My New Router

[austin.mn]

I have been using PC routers on my machine for the last couple of years, they seemed to do the job, but they had a lot of runout. the runout seemed to be in the collets themselves, when i measured the runout of the bore it seemed to have almost none, but you put a bit in and tighten it down and i was looking at .005 which was just too much for cutting aluminum. small bits would break almost instantly and there was a lot of vibration.

so after toasting another PC this week it was time to get a new one. i did a little research on the net, but that doesn't really tell you much.... every router review said that whatever the router was you were looking at was great. so i went to a couple of home centers looked at them in the store... when i saw the ridgid i was in love with the collet. it looked like it had the potential to be very good. i got it home a few hours ago, checked the runout on the bench and it was near zero. i was sooo excited. until i tried to mount it.... its a little bigger than the PC's body, 3.617 is what i measured. but it only took a little while to modify my original mount and i was off to the races.

did a few standard cuts and was very impressed with the finish that was attainable. i do a lot of v-bit cutting into aluminum and with the old router in was kinda hit and miss as to weather you would get a good finish on the cut. not any more. the finish on the cuts was the best i have seen come off my machine to date.

so anywho, if you are in the market for a new router check out the Ridgid at home depot you will be very happy with it.

other benefits:

it has a couple of lights on the bottom that illuminate your work, kinda nice

it will turn on with the solid state relay, my variable speed porter cable wouldn't. you had to quickly turn the router on after starting your program. this is a big bonus to me.

it also has a lot of accessories that came with it, they will just go in the cabinet in my shop... the router will never be pulled off the machine again until it is toasted.

[Regnar]

austin it should be the last router that you ever buy. Make sure you fill out the info for the lifetime warranty. You will need the receipt, UPC code off the box. It covers all wearable parts! So collets and such are covered but you need to register it. I have the rigid variable speed trim and it works great for me. I cant imagine a full size. I guess I will have to check it out next time I'm at HD.

[austin.mn]

it is definately worth checking out. i just went out and did some more test cutting. i am very satisfied! its like cutting with a brand new machine, it should be very repeatable. it does seem to be pretty noisy, i don't think it is any noisier than the pc, but you can really hear the internal fan moving some air. other than that though, this thing is money well spent. the lifetime warranty is just the icing on the cake.