Reccomendations for general purpose plunge router

[Larry Browning]

I have a Milwaukee 5615-20 1.75hp fixed base router, but no plunge option. I also have a larger Triton mounted in my router table. I really feel the need for a hand held with a plunge option. I think I would be happy if I could find a plunge base to fit the Milwaukee, but so far no luck. So if I cannot find that I guess I will need to get another router. I want something that will be pretty easy to handle, yet big enough to get the job done. I want something that can take both 1/4 and 1/2 bits, has pretty good dust collection and one that will accept the PC bushings. I don't want to spend Festool money, but I want good quality.

So what should I buy? Does anybody know where I can get a plunge base for the Milwaukee?

[Peter Quinn]

Is this not the plunge base for your router motor?

http://www.toolup.com/milwaukee_48-10-5600_router-plunge-base-assembly.aspx

[David Hawxhurst]

i think one of the two smaller trition's would fit the bill and they come with dust collection. my bosch 1617's would fit the bill but the dust collection is a add on accessory you need to purchase separately. they work alright.

[Larry Browning]

Is this not the plunge base for your router motor?

http://www.toolup.com/milwaukee_48-10-5600_router-plunge-base-assembly.aspx

It looks like it might work, except it is not in stock. But at that price plus shipping, I'm not sure it would be worth it.
I am thinking I may not be able to find it anywhere. Amazon says it is currently unavailable and that it may never be.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000X536SA/?tag=mh0b-20&hvadid=3480218373&ref=pd_sl_6uw83k5py9_p

[glenn bradley]

Peter nailed it. I would capitalize on what you already have. I have several Milwaukee motors and bases. All of the 5615 and 5616's are interchangeable. Christmas is coming; a 5616-24 would get you a plunge base, a second fixed base for special purposes and a 2-1/4 HP VS motor for tougher jobs.

297470

Not everyone needs multiple routers but, I have found multiple motors and bases can work like a dozen routers in a fraction of the space. The Milwaukee combo kits used to go on sale stupid cheap (which explains why I have more than one) but, I don't see this so much anymore.

[Larry Browning]

WOW! No other recommendations? Only 5 posts and 2 of them are mine. I figured this would get lots of responses.

[Michael Moscicki]

I don't have it, but you could consider the DW 621.

Some more info:
http://www.patwarner.com/dw621.html

[Joe Spear]

I don't have it, but you could consider the DW 261.

I think that's the 621.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

I really like my Bosch 1617 :D

[Duane Meadows]

+1 on the Bosch 1617.

[lowell holmes]

I have a Bosch Colt with the plunge base and the Dewalt 621. I like them both, but the 621 is the pick of the litter for me.

My son has the larger Bosch and he really likes it.

You pay your money and take your choice. You will not go wrong on either.

[Kent A Bathurst]

WOW! No other recommendations? Only 5 posts and 2 of them are mine. I figured this would get lots of responses.

OK, then -

I have a drawer full of PC 690 router motors. One of them is permanently mounted in a plunge base.

One of those old-line PC tools that subsequent changes in ownership have seen fit to leave alone.

Cannot imagine a plunge operation this motor would not handle, but I am not a big-time router guy.

[David Helm]

Have a PC 690 in the router table and a PC 890 with both fixed base and plunge base. The 890 came with a smaller PC 480 (one of those Woodcraft twofer deals). The smaller router is larger and more powerful than trim routers and is what I use when I want a had held fixed base for light work. I also own an older Ryobi plunge router that took a huge amount of abuse during my carpenter years. I only paid $80 for it at the time and it just kept on running. I have a second Ryobi (as in bought a second one when the first one died) trim router. I really like the PC plunger. Works very smoothly and does everything I ask it to do.

[Earl Rumans]

I have the Triton MOF 001 for hand work and I have been very happy with it. DC is very good, the plunge works well and I would recommend it.

[Bryan Cramer]

Makita also makes decent routers. They have a 2 HP plunge router which would be a good general purpose router. I like my Makita plunge base for my 2 1/4 HP kit. You can't go wrong with any decent brand although for general work 2 HP is plenty. A 3 HP router gets big and heavy unless you are doing heavy cuts like deep mortises. Also to point out get a variable speed router (you probaly knew that).

[Frank Martin]

I don't have it, but you could consider the DW 621.

Some more info:
http://www.patwarner.com/dw621.html

I have one of these and really like it. It has very good through the column dust collection and not too big form factor.

[Larry Browning]

Well, the plunge base for my Milwaukee is still not available, so I am thinking that it may never be.
Amazon has this one on sale now
http://www.amazon.com/Bosch-1617EVSPK-4-Horsepower-Variable-Collets/dp/B00005RHPD/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1418310426&sr=8-3&keywords=plunge+router

And this one:
http://www.amazon.com/DEWALT-DW618PK-12-AMP-Fixed-Base-Variable-Speed/dp/B00006JKXE/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1418310426&sr=8-4&keywords=plunge+router

Which of these two would you recommend?

BTW: I probably will be ordering it today or tomorrow.

[Frank Martin]

Well, the plunge base for my Milwaukee is still not available, so I am thinking that it may never be.
Amazon has this one on sale now
http://www.amazon.com/Bosch-1617EVSPK-4-Horsepower-Variable-Collets/dp/B00005RHPD/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1418310426&sr=8-3&keywords=plunge+router

And this one:
http://www.amazon.com/DEWALT-DW618PK-12-AMP-Fixed-Base-Variable-Speed/dp/B00006JKXE/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1418310426&sr=8-4&keywords=plunge+router

Which of these two would you recommend?

BTW: I probably will be ordering it today or tomorrow.

Even though most of my routers are Dewalt (621, 625 and the trim kit) in addition to a single Festool OF1400, in this case I would vote for Bosch as I heard many 618's ending up shattered magnetic discs… Among the Dewalt units 621 is my favorite.

[Chris Hachet]

OK, then -

I have a drawer full of PC 690 router motors. One of them is permanently mounted in a plunge base.

One of those old-line PC tools that subsequent changes in ownership have seen fit to leave alone.

Cannot imagine a plunge operation this motor would not handle, but I am not a big-time router guy.

I would second this. The 690 is as common has mosquitoes in a Wisconsin summer, as reliable as gravity, and does a superb job.

[glenn bradley]

Well, the plunge base for my Milwaukee is still not available

Do you need to buy it from Amazon? Did I miss that? I am finding it at these places:
https://www.grizzly.com/products/48-10-5600-Plunge-Router-Base-for-H7020-21/T20249
http://www.acetoolonline.com/MILWAUKEE-48-10-5600-Plunge-Base-Assembly-p/mil-48-10-5600.htm
http://www.toolorbit.com/Milwaukee/Milwaukee-48-10-5600.html

Although it looks like Grizzly is the best price I would still be tempted to buy a 5616-24 so you would end up with an additional variable speed, higher power router, a plunge base and an additional fixed base to use with jigs. I know I said this before but, the 5615 and 5616 motors are all interchangeable with their bases.

Take my enthusiasm with a grain of salt since I am prejudice. Since I went with Milwaukees all my other brands have been sent to good homes except for my Bosch Colt plunge. I will add a -1 on the DeWalt 618. I tried one and took it back; the quality just wan't there for the price. The Bosch routers look and feel pretty good and there are many happy owners.

[Phil Barrett]

There's a note on the griz page that the base is discontinued and no longer for sale. Larry, I think you are well out of luck here.

Personally, I would go Porter Cable. Been watching CL adds to pick up another used one cheap.

[lowell holmes]

My PC 690 is mounted in a table. It is not a soft start router. It is an old router, about 2002-04.

Neither is my Dewalt 610 soft start.

The two routers I use are the Dewalt 621 and the Bosch Colt. They are both soft start routers.

I can't imagine buying a hard start router.

[Larry Browning]

Do you need to buy it from Amazon? Did I miss that? I am finding it at these places:
https://www.grizzly.com/products/48-10-5600-Plunge-Router-Base-for-H7020-21/T20249
http://www.acetoolonline.com/MILWAUKEE-48-10-5600-Plunge-Base-Assembly-p/mil-48-10-5600.htm
http://www.toolorbit.com/Milwaukee/Milwaukee-48-10-5600.html

Although it looks like Grizzly is the best price I would still be tempted to buy a 5616-24 so you would end up with an additional variable speed, higher power router, a plunge base and an additional fixed base to use with jigs. I know I said this before but, the 5615 and 5616 motors are all interchangeable with their bases.

Take my enthusiasm with a grain of salt since I am prejudice. Since I went with Milwaukees all my other brands have been sent to good homes except for my Bosch Colt plunge. I will add a -1 on the DeWalt 618. I tried one and took it back; the quality just wan't there for the price. The Bosch routers look and feel pretty good and there are many happy owners.

Glenn,
Grizzly's site says they are out of stock and I called the other 2 places. They both said they were out of stock as well. One guy said he would check with Milwaukee to find out if it had been discontinued or something. He called them while I waited. He told me they had put him on hold, but he is going to email me when they get back to him. Man, I'd say that was pretty good CS for a cold call with no promise of a sale!

I do suspect that Milwaukee has stopped selling the plunge base by itself.

[Chris Hachet]

My PC 690 is mounted in a table. It is not a soft start router. It is an old router, about 2002-04.

Neither is my Dewalt 610 soft start.

The two routers I use are the Dewalt 621 and the Bosch Colt. They are both soft start routers.

I can't imagine buying a hard start router.

Interesting....tell me more, please.

[lowell holmes]

You might want to see Pat Warner's site, "The Router Man". He talks about soft start in his review of the DW 621.

It doesn't jump when you press the switch. The 690 will jerk when starting the motor.

I'm more comfortable with a soft start router.

[Chris Padilla]

I don't use the plunge base on my PC-690 much but I broke it out to hog out a bunch of shelf holes in a cabinet I'm building. I bought a shelf template like a 100 years ago and that coupled with a template bushing (3/8" od one) and a Festool 3 mm (8 mm shank...had to also buy a 1/2" to 8 mm collet) router bit (also picked up a 5 mm Festool router bit) and I was heading to town for my shelf holes. BTW, the reason for the 3 and 5 mm router bits is for these shelf brackets from Lee Valley (http://www.leevalley.com/US/hardware/page.aspx?cat=3,43648,43649,52465&p=52465). I hope they work well.

[Larry Browning]

Glenn,
Grizzly's site says they are out of stock and I called the other 2 places. They both said they were out of stock as well. One guy said he would check with Milwaukee to find out if it had been discontinued or something. He called them while I waited. He told me they had put him on hold, but he is going to email me when they get back to him. Man, I'd say that was pretty good CS for a cold call with no promise of a sale!

I do suspect that Milwaukee has stopped selling the plunge base by itself.

Well I heard back from the guy at Tool Orbit and he said that Milwaukee said "The base is not discontinued and is currently available from Milwaukee." So maybe I will order it from them, just because the guy offered to check, checked, and got back to me.

[Mike Hollingsworth]

302002
Go for the Green.
My go to for a hand held plunger.
Everything about it is worth the exorbitant price.
You won't understand till you try one.

[Lewis Justis]

I really like my dewalt 621 for larger, 1/2" bit jobs and the great dust collection. My festool1010 is great for smaller , 1/4" bit jobs and the dust collection is pretty good on it as well. Seems that used pc 690's are a good deal and can be swapped for a plunge base, but they don't have soft start.

[Chris Padilla]

Go for the Green.
My go to for a hand held plunger.
Everything about it is worth the exorbitant price.
You won't understand till you try one.

I fully believe you, Mike, attesting to my shop full of Green but I haven't taken the plunge on their routers (see what I did there?! :D )

Larry,

I hope you can get one...they have their uses. :)

[glenn bradley]

Glenn,
Grizzly's site says they are out of stock and I called the other 2 places. They both said they were out of stock as well. One guy said he would check with Milwaukee to find out if it had been discontinued or something. He called them while I waited. He told me they had put him on hold, but he is going to email me when they get back to him. Man, I'd say that was pretty good CS for a cold call with no promise of a sale!

I do suspect that Milwaukee has stopped selling the plunge base by itself.

Doh! I am so sorry about that. I added one to my cart and it didn't complain so I thought they were good on them. Sorry to misdirect.


Well I heard back from the guy at Tool Orbit and he said that Milwaukee said "The base is not discontinued and is currently available from Milwaukee." So maybe I will order it from them, just because the guy offered to check, checked, and got back to me.

Well, you gotta give him credit for being a decent guy. We used to be able to expect that but, now-a-days it really shines when someone shows some integrity. ;-)

[william watts]

2-3 years ago I was looking for a Milwaukee plunge router, I like Milwaukee tools. Found the router but could not find the plunge base anywhere. Ended up with a Porter Cable 690 and its plunge base. It's a totally reliable set up and simple to use. Plunge action is very smooth. It has everything you ask about except great dust collection, accessories are readily available, at lest they where before the corporate change.

[Mike Cutler]

I fully believe you, Mike, attesting to my shop full of Green but I haven't taken the plunge on their routers (see what I did there?! :D )

Larry,

I hope you can get one...they have their uses. :)

Chris

You really should try out their 2200. It is the smoothest router I've ever used. It looks big and clunky, but it's absolutely not. You can do some really delicate work with it.
I liked the 2200 so much that I bought their 1400 too.

Larry

Outside of the Festool's, which you indicated you wanted to stay away from. The next "nicest" routers to me were the DeWalts. They're really smooth and easy to control.

[Larry Browning]

Latest update:
I have ordered the Milwaukee plunge base from Tool Orbit but there is no estimated delivery date as of yet. The sales guy said it would probably take a week or so for it to ship. So we will see.
I found a used DeWalt DW618 with both fixed and plunge bases locally on Craig's List. The guy is asking $120. I am going to see it tonight. If it is in good shape and he will deal with me a little I am going to pick it up. If all this works out I will have 2 pretty nice routers, both with plunge and fixed bases.

Merry Christmas to me!

PS: I am just not ready to drink the green cool aid just yet. I keep choking on the price. I keep thinking about all the other tools I can get for the price of one Festool and just can't bring myself to pull the trigger. Maybe one day, but not today.
I was able to use a Festool ROS one time, and even though it was VERY nice, quiet, smooth, and did a good job, at the end of the day it is just a sander. There are other brands costing 1/4 as much that produce the same results. For me, the tightwad that I am, its just not worth it.

[John TenEyck]

I just bought the Bosch 1617EVS kit from Amazon for $199 with free shipping. I plan to use the fixed base in my router table and the plunge base for handheld operations. The 1617 base has a 3-3/4" opening, far larger than many other routers, including Triton IIRC. Many of them only have an opening of about 3-1/8". Some panel raising bits are 3-1/2" so if you don't have a lift it could be important to you. It was to me. The Bosch motor adjusts straight up and down unlike my PC 690 which rotates. The Dewalt rotates as well, and that can sometimes shift the position of the bit a few thousandths and throw off your joinery.

John

[Larry Browning]

I just bought the Bosch 1617EVS kit from Amazon for $199 with free shipping. I plan to use the fixed base in my router table and the plunge base for handheld operations. The 1617 base has a 3-3/4" opening, far larger than many other routers, including Triton IIRC. Many of them only have an opening of about 3-1/8". Some panel raising bits are 3-1/2" so if you don't have a lift it could be important to you. It was to me. The Bosch motor adjusts straight up and down unlike my PC 690 which rotates. The Dewalt rotates as well, and that can sometimes shift the position of the bit a few thousandths and throw off your joinery.

John

I already have one of the big Triton's in my router table, I am looking to improve my hand held options. The Milwaukee I have adjusts straight up and down as well. If I don't get the used DeWalt I may have to re-consider Bosch.

[lowell holmes]

You will not regret the Bosch, it's a good choice.

However, my Dewalt 610 and 621 do not rotate when adjusting the vertical setting. The 621 is a plunge and the 610 has a vertical adjustment as well.

I guess the new Dewalts do rotate. Oh well!

[Larry Browning]

Well, I was able to pick up the DeWalt DW618 plunge and fixed kit last night for $120. It looked to be in pretty good shape and most of the accessories were there. I played with it last night for a bit and I like the design of the plunge base. I also like the soft start feature. It seems to be in good working order, so I think I got a fair deal, not great, but fair. Now if the Milwaukee plunge base comes in, I should be all set.

[Joe Craven]

I've had the Bosch 1617 for...gosh, I can't even remember how long. I don't have any comparison but it's always done everything I needed it to do, and done it well.

Like others, my fixed base spends most of its time in the router table but I also use it for precision and ease of use w/ a planing jig that I built for oversized pieces (slabs, etc.). I don't remember the size of that milling bit but it's big and the 1617 handles the work w/o any hesitation.

If I had another router already dedicated to the router table I'm not sure I would have needed the typical (possibly only?) complete 1617 package, but I can definitely say that it's well worth the money if it's your only routing solution...