router with 1/2" collet

[balsaman]

Who makes a nice quiet router with a half inch collet that won't break the bank, and that is easilly fitted to a cnc machine. A lot of routers are plunge routers and have those nasty molded handles etc!

Eric

[boxwood]

Here is the one I wanna get I have used one and it is relatively quiet and oh so smooth, soft start feature and the body is round 3 1/4 for aesy mounting check out the Model RF1101
http://www.internationaltool.com/makitarouter.htm

Ray

[ger21]

If you want something quiet it needs to be variable speed to slow it down. Porter-Cable, Bosch and Makita all have variable speed in the 1 3/4 - 2 1/4 HP range (10-12 amp). Not sure of the price in Canada, but between $160 and $190 US.

Gerry

[anoel]

I hear nothing but great things about the Porter-Cable 690 router. It seems to be one of the most popular with the guys doing major wood cutting with CNC machines. Below is a link at Amazon for $139.99, the best price I could find locally was $179.99.


http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...arden&n=507846

Oh, and it's reasonably quiet too when you employ a speed control and reduce the speed to better match your feed rates that you'll be using with CNC. These things run way too fast unless you are cutting at high speed.

[HomeCNC]

Or you can go with the PC 3-1/4 HP vari-speed router. I got this for my CNC router and it too has soft start. At the 10,000 RPM range it is very quiet. I mostly use this setting with no problems at all. My long finish job was 7 hours and the router was barely warm.

[cbcnc]

The PC 690 router is a really robust router for it's size. The shop that I worked in until recently had about 15 of them. Some were close to 20 years old and had only the brushes replaced. They got hard use too. Like cutting with a 1/2" bit, slots 4" long in 3/4" ply all day long. No problem. The larger 3 HP routers would get put into the router tables and pattern cut parts all day long also.

Chris

[coherent]

I'll second (or third or fourth) the comments about the porter cable 690. Very robust router that has performed flawlessly for me. You can get a couple of different bases from standard to plunge etc that change quickly on ebay or the net. I have 2 standard bases and one plunge. Comes with a 1/2 and 1/4 inch collets. I use it in my cnc machine, router table and a handheld plunger base. Swapping the head from one base to another takes about 30 seconds. It a hard start and no variable speed, but works great with the (on sale 12.99 Harbour Freight) router speed controller I just got. Here's a link for the basic unit for $119, and with 2 bases for $149.
http://www.woodworkersshop.com/Porte...690_Router.htm
-Marc
P.S. Oh, and the handles can be easily removed.

[balsaman]

Thanks guys for that recommendation. I think I will look for that router on sale here in Canada. I have one of those speed controls, so single speed is no problem.

Eric