Question for Bosch Colt Owners

[Bill Borchardt]

I'm getting ready to buy a Bosch Colt palm/trim router. For approx $50 more the "Installer Kit" comes with a roller guide, offset base, tilt base, and underscribe attachment in addition to the normal straight edge guide.

For Bosch Colt owners: Is it worthwhile to pay the extra $$ and get the extra bases? BTW: I do not plan to do laminate installations.

Billbo
Smyrna GA

[Mike Henderson]

I don't have the kit and never missed it. I just do regular woodworking - no laminate.

Mike

[Eduard Nemirovsky]

I do use roller guide ( most of the time) and offset base(very occasionally). Can you buy accessories separately?
Ed.

[Lori Kleinberg]

I don't have the accessories package and haven't missed it in more then a years use of the Colt. BTW, I am a garage/workshop woodworker.

[Bill Borchardt]

RE: Can you buy accessories separately?

Yes Amazon has the two accessory bases:
- Offset base = $61.17
- Tilting base = $37.99

Billbo
Smyrna GA

[Jerome Hanby]

Just the router, and not the vs model and I've never missed accessories or VS, I did buy template guides and some type of add on base, All that stuff is still unused in the original boxes.

[glenn bradley]

I didn't buy the kit but, like Mike, I just do woodworking, not laminate counter tops. The supplied base is bothersome so I did spend $45 for the round and offset base from Pat Warner. Great craftsmanship and perfectly centered but, I have yet to use the round base. The offset alone is $30.

[Bill Huber]

I did not get the kit but I did order the base that will hole the PC bushing and I use it all the time.
http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=16819&filter=router%20base

I also got an off set base from Woodcraft and have it drilled for the Colt. I have used it 2 or 3 times for different operations.
http://www.woodcraft.com/product.aspx?ProductID=146771&FamilyID=5539

[Peter Quinn]

I have the kit and have used every piece of it at one point or another. I don't do laminate work, but I have found situations where those bases have proven quite useful. The tilt base is probably the most useful one to me. I can also imagine depending on your work that none of that stuff would ever make it out of the box, so its a hard call to make. I do like the router, and thought the variable speed was a great idea, but in reality I have never used anything but maximum speed and small bits, so maybe it was a waste of money for me?

[Robert Chapman]

I really like my VS Colt. I would suggest not buying the kit unless you find out later that you need some or all of the parts in it. The Colt is a really great little tool.

[rich murray]

One thing I haven't seen mentioned about this router is the front spindle lock which is supposed to give one-wrench bit changes. Mine worked maybe the first 10 times, then it slipped out of lock no matter how hard I pushed the red button. The proper sized wrench and a bench grinder to thin it down solved that problem. Now it's a two wrench router, and I like it a lot. I don't have the kit.

[J. Greg Jones]

Bosch is aware of the spindle lock problem and if you call them, they will send out a wrench at no charge.

[Curt Harms]

Bosch is aware of the spindle lock problem and if you call them, they will send out a wrench at no charge.
I bought a non-kit Colt 6 months or so ago. It came with both wrenches. So far, my spindle lock has behaved as expected. Of course I haven't used it much yet.

[Bill Borchardt]

Thanks for all the inputs/advice.

I decided to bid on a variable speed Colt on eBay (non kit) - and won it!

I think I'll order an ofset base from Pat Warner.

Again . . . . thanks for all the good advice.

Billbo
Smyrna, GA