Hi Spiro, As so often is the case, price depends! The biggest and best routers can cost in excess of $500. Big ones are often pretty nice in a router table and the power is often welcome however depending on your primary use these big beggars are not necessarily the best buy. They are not even the most versatile. They are very powerful, very heavy and usually very big. Definitely not the sort of machine you want for mortising out hinges.
If you are likely to be using very big bits like panel raising bits then you will really appreciate variable speed to slow down the large diameter bits but in practice I rarely slow my variable speed down but that will depend on what you are doing. So, something like a hundred and fifty bucks for the smaller light weight so-called trim routers would buy you a pretty darn good one, maybe 250 dollars for a two and a quarter to two and a half horse power router with or without plunge base which, for most people would probably be about the most versatile. Something approaching 300 bucks should buy a big 3.25 HP router. Porter Cable among others make a pretty nice router motor which will receive fixed or plunge bases. Although a plunge base can be fixed they have a lot of extra stuff on them so interchangeable bases might be a nice option and I see them for a little better than 200 bucks. Most all accessories are universal to the Porter Cable routers. My objection to most Porter Cable routers though is that they require two wrenches for bit changes and the operation is usually a knuckle skinner. The result though is very positive, still they could come up with a better solution. If you want one for a router table be sure to buy one with what they call through the base height adjustment. I should have waited for that option before buying my big Triton. You also want one which rises above the table top for bit changes, this is a very convenient and worth while feature. American prices might be a little less just now but once you get down to around a hundred bucks or a little more you will be disappointed unless you only make very occasional use of light work of the router. Hope this is helpful. ----- Original Message ----- From: Spiro To: blindhandyman@yahoogroups.com Sent: Thursday, January 08, 2009 4:17 PM Subject: [BlindHandyMan] routers Hi, I do not know what brand plunge router I have. I bought it at an ACE hardware. It has a wrench, springs up and down with a moderate almost weak lock, has a flat side for following edges with it's shoe, it has a depth max setting, two handles, and allen screw fittings to affix guide stuff. It only accepts one size of bit, whatever is the common. It's on/off went first, then it just burned out. I can have it repaired for the price of $30 plus two shipments and parts and labor. I was wondering about what does a "heavy duty home" router cost? I didn't think this would burn out as it had enough kick to toss material if not clamped. So whatever, "heavy Riobi" Porter Cable, about what should I expect to pay; to determine fi getting mine fixed and cleaned is worth it at this economically based decision point. Thanks! [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
