router questions

[Hambone]

yea, i'm wondering the same thing. most of the routers on there are from Chicago Electric. is this good quality stuff? i've seen them on Ebay quite a bit.

Guys, you can look at the price and tell it's not great equipment. To expect otherwise is being naive and gullible. But being lifelong tools is NOT what their purpose is. Their purpose is to rout something you want to rout - right now - without having to wait 6 more months to save the beans for one that WILL last you most of your life and cost 4-5 times as much. These are essentially throw-away tools but they do their job pretty well and certainly well enough so that you can't tell.

So, you can ask yourself these questions...

- Will this do what I want, in a manner good enough to see if this is what I want to do? (guitar building)

- What IS the essential difference in a $40 router and a $150 router? Does the difference offset the quality factor or does the price offset the quality factor?

- Do I really want to build guitars or PLAN to build guitars when I can save enough money to get really expensive stuff?

- Am I going to be able to earn the money for expensive shop tools in the future? If not, do I have enough money now for them?

- Can an inexpensive tool teach me anything about woodwork? Can anything but an expensive tool teach me anything?

- If I can't afford an inexpensive router, what's the sense of wishing for an expensive one?

- Can I tell by looking at a cut how much the tool cost that made the cut?

 

[Hambone]

I've heard too many horror stories about routers to go cheap on it.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all about cheap most of the time. A cheap drill might break on you, a cheap table saw might burn out when trying to rip a 4" piece of wenge, big deal. You're out a bit of cash to repair/replace.
But a cheap router or bit can cause some serious damage to you if things go wrong. It's worth the extra $50 to me to get a quality router, and an extra $5-10 per bit so that I don't have to worry as much about a bit becoming shrapnel at 20k rpm.

I'd like to hear the case of a ROUTER failure that caused injury. Bits and collets can break and are well known to do so - that's why they sell them in bulk. But unless there is a major design flaw, I can't see you being hurt by the router itself.

 

[Suburban]

Of course, the true deciding factor is feel and performance. Cheapo tools will get the job done, but you have to fight them the whole way. I was firmly of the belief that if you could get it cheaper it was better, but after having the opportunity to use (very) high quality tools, there's really no comparison. The frustration saved is pretty much worth the price right there.

Now that's not to say you have to buy nothing but Milwaukee and Freud, but there is something to be said for spending a bit more and going to a nice middle of the road brand. There's also a safety factor involved. I don't want to be holding on to a cheaply made tool that's spinning as fast as a router does. If something goes wrong, it might cost you more than the $40 for the tool.

-Nate

I told you: I still want a DeWalt!

 

[klocwerk]

I'd like to hear the case of a ROUTER failure that caused injury. Bits and collets can break and are well known to do so - that's why they sell them in bulk. But unless there is a major design flaw, I can't see you being hurt by the router itself.

I heard of one instance where a cheapo handle snapped off, causing the router to kick out hard from the workpiece, guy dropped it. Admitedly it's far more likely to be a cheapo bit taking chunks out of your torso, but still.