Cheap routers?

[Monkey Mark]

I often watch YouTube and all the jigs different people make.

I've noticed that a lot of the American stuff utilises cheap Chinese? Routers when building certain jigs. They can pick them up from about $20 upwards I beleive and the simple cylindrical shape makes it easy to build around.

Does anyone know if similar can be bought over here?

I think they are ideal for prototyping/testing a jig or simply to have at hand with a round over bit ready.

 

[woodenstx]

The router I nabbed from my dad was one of these cheap efforts... I was only rounding over the edges of all the wood on my dining table and to be fair it did a decent enough job, although needed to ensure it was square.

The replacement is still "cheap" but most standards but it'll do as its a 1/2" Clarke £100 jobbie :lol:

 

[blackrodd]

Like most on here I have several routers mainly set for different work or jobs.
I can recommend the Bosch routers for light work.
You can get a pof 1200 for around £60. OK for most jobs, but not hard, everyday use, I use one of these,
and a big old Elu.
I also have an old bosch pof 50 with roundover bit, what I call my "one handed router" Light, small and easy to use, I just buy cheap trend set of bits in a box, grab a box or two when on special offer, £7. last time.
Regards Rodders

 

[mseries]

I think the Bosch GOF600 is closest to what they use, Mattias Wandel refer to a Bosch Colt somewhere and mentions is the same as the GOF600 in Europe. These are not particularly cheap though ~ £100 now. Dewalt do a similar model. Units such as the Bosch POF 50 which are removable from their plunge base with a 43mm collar like a drill are probably easiest IMO to mount on custom jigs. I got a used Freud 1000 for this purpose, and to use as a single handed trimmer. Lots of POF50s and small B&Ds on eBay, they don't go for peanuts though and I'd be worried that they are stolen from some poor souls shed.

 

[mseries]

Routers used in CNC projects might be more like what you are thinking

 

[kinsella]

I found the Bosch POF 500A very handy and light. So its 1/4" and perfect for small little jobs, as your comments, it would be possible to clamp it to a jig. But it depends on what power you need with the Jig. I bought two B&Q 1/2" routers, one for a router table. I considered them disposal as they are cheap and B&Q, but they are still going!!

I broke the Bosch, but i liked it so much i bought another one off Ebay.

 

[Monkey Mark]

I'll have a look on eBay for the ones mentioned here.

 

[Monkey Mark]

Routers used in CNC projects might be more like what you are thinking

Possibly, though I have no experience with these so wouldn't even know what to look for.


I have wondered if the motor and shade only of routers can be bought. If it's in a jig, then surely that would suffice for most.

 

[blackrodd]

A friend of mine did buy a Black and Decker recently, An awful thing, dodgy everything 'til at last the on/off switch
broke , thank god!
I persuaded him to find a Pof 500, far better.
The Pof 50, or later, Pof 500's were a nice little tool and there are still some on flea bay as new, unwanted presents etc
but still fetch around the £40 range.
Regards Rodders

 

[worn thumbs]

A few weeks ago I picked up a 1250W router from Aldi for £25,seemed very cheap.Other than switching it on to verify that it worked I haven't actually had a job for it yet.It seemed cheap enough to me and next time they crop up it might justify the scrutiny of the OP.

 

[Wizard9999]

Think there have been a couple of threads on the Merry router, one is...
cheapo-palm-router-t87887.html?hilit=Merry%20router

Don't own one, but may be an option for you.

Terry.

 

[mseries]

A friend of mine did buy a Black and Decker recently, An awful thing, dodgy everything 'til at last the on/off switch
broke , thank god!
I persuaded him to find a Pof 500, far better.
The Pof 50, or later, Pof 500's were a nice little tool and there are still some on flea bay as new, unwanted presents etc
but still fetch around the £40 range.
Regards Rodders

I have a cheap B&D (KWE900 or something) which I got off eBay for when my Elu was down. It's OK for the £15.50 I paid for it. The main problem is the guide rails don't clamp parrallel to the base. For template routing with guide bushes though it's OK. It's heavy and somewhat unweidly, the hard start is a bit wild too, the collet isn't great, but it was cheap and it's done the jobs asked of it. I do like the trigger switch and 'hold for on' for handheld work, no good for table but this would be a pain to fit into may table anyway so I never bothered trying.

I may use it as a project tool for building into a pantograph or copier or horizontal machine. Strip it down to it's motor and collet, rewire the switch and permanently mount it into something, nothing to lose - unless someone cares to buy it £15 + delivery or collect.

 

[MMUK]

My first ever router was a Rolson 1/2" 1800w I paid under £20 for back in about 1997 from Castle Hardware in Birmingham. It came with 3 collets and a few cheese consistency cutters. I bought a new set of cutters for it for the same money from a friend who worked for a hardware company. It did the job quite well considering my abilities at the time. I still have it, bringing it out occasionally for rough work. Still runs fine and does the job. Not as easy to set as the Makita or Triton, it lacks the fine adjusters. But, as with ANY router, it's only as good as the cutters and the operator.

 

[Monkey Mark]

A friend of mine did buy a Black and Decker recently, An awful thing, dodgy everything 'til at last the on/off switch
broke , thank god!
I persuaded him to find a Pof 500, far better.
The Pof 50, or later, Pof 500's were a nice little tool and there are still some on flea bay as new, unwanted presents etc
but still fetch around the £40 range.
Regards Rodders

I have a cheap B&D (KWE900 or something) which I got off eBay for when my Elu was down. It's OK for the £15.50 I paid for it. The main problem is the guide rails don't clamp parrallel to the base. For template routing with guide bushes though it's OK. It's heavy and somewhat unweidly, the hard start is a bit wild too, the collet isn't great, but it was cheap and it's done the jobs asked of it. I do like the trigger switch and 'hold for on' for handheld work, no good for table but this would be a pain to fit into may table anyway so I never bothered trying.

I may use it as a project tool for building into a pantograph or copier or horizontal machine. Strip it down to it's motor and collet, rewire the switch and permanently mount it into something, nothing to lose - unless someone cares to buy it £15 + delivery or collect.

I did think about stripping a standard router but wasn't sure of the internal construction /shape.

 

[mseries]

I did think about stripping a standard router but wasn't sure of the internal construction /shape.

I have stripped my Elu MOF96E down to change the bearings and brushes and I can tell you that the outer plastic shell is all there is. I'd expect all others to be similar so the outer shape is what you get. We'd have to figure out someway of clamping the body to our jig, maybe using the collet lock mechanism holes or collar as additional attachment points. It'd be a custom job, specific to particular model of machine

 

[Monkey Mark]

I did think about stripping a standard router but wasn't sure of the internal construction /shape.

I have stripped my Elu MOF96E down to change the bearings and brushes and I can tell you that the outer plastic shell is all there is. I'd expect all others to be similar so the outer shape is what you get. We'd have to figure out someway of clamping the body to our jig, maybe using the collet lock mechanism holes or collar as additional attachment points. It'd be a custom job, specific to particular model of machine

That's a shame. Would make each jig a new challenge.

I'll keep looking as im sure there must be something available. The Merry router mentioned above is certainly a contender. And maybe the cnc spindles.

I wonder if the real cheap ones seen in America don't meet the standards here. I've found a couple of American sires that ship to the UK, but it won't let you select them when the destination is the UK.

 

[DennisCA]

Been looking for years, there's none, the Draper router used to be an option but they kept jacking up the price to the point you gotta be stupid to buy it over some better brand, if it was a £100 router then it would be priced right, no more, now I'd almost have to pay 300 euros for it when factoring in the exchange rate, or so it was last I looked.

I saved up and got a GMF 1600 CE from Rubart in germany, still waiting for it to arrive infact.

I think if i need another smaller router, I'd get a Bosch GKF 600, but I have a cheapo Lidl router and the GMF will be easy to insert and remove from the router table.


Buying an american router isn't that easy, they use 110-120 volts there. You need a converter and that easily makes the whole thing uneconomical again unless you plan to buy lots of stuff from the US to offset the cost of the investment in a transformer.

 

[DennisCA]

For someone buying in pounds this looks like a seriously good price, says 110V but you can select 240V from a drop down list:
http://www.powertoolworld.co.uk/bosch-g ... bases.html

The GKF can be fitted with either a 1/4 or an 8mm collet.

 

[Sporky McGuffin]

It certainly wasn't cheap, but as I'd originally planned on a lot of jig-based routing I went for the Bosch GMF1400CE, the one that came with a plunge and a fixed base. You could buy additional mounts (basically the fixed base without handles or baseplate) fairly cheaply from the US and I've used three or four in various jigs. I ended up with two of the routers - one is for general use, including in the router table (it goes in and out of the mount in about 20 seconds) and the other is a 110v version on the CNC machine.