The Porter Cable 691 is a better router. It's an old design and is a light duty router mainly used for rounding over edges. Doesn't have enough power to do serious cuts. (I'm a woodworker)
Some of the old 691 routers had a bushing on the top instead of a bearing. It can be replaced with a bearing on most though.
For woodworking I prefer the Milwaukee routers. The 5615 and 5616 are the same except the 16 is 2.5HP. Their variable speed is much better than porter cable as well(smoother). The speed controller is potted on the milwaukee. The PC is not and the PC ones fail often IME. *If* you have to replace the one on the Milwaukee it's ~$15 last I checked. Milwaukee also has a great collet.
I won't use a B&D skil or Ryobi(some Craftsman) router. They all have the auto depth feature. IE the router bit slips while you cut.
One router to look at for larger machines is the new Milwaukee router made just for router tables. It has a remote speed control that could be extended for cnc puropses. |