Remember your first.....

[JoinerySolutions]

Router!
Mine was a Bosch POF500 1/4" collet supplied with an 1/4" HSS str cutter that bit me the first time I tried to get it out of the collet Sliced both thumb and forefinger.
Anyway that did not stop me, so I went merrily putting a 6mm groove in anything I could argue needed it the got a rounding over bit and went mental, sharp 90° corners became offensive to the the eye and would be assimilated to the round order.
This continued until I fitted a kitchen and sweated blood to cut the two masons mitres by hand and got involved the same week with making several staircases. Enter the Elu 177e, three collect sizes and a Trend catalogue to sleep with :lol: The Bosch was given to my brother as he dabbled in woodwork.
In twenty odd years I have owned two 177e's and now own the Dewalt equivalent. First one was second hand and died aged but loved, the second I bent the armature when it grabbed making newell caps, ripped the muscles in my neck and shoulders trying to stop it, off work a week and given a Dewalt as compensation by the then boss Made me feel a bit better!
From reading some of the posts there are those who have gone GaGa over a power tool, the Domino springs to mind, but what was the first one that made you go, WOW! this is awesome and opened your mind to unseen possibilities?
Regards Rob.

 

[head clansman]

hi

mine was an old Black & Decker 1/4 collet, bloody noisy, still have it, cut the plug off yrs ago nearly deafend me :lol: .hc :wink:

 

[Paul Chapman]

Elu MOF96 router - one of the best routers ever. Bought mine in the early 1970s and it's still going strong.

Cheers :wink:

Paul

 

[wizer]

Triton TRA001 :lol:

 

[JoinerySolutions]

hi

mine was an old Black & Decker 1/4 collet, bloody noisy, still have it, cut the plug off yrs ago nearly deafend me :lol: .hc :wink:

Still got my Dads, bless him, and a set of those cutters where you had one arbour and several different paterned press steel cuttings 'wings' :!:
A bit like a miniature french head for a spindle. As kids we were not allowed to venture into the 'shop so never new till much later what all the noise was. Funny old sod but I miss him.

 

[Chems]

Focus McKeller 1/4, got pulled all over a bit of pine when I first got it trying to make dados for shelves. I figured it out slowly but like you loved it when I got some bearing guided bits!

Router is still me favorite tool I think. An I'm on my 3rd McKeller now. I also have a TRB001 which is like the Porsche of routers compared!

 

[pren]

B&Q 1/4".

Screamed like a banshee but worked surprisingly well. First one died, got a second to go under the table.

I've now got a Bosch POF something-something 1/4" that makes its predecessors look like rubbish!

 

[studders]

The old Black and Decker for me to, still got it, must be 25 years old by now. Didn't have a Scooby Doo how to use it then so made lots of upcocks, fun though.

 

[Smudger]

I started with a B&D, then a Bosch, then a Trend. I routed a lot of ogee edges with the B&D, but nothing more ambitious.

 

[Tony Spear]

I've still got my U.S. made fixed base Shopmate 1/4" machine.

First used it to cut a load of halving and half-lap joints when I built the kitchen in my first house.

Then I got really ambitious and cut a Dado 1/2" deep and 6" wide in a 300 year old 8" wide oak beam (overhead) for a housing for a 6" upright when I demolished an inside wall.

And it still works perfectly on the odd occasions that I use it!

 

[John. B]

Mine was a Stanley Bridges and I still have it.
It still works but getting noisy, (needs new bearings I think)
I mount it on my RAS occasionally
.

John. B

 

[MikeG.]

Elu MOF96 router - one of the best routers ever. Bought mine in the early 1970s and it's still going strong.

Cheers :wink:

Paul

Snap!

That was my first router, and an absolute gem. Unfortunately, it didn't survive a fall onto concrete. I still miss it.

Mike

 

[Mcluma]

Bosch POF 600, best little 1/4 router available, still use it, as it is light

use it for all rouding overs and hinge preparation

 

[OPJ]

Well, my first power tool (ignoring the old 9.6v drills my dad gave me) was a a Makita jigsaw. Not a bad tool but, I bought it on the assumption that I'd be able to use it like a bandsaw for ripping - big mistake! That purchase was followed by the disaster that was the small Fox 26-525 10in. table saw... :roll: Noisy, inaccurate, not a load of positive things to say about that one! So, it took about eighteen-months before I saw sense and bought a bandsaw!

Routers are my favourite kind of power tool, simply for the versatility - no small workshop should be without one or more!! My first was a Makita 3612CX which I still love to this day. There's a bit of a kick when you start it up or switch off but it's quieter than most other models I've used and the three-second brake makes it a real joy to use! 8)

I now own a couple of other ½in. routers but I'm looking to add a small ¼in. model for convenience. :wink:

 

[woodbloke]

Bosch router here, bought from Axminster about 10 years ago. Not bad as routers go, but rubbish height adjustment...and getting a bit tired now. I'm going to replace it soon with something a bit better and get hold of a Micro Fence as well - Rob

 

[wobblycogs]

The first router I owned I got for free when a company did a bunk in the night without having paid rent for six months. We got to pick over the stuff they had left behind. It was a Power Craft 1/4" and the only unseen posibilities were how long it would take to put you in hospital!

After using someone elses DeWalt for a week I realized what I was missing and I've recently bought a Bosch GMF1400CE, bit pricey but a mighty fine tool. I notice Axi are now doing a router lifter now on special with this router, that's annoying

 

[dickm]

Another Bosch POF 50 for starters. Got as a special offer somewhere, but soon replaced by Elu MOF96 which is still going strong, accompanied by another MOF 96. After a brief flirtation with a big Bosch, now have an Elu 177e which lives in the table. The Elu machines really are superb; haven't tried them in their new yellow form, but suspect short cuts will have been taken

And if we are talking really old times, first power tool was a single speed B&D drill, bought from one of the mail order companies in the early 1960s. Complete with "accessory kit" of drill bits made from chocolate and a sanding disk that was ideal for making nasty circular scars on surfaces.

 

[jimi43]

I have an embarrassingly large collection of routers...I can't resist picking them up at bootfairs...for next to nothing.

I usually get a bit of a grin from the seller...he KNOWS it is not working. My grin is bigger though...cos I KNOW it is usually the brushes...and sometimes even the fuse!!! :wink:

My very first one was from Homebase...one of them there 1/4" jobbies from Taiwan that is also called Wickes and Nu-tool....amongst other things!

I still have it and as someone here remarked...it is STRANGELY good!! Of course the box of bits it came with went right out of the window immediately....got a bearing bit...I think it was a CMT or Trend but it was MORE than the router itself!

This little baby (£5 bootfair) is going into my table:

Once that is set up I can get rid of a few of the rubbish ones...

:lol:

Jim

 

[The_Stig]

Mine was a 1/4" Black and Decker that I got given when a friend of the family passed away, I binned it recently as the collet broke and the bit came out whilst it was at full speed.

 

[JoinerySolutions]

now have an Elu 177e which lives in the table. The Elu machines really are superb; haven't tried them in their new yellow form, but suspect short cuts will have been taken

Not that I have seen. Elu, Black and Decker and Dewalt were all the same company at one point, I think the powers that be decided to cut costs by losing the Elu brand and concentrate on the Dewalt one as they were huge in USA. The upside of the dewalt is all my jigs etc still work with it. Especially my circle cutting kit and elipse kit I designed that my toolmaker brother made for me. It has six bars that screw into each other and each is 1metre long, they come in handy for routing things in faces of wide doors too. :lol:
A big fan of Elu me, great tools for a busy carpenter/joiner, one of my tools featured in the woodworker article I wrote. I prefer the colour scheme too, yellow and black just seems a bit childlike.