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Even that sudden jerking has caught me by surprise first time, I'm still unable to get used to this procedure at the start when your arms are tired in a knot by inertia created from sudden increase of speed from 0 to 24,000 RPM. That might be a good feature on a car merging the highway traffic, but not for hand held operations (well, my router sits in the table now, and initial rev is subsided by the beefy construction). This plate had bene sitting in my shop for over two years, but I've never had a chance to outfit it with PC brand router, since both of my Porter- Cables are set for specific tasks and I prefer not to change the settings. Other little cons are not important and the router is great.
This router's shoulder prevent this, what makes changing bits a breeze. I typically read only negative comments prior to purchasing anything- that allows a better understanding of the overall rating of the tools, since sometimes a perfect tool might get a one star only because it had been damaged in shipping, arrived late or for some other silly irrelevant reason. Just make sure that you orient the handles right, when positioning the baseplate- otherwise, the router won't fit into your table opening- learned the hard way that the handles are about two inches wider in certain position than the standard 9" X 12" aluminum base. The main downside is lack of the soft start.
I prefer using the story sticks for setups, so the depth dial was not important, although it proved rather accurate (checked it, but won't be using this feature). The pros: Base of the router does fit in pre-drilled aluminum Rockler router plate that had bene originally designed and labeled "for Porter Cable 690 only". Since then I've probably spoiled myself with more advanced tools, most of which had soft start as a standard feature. When I first fired the router without any collets or bits- just to check the power, it twisted my wrists like the cumbersome "Skill" that I've purchased back in early 90-s. In my Porter Cables the wrenches always came together slipping and sliding to the small "neck" area between the collet and the shaft. Mine had been too loose and the body originally slipped down during the cut, once positioned in the table, but it took only two twists/ turns of the crank to make things perfect. The cam lock on the body is great and thankfully provides a positive grip with minimum effort. I didn't use the 1/4' collet, but the half inch one has a cute double locking feature: the initial tightening allows placing the bit in the correct position to prevent bottoming out and the second half turn after that securely locks it in place (that was also a concern, after reading the review about router bits coming loose).
The brushes don't show much wear after 60+ hours (I've purchased this router only a week ago). Woodhaven or similar brand offers base plates on Amazon for Hitachi M12VC and Porter cable as separate ones (so does Rockler). The price of $118 with free shipping seems very fair.The cons: made in China (thus probably the clunking noise) and ugly looks (but who cares about sticking out chunks of metallic auto paint, when the router is out of sight most of the time, when mounted on the table). The handles are nice and soft, although I wasn't planing to use this particular router as a handheld, but rounding over free hand/ upright proved to be effortless. I double checked the technical data and couldn't find any advertisement about that feature on this particular router, although believe that the jerking created on my unit is way out of hand or "more into hands" (it could very easily be just a lemon, but I won't be going through the hassle of exchanging/ returning).
Variable speed is good: it comes in six settings, but you'll have to set your rotations by ear (to me, the dial somewhere between 4 and 5 seems like about 20 RPM, and that's where I'd leave it for bowl rough plowing at 1/4" depth- yes, if can handle that without bogging and skipping 1/8" increments with cherry at least). The 1/4" collet that came with my router develops eccentric movement- I believe it's just a faulty one, since a ½" bit, being off center, could easily rout a 3/4" dado. Despite router's relatively medium power (1-3/4 HP), it managed to handle all tasks thrown at it with dignity (obviously, at lower speeds) from router carving a soap dish to complicated interlocking dovetail joinery. The noise is minimal in decibels, although there is a lot of metallic clunking (first, I've thought that the internal bearings should "broken in", but, even after over sixty hours, the metal noise exists, though no signs of mechanical defects). Having a good experience with the Hitachi brand I've purchased this one as an addition to my newly built third router table. The best part is the little shoulder on the collets for the wrenches that prevents any slippage.
Not much- only about 1/4', but that makes it slightly uncomfortable while changing bits with the wobbly router dancing upside down on the workbench and once I've plugged the router with the switch "on" (not a big deal, since the router had bene already seated in the table, although a possible hazard, if anything would be touching it).I am taking one star away from this wonderful tool only because the lack of the soft start. The power on/ off switch that came with my router is protruding slightly above the base. The bit doesn't slip out, but I decided not using this collet (anyway 1/4" shanks produce more heat and always suitable for majority of the works). I'm glad that there is no need to special order anything and these two models are interchangeable. Another good feature of this tool- is the ability of the collet to protrude slightly over the base: sometimes, even with a two inch long bit, one can miss that couple thousands of an inch to get to the desired depth, especially mortising thick table legs (on most routers that table insert consumes already 1/4" of the possible height, but not on this one). Rubber cord is long and great- once properly stretched doesn't have any memory like cheap plastic armored ones.
On one of them the contact was poor initially- showed uneven wear, but I've fixed that by stretching slightly the spring.
great buy all around. eronomically sound. low noise. theres nothing on the market which is better (for the price). somewhat light for a powerful router.
This is my first router and I love it. The router worked well for what I needed it for. Performed like I imagined. It may be a year before I use it again so it's not going to be used hard.
had this router for only a short while so can not comment long term runs well works great both bases are easy to use it has two tools to change the bits which i favor [the two wrenches supplied are poor to say the least] the thing that i realy do not like is the collet nut nobody uses square nuts on anything but this has a square nut four sided collet and is very hard to change bits unless you remove the motor from the base
Our favorite router to modify for dust collection.Smooth motor, good power and easy controls.You can easily modify the router for almost 100% dust collection.Visit the [.]. for a picture totorial.Next time, we will post pictures in Amazon for other people to see.dinoeurekazone
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