Hand Held Router Advice

[Dave876]

Hi all,

I bought, a while ago, a Ryobi router and table. Which seemed a grand idea, but I was a bit naive and didn't read up on it or anything, and so it's a cheapie off e-bay. So anyway, it languished in the garage for a while. Now I am getting round to doing things, I notice several things. Firstly, it's not very powerful. And secondly, I had intended to use it in the table with a dovetail jig - except the damn thing won't lift high enough!

So - the dovetail jig I can use without a table, and this might in fact be easier given the need to swap bits (yet another factor I had just ignored!)
But I have 2 questions.

Firstly, I would assume the router bit varies from brand to brand for quality, and given that is the bit that is actually doing the work, I further assume it is good to spend some money on quality. Is this correct? And if so, a list of recommended brands (and, of course, a cheap on-line store!) would be helpful.

Secondly - any recommendations for a hand-held router? I *might* look at fitting it to the router table, or I might make one myself from various designs that are shown here at a later date, but my primary goal would be something that would be hand held for now - so I guess it's a compromise between power and weight?

And any further advice that covers things I haven't thought of yet would be great!!

TIA
David

 

[mailee]

Hello David, If it is a hand held router I would go for the De Walt 615 or indeed the 613 as they are from good breeding so to speak. If you cold get hold of a good one second hand I would reccomend the Elu 96E as this is in my opinion the Rolls Royce of routers. These routers are around the 900Watt power but are adequate for hand held jobs. If you wanted a router for a table then I would recommend the De Walt 625E, Hitachi MV12, Freud 2000 or has been mentioned on here a few times the big Triton. I cannot really comment on the Triton as I haven't tried one but judging by the following on here they seem to be a good buy for a table mounted router. If you use a small hand held router for a table then it will be a compromise as they are really not powerful enough for a lot of jobs. Saying that I did start with a Bosh 600 in a table and although it took much longer it did most of the jobs I had. I personally have the Hitachi in my table and find it manages any job I can throw at it. I also have the big De Walt but use this manily for Kitchen fitting. Hope this is of some help to you. :wink:

 

[Colin C]

I will add one more to the list DW621 as it is also very good hand held too, or an Elu 97e but you cant go wrong with any of them.

Good luck with your choice.