what happened to Jessem/Milwaukee router table motor?

[jim hedgpeth]

You know the one, had a power/speed control part way up the cord that could be mounted on the side of your router table.
JessEm 05626
Are they discontinued? I cant seem to find one anywhere.

Jim

[Ken Massingale]

http://www.toolsandmachinery.com/jessem-tools-5225/jessem-tools-router-5237/

[johnny means]

Ouch! At that price I could build this set up twice and have change.

[Don Welch]

I thought they were off the market. We purchased what may have been on of the last ones in Canada a couple of years ago from The Tool Store online; it was high but not that price

[Roger Feeley]

Yikes! I got mine at Woodcraft on closeout. It was around $200 but that was a few years ago. It works well.

[Dick Mahany]

I have the original M 5625 with the speed control on the router...........never understood the attraction of the Jessem mod. Looks like the market didn't either. It's a great router in the stock config.

[johnny means]

I have the original M 5625 with the speed control on the router...........never understood the attraction of the Jessem mod. Looks like the market didn't either. It's a great router in the stock config.

I have the regular model also. The crappiness of the power switch is enough to make any alternative attractive.

[michael flay]

I have the regular and the jessem set up, they were discontinued, I managed to get one from Jessem a few years ago for around $400.

[jim hedgpeth]

At that price, never mind.

I liked the idea of power and speed control out where I can get at them w/o reaching under the table.

Power switch is no biggy, but some of the variable speed routers dont like the "speed control" things some places sell.

Now for half that price, I might jump, but even that would be pushing it.

Jim

[Mike Goetzke]

Years ago I was brave and modified my 5625-20 to have external speed control with a precision potentiometer. This has worked out great for many years - I have a WP lift so I never have to mess with the router at all. After I did my mod another user dug into it and found the P/M's for the factory remote speed control. As I recall it wasn't terribly expensive. I may have an old e-mail trail at home with the details but check this out too:

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?157771-Milwaukee-5625-conversion&highlight=speed

Mike (feel free to PM me)

[michael flay]

At that price, never mind.

I liked the idea of power and speed control out where I can get at them w/o reaching under the table.

Power switch is no biggy, but some of the variable speed routers dont like the "speed control" things some places sell.

Now for half that price, I might jump, but even that would be pushing it.

Jim

You do realise the price includes the motor which is worth almost $300 on it's own, so for a extra $100+ you get a specifically designed and integrated remote on/off switch plus variable speed controller.

[Myk Rian]

You do realise the price includes the motor which is worth almost $300 on it's own, so for a extra $100+ you get a specifically designed and integrated remote on/off switch plus variable speed controller.
The Jessem setup? It's $768.51.

[michael flay]

The Jessem setup? It's $768.51.

I bought mine direct from Jessem for just over $400.

[Phil Thien]

I bought mine direct from Jessem for just over $400.

Yeah but you yourself said they were discontinued???

[michael flay]

Yeah but you yourself said they were discontinued???

And your point?

[scott vroom]

And your point?

$768.71?! That's price gouging on a par with Rockler and Festool....at least with Festool you get pretty green and black colors.

[Dick Mahany]

I have the regular model also. The crappiness of the power switch is enough to make any alternative attractive.

Mine is upside down in my Norm style table and connected to a magnetic start/EMO switch, so I don't actually much experience with the factory switch;)

[Phil Thien]

And your point?

My point is that it is unlikely anyone else is going to find them for the $400 going forward.

[Curt Harms]

At that price, never mind.

I liked the idea of power and speed control out where I can get at them w/o reaching under the table.

Power switch is no biggy, but some of the variable speed routers dont like the "speed control" things some places sell.

Now for half that price, I might jump, but even that would be pushing it.

Jim

Right, onboard soft start and the remote speed controllers don't coexist well AFAIK. There needs to be only a motor and switch, no fancy schmantzy stuff. Re the Milwaukee router, I don't have one but wonder how hard it would be to 'amputate' the variable speed unit (just a circuit board like Porter-Cable?), extend the wires and mount the variable speed part and a switch in a small electrical box. Not something to do while under warranty though.

[glenn bradley]

I think the price point pretty much killed that bird. I use a remote switch on my 5625 / PRL setup. I have never missed the remote speed control as I oriented the motor so that the router mounted speed control face the router table door. I am a big fan of proper speed for bit type/size but, the frequency of speed changes is not enough to make me need a knob 18" closer to my hand ;-) A nice feature to be sure but, as stated, I have never missed it. I have always had good dust collection in the table and never had any issues with the switch or speed control. I have run the router for 6 or 7 years.

[Phil Thien]

Right, onboard soft start and the remote speed controllers don't coexist well AFAIK. There needs to be only a motor and switch, no fancy schmantzy stuff. Re the Milwaukee router, I don't have one but wonder how hard it would be to 'amputate' the variable speed unit (just a circuit board like Porter-Cable?), extend the wires and mount the variable speed part and a switch in a small electrical box. Not something to do while under warranty though.

I had considered doing something similar with my DeWalt DW-618 motor. But at least in the case of the DeWalt, the speed control is a single piece. That is, the tach (the thing that detects the spinning magnet on the shaft) and the potentiometer and any electronics that compensate for load are all built into a single piece that is potted (it can't be broken into individual parts).

[Curt Harms]

At that price, never mind.

I liked the idea of power and speed control out where I can get at them w/o reaching under the table.

Power switch is no biggy, but some of the variable speed routers dont like the "speed control" things some places sell.

Now for half that price, I might jump, but even that would be pushing it.

Jim

This thead got me curious. I had a P-C 8529 speed control module go bad so have a little experience there. I went to Ereplacementparts.com and downloaded the parts list for a Milwaukee 5625 router. It doesn't look like it'd be that hard to 'transplant' the speed control module, extending the leads from the motor to a remote mounted speed control module and power switch enclosed in an electrical box. Certainly not $300-$400 worth of hard. Of course 'surgery' like this would make that motor table only usage unless it were returned to its original configuration and it'd void the warranty I guess.

[michael flay]

$768.71?! That's price gouging on a par with Rockler and Festool....at least with Festool you get pretty green and black colors.
The gouging is by the dealer, when these units were readily available they sold up here for $550, which is not totally unrealistic to me for a all in one solution.

[Myk Rian]

The gouging is by the dealer, when these units were readily available they sold up here for $550, which is not totally unrealistic to me for a all in one solution.
But, they are no longer "readily available".

[Myk Rian]

This thead got me curious. I had a P-C 8529 speed control module go bad so have a little experience there. I went to Ereplacementparts.com and downloaded the parts list for a Milwaukee 5625 router. It doesn't look like it'd be that hard to 'transplant' the speed control module, extending the leads from the motor to a remote mounted speed control module and power switch enclosed in an electrical box. Certainly not $300-$400 worth of hard. Of course 'surgery' like this would make that motor table only usage unless it were returned to its original configuration and it'd void the warranty I guess.
I believe several people on routerforums did that.

[michael flay]

But, they are no longer "readily available".
Dealer's can ask what ever they want just check out amazon for the crazy prices you will get on the same item from different sources, nobody is twisting your arm to buy it!!

[Myk Rian]

Ummm. I'm done.

[michael flay]

So to sum up this thread for the OP, 1) The unit is discontinued 2) When it was available people paid anywhere from $200-$550 3) Some online dealer has the last one in North America and is charging a fortune for it 4) Some people like the idea of remote speed control and some don't 5) Some people are willing to pay for this convenience and some are not 6) Some people have done there own mods and some are thinking about it 7) And Myk is done.
:)

[Curt Harms]

I had considered doing something similar with my DeWalt DW-618 motor. But at least in the case of the DeWalt, the speed control is a single piece. That is, the tach (the thing that detects the spinning magnet on the shaft) and the potentiometer and any electronics that compensate for load are all built into a single piece that is potted (it can't be broken into individual parts).

I assume designs vary. I looked at the electronic speed control module on the parts diagram at ereplacementparts.com. It appears to be 'free standing' but there's only one view. The failed Porter Cable unit had 3 leads, two to the motor and one I assume to some sort of speed sensing mechanism (monopole?) on the motor shaft. I learned -after I threw the speed control module out, naturally(:() that one of the failure points on the P-C router boards were bad caps. Sound familiar? Two 70 cent parts from Radio Shack resurrected the otherwise-unavailable speed control module for one guy.