available from Ozito. I have 3 of these. They work fine and have speed control, which the P50 doesn't. They cost ~$50 - very good value. They go through commutator brushes at a fair rate though, but you get a spare set in the box.

[vandenboom]

I leave my heavy duty Makita permanently in the router bench, and use a Maktec for bindings and other applications where I take the router to the piece of work.

[simso]

I concur with jim.. I have a the plastic makita trimmer and find it invaluable for freehand work.

Also have the big makita which is also permanently strapped to the router bench

Out of interest I have an overhead router which is positioned via ballscrews and linear rails for doing inlay work etc and its just a cheap ozito unit, being controlled via ballscrews and rails, I find it unneccassary to invest in expensive units on this setup as the side load applied on the cutter is negligible

[J.F. Custom]

I'll second the Porter Cable laminate trimmer Martin mentioned but unfortunately, you can't get them anymore.

It depends also on what you mean by "heavy". 1400W routers are the 'middle' size, in the scheme of things. However Triton routers are ex Taiwan, not China and they have a smaller unit that is lighter in weight with some nice features - that's if you still want a 'two-handed' router. Most of your other standard model Makitas, Hitachis etc of a similar power are going to be of a roughly similar weight as far as I know. If you'll accept a laminate trimmer, I've used a Bosch one that was quite nice. I think it depends on the model Bosch as to where they are manufactured these days.

Jeremy.

[Nick Payne]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'll go off and have a look at some trimmers.

[auscab]

Nick ,
I like the Makita trimmers, I saw one on ebay about a week ago and did a check to see if it was still there, must have sold, I did a search but could not find it ?

There a few Bosch trimmers on there though , Blue Bosch is suposed to be the trade quality and the green is the handy man cheaper variety, my tool repair man wont touch the green trimmer that needs work on it ,but he took my blue Bosch jig saw that has done a lot of work and fixed the switch

http://industrial.shop.ebay.com.au/i.ht ... m270.l1313

I dont know if this link will work, it's the page I looked at on ebay that I got when I searched woodworking tools for trimmers.

cheers Rob

[Dominic]

In the US they have a soft start variable speed version of the Bosch GMR 1 trimmer called a colt. Only $100 bucks compared to around $260 for the GMR which does not have soft start. The soft start is good for things like routing saddle slots as it won't shift position when it starts. Since I have a step down transformer for my heat blaket I got one. A good option at a great price if you have one.

Shame we have so few options in 240v trimmers here and they cost as much as a full size router. I looked everywhere for a 240v trimmer with soft start.

I have a couple of cheap Ryobi's that stay set up for jigs and a nice Festool 1010 for most free hand routing. A big triton sits under my router table and is great. Soft start, variable speed, single wrench above table bit changes, built in micro height adjustment (remove the spring), good dust collection and very good price. I recon the smaller 1400w one would be good also.

Dom

[maurie]

I also have a liking for Makita, having a heavy duty router and 2 trimmers and also a Maktec trimmer (which is a cheaper Chinese version of Makita) but good value.
Makita trimmer and Maktec plastic bases are also interchangable,
Recently a few of us in Albany purchased 12 Makita plastic bases from e-bay at $11 each post free, which allows jigs to be permanently attached to bases.

Maurie

[Kim]

Recently a few of us in Albany purchased 12 Makita plastic bases from e-bay at $11 each post free, which allows jigs to be permanently attached to bases.

Maurie

Great tip thanks Maurie

I will be right on to these...I made a precision circle cutting jig just recently to take my Makita N3701 trimmer so one of these bases will be screwed to that for sure.

As can be seen in the image the N3701's are early metal body 'Made in Japan' Mak lam trimmer and you can find them rolling around the back of near every wood related tradies ute in AU...and if you ask, those tradies will probably tell you that they bought it back when they were doing their aprenticeship, have used it just about every day since, and have never had to do anthing to it to keep it working sweet....Truly these little buggers are 'the' Mr Reliable of the industry and a big part of building Makita's excellent name in the market.



I know the model numbers are different but I bet the bases are interchangable with the later plastic model because Makita are smart and it is unlikely they would have changed the body diamiter by just a few mil and then wasted money needing to remodel all of the accessories only to end up with the exact same system in how they function..but then stranger things have happened..anyhow I shall know for sure in a few weeks....

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Fit-Makita-3 ... 3f0bcfab9f

Cheers

Kim

[auscab]

I would be interested to hear about the quality of those bases Maurie or Kim, if they are good I would be buying on or two myself .

I have a problem with that item location , twice I have bought from there and twice felt the product should have been better than it was .

First time was with thickness calipers, they did not work out of the box and needed 30 to 40 minutes work, fine after that.

second time was sets of lights for a few push bikes, they looked the same in the pictures, when I got them , under size , crap plastic , I broke two of them un wrapping them.

I hope to hear the bases are better,

cheers.

[maurie]

Rob
The quality of the bases seam equal to the clear Maktec originals, but the screw centres are a blonde mickey whisker different than the Makita bases. Just requires a slightly larger clearance hole in the jig to accommodate. Of course on new jigs drilled to suit there would be no preblem.
As far as the dealer goes, it is our first transaction with him, but free shipping and less than two weeks delivery seems ok, and the product seems fine, especially at the price.

Cheers Maurie

[Pete]

Has anyone had any experience with the Stewmac Router base for the Dremel tool?
http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tools/Speci ... Bases.html
I have a dremel and a heavy router. This tool if good, would be a good option for me.

[Matt Bach]

I have the stewmac dremel base. It's good quality - I got it to help ease me into inlay, but it doesn't "plunge" like I thought it would (it kinda does look like it should). Doesn't fit cheapy dremels but the real deals work great and I'm sure I'll use it for other things further down the track. I'd probably replace it if mine went missing, if that counts as any kind of endorsement.

[Kim]

Has anyone had any experience with the Stewmac Router base for the Dremel tool?
http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Tools/Speci ... Bases.html
I have a dremel and a heavy router. This tool if good, would be a good option for me.

Hi Pete,

The Stewmac dremel base is pretty much a standard for inlay work and also adapts the dremel for use with their circle cutter jig for cutting out the soundhole and rebating the rosette. It can also be used to adapt the dremel for use in Stewmac's saddle slotting jig. I have one of these bases and they do work for all of these task. The only issue is the dremel tool itself. Its a bit under powered and the bearing in the nose can develop runout in a short time which results in a wandering bit, not good for inlay, disastrous for a saddle slot. There is a work around for bearing slop but nothing you can do about the lack of power out put from the dremel.

This leaves the value for money question in buying a base designed specifically for the dremel tool dependant upon the intended use. If you intend to do a lot of work, get more tool to fit the base or find/make another base. On the other hand if one intends only to build one or two guitars, then the dremel should get the job done adequatly as long as the limitations are taken into account.

One adaptation I have seen for these Stewmac bases which I am told works well is to fit an air powered pencil grinder however unless you spend the $ this can import a lot of problems of its own. Another option is to drill out the thread in the Stewmac base that is cut for the dremel so the hole will friction fit Proxxon die grinder. You also need to drill some holes horizontally in the Stewmac base and tap them to take a couple of grub screws to secure the Proxxon tool.



http://www.proxxonworld.com.au/product/ ... e_220-240v

At max 20000rpm, the Proxxon tool is slower than the dremel tool by about 6000rpm. But the Proxxon is much more powerful than the dremel and because the bearings are focused toward pro use, they are a lot more accurate and should last for years.

Cheers

Kim

[J.F. Custom]

I use the Stewmac base too, although I use it with the Foredom style setup.

I prefer this setup as it is - lighter giving good control, smaller with better visibility and higher powered at 1/4HP. It's also more quiet than a dremel or similar tool, although as Kim mentioned too, these units vary in their RPM abilities. Mine goes up to 18'000 RPM I think; a bit slower than my Dremel which from memory was 30 or 24K ? But it is enough with these tiny bits and the right feed rate.

Jeremy.

jfcustom_inlay_router.jpg (342.71 KiB) Viewed 29142 times

[H3ytm@n]

I use the Stewmac base too, although I use it with the Foredom style setup.

Just out of interest... Did you get the Foredom from Stewmac as well or were you able to source it locally?

Cheers
Michael.

[J.F. Custom]

I use the Stewmac base too, although I use it with the Foredom style setup.

Just out of interest... Did you get the Foredom from Stewmac as well or were you able to source it locally?

Cheers
Michael.

The handpiece is Foredom, custom modified (threaded) by and sourced through stewmac to fit their router base.

The motor unit is not actually Foredom, but a cheaper Taiwanese made alternative - hence, "foredom style". Fits the Foredom handpiece perfectly and has not had any problem in the last five+ (?) years I've had it. It is also a little more powerful than the Foredom, though it lacks the ability to run in reverse. Both the true Foredom (USA) and the Taiwanese unit are available through Carba-Tec here in Australia. I've got various handpieces for mine and it is a very useful little tool to have at my disposal.

As a side, I do have a Foredom Air Turbine Grinder, but have not set it up for this job. It's handpiece is a little more specialized so would require adapting for the base. It also runs at 200'000 RPM , requiring special bits too. Would probably make for a good option in the little "pantograph" style copiers discussed a while back though.

Cheers,

Jeremy.

[DarwinStrings]

Maurie and Kim cheers for that one, I never thought to look on ebay, those will come in handy. I priced them once at bunnies and thought "bugga that for a bit of plastic"

Jim

[Pete]

Thanks for the info guys.