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Golibear

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Hi Guys,

I am quite new to wood working, been working in construction for a few years, so I have amassed quite a lot of tools. I've recently developed an interest in wood work, and am shopping around for a good quality albeit reasonably priced router. If you have any good suggestions then do share! Ideally, I am looking for a 1/2" shank.
 
Hi

One thing this is the hand tool section, the only screaming is when we let the red stuff out :wink:

Hitachi M12V is probably the best cheapest 1/2" router. I have one and prefer it to my Makita 3612.


Pete
 
I have Makita stuff but if i was in the market for one, it would be the Hitachi as mentioned above.
 
Do you have any idea what you are going to do with a router?

Table mounted routers can be as big as you like. If youre going to do hand held then you need to think about the weight. some 1/2" routers are absolute monsters.

you'll get at least 20 different recommendations as far as make.
I have a makita 1801x in a table and I love it.
 
I'm a fan of Elu routers. However they are no longer made. If I lived in the UK and was searching out a large router for hand and table use, I'd take a serious look at the Trend T11. This is the re-incarnation of the Elu 177e (which I have used for over 25 years). It has the advantage of a built-in Router Raizer.

Regards from Perth

Derek
 
Thanks for the replies!
I was browsing around, and it appears there are a few variants of the Hitachi, namely, the M12VE abd M12V2. Any guidelines on which I should go for?
 
As far as I can tell just some styling changes.

Pete
 
I have a Hitachi M12. It's great. I use it both hand held and in a table. If you're looking to use a router table a lot, you might want to look at a model with table-friendly height adjustment, such as the Triton(IIRC). I have a "Router Raizer" attached to my trusty M12. But I only bought it because they were on sale in America, and I had one of my brother-in-laws bring it over for me, so fairly cheap option.
 
If you want a router mainly for table mounting, then consider the Triton TRA001, which will change bits above the table so no need to go under the table for anything.
 
I seem to be the only makita router owner here.
I have a large 1/2" router in the table which is faultless, and cost barely £200 brand new delivered. It can be height adjusted above the table and bits changed comfortable through the kreg plate opening. With sleeves I use 1/4", 6mm, 8mm, even 3/8" bits as well as the 1/2"
And I have a couple 1/4" edge trimmers which are so easy to use. These are at least 15 years old (possibly 20+) and still function fine. The on off switch got broken off the top of one of them. £25 for the makita part, £2.50 from my local electrical wholesaler.

No desires to change any of them.
I also have a new powerplus router. PIECE OF S%£*. DO NOT BUY Powerplus.
 
What model of Makita have you got in your table bob? I didn’t know they had one with above table height adjustment and would be interested in hearing how that works.
 
Golibear":23xh17kw said:
Thanks for the replies!
I was browsing around, and it appears there are a few variants of the Hitachi, namely, the M12VE abd M12V2. Any guidelines on which I should go for?

Triton every day,,, can't be beaten for price and for use under a table. The TRA001 under, and the next model down MOF 101 for table and hand held work I have both fitted to my Legacy lathes.
Very easy bit changing, and spares easy to get from [email protected]
 
memzey,
its a ,,,,,,(hastily runs to the garage to look at the handbook because he cant remember) RP1801.
It comes with a long threaded phillips headed screw that fits into the router base. You drill a suitably placed hole in the plate and then you can use a phillips screwdriver to adjust height.
I very quickly got fed up with the phillips screwdriver because of my arthritic hands so changed the screw out for a 10 mm long bolt, and then used a 1/4" socket speed brace. Very fast and accurate adjustments.

But Then I got a new kreg plate because the other bowed (kreg customer service is 5*), and decided that rather than drill another hole in the top I would build myself a router lift out of scrap wood and put a large rotary handle on the front of the cabinet. Now I have micrometer adjustment with no effort at all. Cost about 75 pence or so.
 
Sounds interesting bob. Did you put up details of your table and lift mechanism on the forum?
 
i've mentioned it a couple times, but no documented wip. I can make stuff that works, but cant make stuff thats pretty as well.

I can email you under plain brown wrapper if you want. (lol)
 

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