Official Luthiers Forum!

I would like to hear any opinions/experience you guys have on routers. I am going to order a router mount so I have a backup to my columbo spindle. I currently have a few porter cable routers I use for hand routing chores (a 690 and a 892) but was thinking of picking up one of the hitachi m12's as a dedicated cnc router. They have a pretty impressive db rating (quiet is always nice). Ever since pc moved production to mexico (my 892 is mim) the quality seems to have dropped a bit. The milwaukee routers have also gotten some good reviews. I am looking in the 2.25hp range, so any other experiences with other brands are appreciated.
thanks

I have two PC's a 690 and a 7518. They are pretty unimpressive in my books.

I have two Milwaukee 5625-20's. They are a lot smoother running, have way less runnout and are slightly quieter than the PC's. They seem to need bearing replacement more often than the PC's though. I run them pretty hard YMMV.

I don't have any experience with Hitachi other than their 14.4 v drill. It's one of my least favorite drills.

Send me the Colombo and I will send you several Bosch 1617EVS's.

I'm no expert, but, in my opinion, Hitachi is not what I would call a high end tool. I rank them with Ridgid, sort of a step down from the higher end tools, but reasonable quality.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

I run the 892 on my K2 CNC and it has done well for me. I have done every thing I can think of to try to ruin the thing, but it keeps ticking...!

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http://www.PeakeGuitars.com

I have owned a few routers over the years and would recommend sticking with Porter Cable. The Porter Cable routers have been around for a long time and are almost universal. If you want to buy a router lift or any other attachments you will find the PC routers are easy to fit.

Just a something to think about.

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Brad
Avon, OH