Re: Routers

Joe Johns — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 23:53:59 GMT

Ohh, my, but you do have a flair for opening up Pandora's box!

This subject, unlike Shakepeare's Julius Caesar, will die thousands of deaths and no one will be the victor. What you have to do is, ultimately, try both. I, frankly, grew tiresome of arguing this subject and gave in to the fact some people think a plunge router is what they have, that is what I'm going to use and so there.

But I'll tell you what a representative of Porter Cable told me at a woodworking show, "A plunge router was not designed to be used in a router table".

Why? Well, because of the workings of the plunge mechanism. The tubes that slide up and down? In a table environment they are upsidedown and dust will get in there eventually and clog up the shafts. Unless you get a fancy adjustment plate that fits your specific router then adjusting the depth of cut accurately is impossible. That plate can cost in the neighborhood of $300.

So, for a router table, I advise getting a fixed based router. As for HP, no less than 2 1/2 HP, preferably 3 1/4 HP.

Joe Johns, Twisted Knot Woodshop

Routers

dansharp — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 19:23:55 GMT

which type of router works best on a router table? A plunge router or a fixed router.

Tool Questions

Re: Routers

Routers