Routers with great dust/chip collection?

[Dan Case LR]

I'm contemplating adding another handheld router to my fold, specifically because I need one with excellent (or at least good) dust/chip collection capabilities. Which routers have you used that fill the need?

Not looking to take out a second mortgage, but also don't want jink I'll regret buying.

Thanks!

D.

[shane lyall]

Hard to beat the Porter Cable 690 or 890 series IMO

[Jeff Hamilton Jr.]

Dewalt DW621

[Edward A Miller]

You need to have a router that will faithfully satisfy your 'routing demands', then shop for dust collection; it might just be that any recommendation I'd make might suck for all the wrong reasons!

I do have a handheld DeWalt DW621 (but) mounted on a home-made threading station. I believe I've replaced brushes once so far, but that tool is used for light duty work, threading 1" dia dowel rod. However, the router will run stop & go for 2-3 hours at a time several times a month. There has been nearly 600 LF of rod threaded so far! This has been in operation since May 1998 and really works well for my needs.

I also run a couple of Makita 3612's and thought at one time I'd hook them up to a vaccum system. so I purchased a Makita shroud #192035-6. It looked kinds chincy so I never installed these. I don't have anything on my 'fleet' of PC690's (usually 3-4 routers cranking off/on during a project so the collection hoses would be unmanageable), but I do have brooms!

Might help to outline your intended use so others can compare apples/apples.. Good luck.

[Kevin Gagne]

I have a Festool OF1010 and it is excellent. I can route MDF and have just about no dust while doing it. Much better than the Dewalt I used to use. I find that the 1010 is a great compliment to a router table. Between those two I can do everything that I need to and the dust collection on both is excellent.

[John Coloccia]

It's difficult to recommend anything but a Festool for a high quality router with great dust collection.

[Jeff Monson]

For freehand routing, the Festool is very hard to beat.

[Van Huskey]

Home equity loan = Festool OF 2200

Micro loan = Festool OF1400

Budget I think you mean = DW621

If you need a fixed base or dual base kit the Bosch MRC23 is on the better end as is the PC 894PK (pluge base) and the D-Handle PC

[Victor Robinson]

I just added an OF1400. The fine dust collection is fantastic. That doesn't mean it gets all the chips, depending on the operation. It's an extremely smooth plunging unit, and being able to use it with the guide rail is very nice. However, it doesn't make as much sense if you don't have or plan on investing in other Festools (e.g. guide rails). Also, the cost of Festool accessories drives up the investment more than you might think initially. To really get the most out of an OF1400, you'd need a guide rail (which you may or may not have already), guide stop ($75), possibly edge guide ($70)...so you're up over $700 quickly.

Of course, Festool offers the 30 day no questions asked return policy, so you can try it out and decide if it's worth it.*

[Greg Portland]

I have a Dewalt 625 and the Festool vac hose connects right into it's DC port. The "port" is a plastic piece that snaps into the router base. I've been very pleased with the level of dust collection.

[Van Huskey]

To really get the most out of an OF1400, you'd need a guide rail (which you may or may not have already), guide stop ($75), possibly edge guide ($70)...so you're up over $700 quickly.



Just for clarity so nobody has a stroke AND a heart attack at the same time, but only has one or the other. Adding these to a Festool router only adds to it's capacities, as is it does everything one expects from a mid-sized plunge router out of the box. In many cases it does those jobs better than many others. I would mention the OF1400 and OF1010 have DIFFERENT ergonomics compared to most plungers so you need to make sure this works for you, but you do have the 30 days. The 2200 has more "standard" ergonomics.

[Edward A Miller]

There might also be added vacuum efficiency with up-cut spiral bits to 'lift' some chips into the path of the pick-up port. I don't use these (but did try some years ago), so this mention is intended as a prod for comments by others. Hopefully, someone will elaborate on this. Thanks

[Gary Curtis]

The engineers at Festool have mastered that task. I own a DeWalt 625, a small Makita, a Milwaukee in my router table, and the Festool OF-1400. The 1400 is a medium HP unit. I use it the most.

You can't argue that Festool is real expensive. Now that I've used their equipment for about 6 years, I can say this. All my other machinery is worth a fraction of what I paid for it. Much of it has the same price and is sold on Amazon.com.
The Festool, though sells used on eBay for the new price I paid.

I'm not an economist, but I think the term for that is 'value'.

[Peter Kuhlman]

As has been said, really depends upon your usage. I am a router addict and have at least 12. By far the best plunge routers for dust collection are my Festool models with the 2200 at the top, then the 1010 then the 1400. The 1010 is a wonderful machine and fairly reasonable priced if you can live with 1/4" or 8mm shank bits. I use it more than any of my other routers as it is so comfortable and controllable and as long as you purchase quality bits from Freud or other name brand suppliers it works fantastic.

More reasonably priced initially would be the plunge model Dewalts - 625, 621 and in 1/4" shank the 611 set although the dust collection shrouds are an extra cost option for that model. The 621 has very good collection and the 625 is decent and both are 1/2" shank models. Dewalt used to manufacture their routers in Italy and moved to Mexico. My older Italian routers are still running fine but I have had issues with my Mexico sourced models.

[Victor Robinson]

Just for clarity so nobody has a stroke AND a heart attack at the same time, but only has one or the other. Adding these to a Festool router only adds to it's capacities, as is it does everything one expects from a mid-sized plunge router out of the box. In many cases it does those jobs better than many others. I would mention the OF1400 and OF1010 have DIFFERENT ergonomics compared to most plungers so you need to make sure this works for you, but you do have the 30 days. The 2200 has more "standard" ergonomics.

Hehe, thanks for clarifying Van. I suppose my point was more that a Festool router really starts making more sense value-wise when you use the system's excellent accessories, but they are not cheap. If I were to simply use my OF1400 without any accessories (e.g. guide rail, guide stop), it would just be a smooth plunger with good DC. Not sure if that would be worth $500 to me is all I meant.

[Dan Clark]

I use a large Triton in my router table, a Bosch Colt for odd trimming work, and a Festool OF1400 for everything else. The Festool OF1400 is a great router - much better quality than the Triton or Bosch - and the dust collection is very good. HOWEVER... If I were to do it over again, I'd get the OF1010 for most free-hand work and the OF2200 because... Well, just because.

When the OF2200 was first announced, I was lucky enough to attend the first Festool customer training class. I knew that we would get hands-on training on the MFK700, Kapex, and OF2200. Before the training, I KNEW I would buy the MFK700, was interested in the Kapex, and had NO interest in the OF2200. Life has a way of throwing a monkey wrench in what we "know"...

AFTER experiencing the three tools, I had no interest in the MFK700, a bit more interest in the Kapex, and had a serious case of the "drools" for the OF2200! It's big and heavy, and I have no use for a router that big. But boy did I want one. It has every feature you could want, almost perfect dust collection that doesn't get in the way, is comfortable to use, and has gobs of power. Basically, it's a hand-held shaper.

But it's also, big, expensive, and I don't have any use for one. If you can afford it and can use it, it's a no-brainer as the best router available. IMO, of course.

Regards,

Dan.

p.s. If you buy the accessory kits, you'll need to take out a third mortgage too. :)

[John Coloccia]

My older Italian routers are still running fine but I have had issues with my Mexico sourced models.

Bearing/motor problems, right?

[Neil Brooks]

Home equity loan = Festool OF 2200


Van,

I'm 47, but ... don't remember what "home equity" is.

Care to enlighten me ? :o

[I'd love a 2200. I can't believe I actually watched an entire YouTube vid about it. I felt ... a strange sort of guilt ... like I didn't want my wife to catch me watching it !]

[Dan Case LR]

Hard to beat the Porter Cable 690 or 890 series IMO

I have a 690 series with the regular, D-handle, and plunge bases. It's a good router, but no dust collection. PC used to make a dust-collection add-on, but discontinued it. A recent router job (and the clean-up afterward) with the 690 is what got me thinking about a different router.

D.

[joseph f merz]

i have a festool 1400 and the dewalt 621. unfortantly i agree with previous post on dewalt quality .but you asked for a router with dust collection .the dewalt 621 hands down has better dust collection then the 1400 . i have mine set-up with a collet and pretty much do all my mortising with it . Using the dust collection is a knom brainer to often .saves time ,saves cleanup and tends to make better mortises being i do not have little chunks of wood getting in the way . The 1400 has what strikes me as after thought dust colllection where as the dewalt was made for dust collection .

[Rick Potter]

A little off track, but have you looked into the dust collection base made by Betterly (sp)? They have a video on Youtube I think. I actually bought one. It has real HD quality, but I have not hooked it up yet, and have no real first hand knowlege.

Rick Potter

edit: just googled 'betterly router base' and found it. They make router accessories for the granite and solid surface trade, which work fine for wood too. They have videos on their website.

[Curt Harms]

Hard to beat the Porter Cable 690 or 890 series IMO

The 890 works better than you'd expect when the bit opening is covered, for example routing a dado. Using the built-in dust collection for edge work is less than perfect, it gets some but by no means all. If I were doing quite a bit of free hand edge work I think I'd consider something like Rockler's Whirlwind Dust Port:

http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=19743&site=ROCKLER&uuid=&sli_sid=

[John Coloccia]

re: PC 690

I have an older 690. I believe mine was built in Tennessee. It just won't die. I'm running it in my pin router at the moment. Great router. The new ones are built in Mexico, I think, and I don't think the merger with Dewalt has helped matters any. It is just not the same router. I"m not really sure what of the PC and Dewalt line is any good at this time, though I can say that the 7518 motor still appears to be doing very well, wherever it's coming from.

[Carl Beckett]

I have a dewalt 621

Most of the time I use it without the dc. But when I do hook it up it is an 'improvement'. Meaning It collects a lot of the larger chips. I often hook it to my house central vac, which is basically a small cyclone. This works great and is quiet since in another part of the house.

[Jim Becker]

For dust/chip collection, I've found nothing better than the Festool routers I own. It wasn't an after-thought in the design. A Dewalt DW621 plunger also has pretty good collection.

[Victor Robinson]

I suppose it's worth elaborating on the kind of dust collection that is employed by router manufacturers. The major type that is used on several models (including DW621, Triton routers, and Festool routers) is a plastic shroud around the bit with a dust port. This catches fine dust that would otherwise spray up and at the collet/underside of the motor.

The other type of dust collection is under the router, to combat the spray of chips and dust that spews out sideways especially when edge routing. Festool's solution to this on the OF1400 (and other models?) is a swiveling deflector that keeps the chips and dust in the vicinity of the bit and therefore more likely to get sucked up by the shroud above. Very handy during edge routing.

I'm not sure about the relative dust collection efficiencies of different manufacturers' shrouds, but they are all fairly similar in design and function. What I can say about Festool's is that it's extremely easy to attach/detach when changing bits.

[Jim Becker]

I'm glad that Victor detailed the fact that Festool has been a bit more thoughtful about dust/chip collection with a router because there are multiple ways this tool gets used. From the top collection is certainly very useful, but for edge work, it's really nice to have that swiveling shroud to grab the stuff coming off the bit below the workpiece. (I've used it with my dovetail jig, too.) We can only hope that other manufacturers pick up on this (as it were). If they would just think about how tools are actually used...

[Kent A Bathurst]

A little off track, but have you looked into the dust collection base made by Betterly (sp)? They have a video on Youtube I think. I actually bought one. It has real HD quality, but I have not hooked it up yet, and have no real first hand knowlege.

Rick Potter

edit: just googled 'betterly router base' and found it. They make router accessories for the granite and solid surface trade, which work fine for wood too. They have videos on their website.

I have 2 Betterly bases that I use with my fleet of PC690 routers. They can't be used in 100% of the applications, but they can be used in the vast majority of them - straight edge work and plunge tasks for sure. They are excellent at dust collection, but they carry a bit of a price tag. I think it is a good value. Be advised that they take up more vertical dimension than the standard base plate - which means that any short bits you use may be too short. But still - all-in-all, I recommend them.