Does anyone else dislike routers?

[Linwoodjoinery]

I am sorry to say I heard most of the reps have been laid off

I had a demo a few weeks back so they are still doing them

 

[Distinterior]

I had a demo a few weeks back so they are still doing them

So did I....and ended up buying the item/ tool that the Rep demonstrated to me.

Of all the routers that I own..( I have a lot for different applications.....) the Festool OF1010 is my favourite.
It's so smooth and powerful for its compact size and the ergonomics IMHO are really nice. Having used a lot of routers over the years, without doubt, the OF1010 has by far the best dust extraction of the lot. Its bigger brother, the OF1400 is also very similar in style and function but the dust extraction isn't quite as good as it uses a removable plastic shroud whereas the 1010 extraction is built into the machine.

I have a number of old Elu's and Dewalts that are still used regularly but they are a bit more industrial in their feel than the Festool offerings and do lack the finesse that is sometimes needed on some projects.

Using a cheap and cheerful router and comparing it with the likes of the routers listed above is like chalk and cheese.....

 

[D_W]

I just love it when doing a dado and you've a board clamped to use as a guide and the vibration loosens off one of the holding clamps. Halfway along the guide board slips and sends the router on a nice big sweep totally destroying the job.

All in all i suppose its a needed tool, and while hand tools are nice to use, that cant really be the case when time = money and its your job.

I'll add in beware of 'elitism' where hand tools are given preference over the ability to do the job, just because they are hand tools. I see this in many differing forums im on.
I've tried that. Took a length of tree trunk, seasoned it ,quartered it and rove the boards from it, spending a huge amount of time hand planing them down. flat and parallel.
Made a nice box off it and if i were to convey that in financial time taken to prepare and complete, it would have been the most expensive thing ive ever made.

A hand router has its place, but i think not for the entire job, rather to clean up or deepen a section.

I'd take a page from hand tools in the case of using the router if the batten moves (and have in the past). When making kitchen cabinets years ago, I had the nuisance job (I made them dado and all glued tight, not the cheaper movable shelves that are common) of doing the larger work on the floor and clamping things down - and eventually just nailed or screwed the batten in place. If they're on the interior of work and are nailed or pinned, nobody will ever look at the small filled marks later (or even unfilled) inside the cabinet and bark about them.

More than once prior to that, I ended up with a small area where the batten wandered and so did the router, like a bug burrowing under tree bark.

As for the hand tools, for the very last cabinet (which was one of the oddball corner cabinets facing out at a 45 degree angle), I didn't have the skill to set up some of the things with power tools (and maybe not the tooling) and did everything on the carcase by hand. That included cutting the dadoes in plywood - I took an older 1/2" dado plane and narrowed the nicker, skate and iron to the size of the ply that I was using and overall found it easier and more pleasant to use than the router and battens. I also planed the plywood (good quality two face cherry in this case with fir core - 99.9% wood with very little glue in it, easily sawn and worked by hand).

I wish I'd done the entire set of cabinets by hand like that instead of fighting marginal power tools. It took about the same amount of time as it took me to use power tools. It may be beyond the average person to modify and set up a dado plane narrower (including the metal bits) but the chance of it wandering was zero (I did pin all of the wooden bits in sequence to cut the dadoes all at once, though).

 

[Peter Sefton]

I had a demo a few weeks back so they are still doing them

I hope they are but I had one of the reps contact me looking for a job, he said five members of staff had been laid off not sure if they were all reps or other support staff.

 

[heimlaga]

I would not say that I hate routers. I own one and use it regularly for things it is good at. However it is absolutely not a favourite of mine and if there is another way of getting the job done without spending too much time I choose he other way.

 

[LBCarpentry]

Agree with everyone regarding the awful trend routers. Had a t10 and t5. Just the most miserable experiences when changing or adjusting anything. So many god damn little pesky screws.

Binned them and brought a Festool OF1400. Never looked back.

 

[paulrbarnard]

I used to have a big Trend router that I bought and used for kitchen worktop installation. I went to use it a couple of years ago and it just turned slowly and made a dark brown smell. I think it had got damp in my lockup. I still haven’t replaced it. My daughter asked me to install a kitchen for her and that would have needed a replacement but lockdown happened and the kitchen was fitted by professionals. There are some jobs that a router is pretty much essential for but the other 99% of jobs are just more fun with hand tools.