What palm/trim router to buy with plunge base...?

[Thomas Colson]

What palm/trim router to buy with plunge base...AND will take PC-standard sized bushings? I currently have the Rigid R2401, which is great for pulling it out of the toolbox and single-handedly doing a round over or an edge profile on a cutting board or something, without have to fuss with disassembling the router table and lift to get my bosch 1617 out. I looking for something with a few more features, but the same size class, so I can get into small, not so occasional bow ties, signs, letters, dado's that I can't make on the saw, etc... research points me to the Dewalt DWP611PK, which has a plunge base, and according to YT, takes standard sized bushings. Interesting enough, a new 611 and a new 1617 plunge are the same price on rockler, but I'm a big fan of the compactness of the smaller router for those odd situations where fighting a large heavy router with carpal tunnel loses over the lightness of a palm router. My requirements, in order are: accept PC-style bushings with the factory supplied base plate that comes in with router in box (do not want to have to spend weeks scouring the internet for after market plate the might work); size (small); plunge base; leave my existing 1617 in the table forever. Will I be disappointed with the smaller dewalt?

[Jamie Buxton]

I was disappointed at the footprint of the 611 plunge base. Palm routers are supposed to be small, right? Turns out that the 611 plunge base is only a little smaller than the DW621 base. I own a plunge base for my 611, but almost never use it. When I need to plunge, I use my bigger 2 hp router. It has a better dust collection design, and a better plunge stop.

[Rich Engelhardt]

I have the DeWalt 611PK - corded and the Makita corded & Makita cordless.
I like both a lot.

I prefer the cordless because it has more power than the corded tools. I went Makita because I have all Makita cordless so batteries aren't an issue.

Most manufacturers seem to be offering cordless routers these days so - maybe the real question should be which cordless?

The DeWalt plunge base takes standard PC bushings.
The Makita takes an adapter to use PC bushings - it's easily found on Amazon.

[Tony Shea]

I just used my Dewalt DWP611 last night and am always so impressed by the ability of this little router, especially with the plunge base. If you're not interested in the Festool OF1010 then I would def go with the Dewalt 611. I don't own the OF1010 but have used a friends multiple times and absolutely love this router. I would probably buy that over the Dewalt even thought the Festool is a bit larger for that class of router. But the features and dust collection would make using the slightly larger Festool a no brainer for me. I just didn't know much about Festool when I bought the my Dewalt.

Having said that I would prefer the Festool I still love my little Dewalt. Like I said, I used it last night doing some template routing with the standard PC sized bushings and plunge base. It worked so good for my application and with the dust shroud installed hooked up to my Festool CT dust extractor I had zero dust to pick up. I was template routing part way through the material which is why dust collection was so good but it still had zero dust escape. I wouldn't hesitate to buy the Dewalt 611 which is why I would have to respectfully disagree with Jamie's opinion on that router. If you're using a trim router in a plunge base I don't think you'd want any smaller of a base. The plunge mechanism on my Dewalt is super smooth with negligible wiggle while plunging.

[David Lageman]

I was in the same boat...1617 installed in router table and hated having to remove it when needed. I had purchased the 1617 with the plunge kit so I ended up picking up another 1617 router only and keep it in the plunge base. When looking for a palm router, I went with the 611 cordless as DeWalt is the battery platform I settled on. So I have the router table set up, the plunge router when needed, and the small palm router for the smaller work. I'm pretty pleased with the convenience of this "system", especially as a hobbyist. I guess the only thing I could have done differently would have been to upgrade the router for the table but for my needs, this works perfectly.

[glenn bradley]

I was an early adopter so I have a suite of the Bosch Colt stuff. I am very happy with them but if I were starting over I would go with the DeWalt. While it is true the plunge base is not much smaller than the full sized cousins there is a need for stability in plunge operations. You don't often find call for a one-handed plunge operation. If you are after very small plunge form factor for things like inlay and stringing then a Dremel in a quality plunge base is your answer.

Bases that hold a 'standard' collar are readily available for the more popular brands. No endless searching required. I wanted a teardrop base for the plunge for some additional stability on a project. Not so readily available but it doesn't take much to make one.

457426

I am not in the trades so a cordless option didn't have much allure for me. I am in the shop with dust collection hooked up for almost everything I do. The additional little cord is a minor thing and replacement batteries cost as much as the tool at times ;-) I do have a bunch of cordless tools but they are things like drill motors, oscillating tools and construction targeted items.

[Paul F Franklin]

Not to pile on, but I'm also a fan of the Dewalt 611 kit. I have the big triton in my router table, and also have the dewalt 618 kit for hand-held routing with 1/2" bits, but use the 611 for most hand-held tasks. I find its base a good size for general use; I do have a bigger shop made base for edge routing when half the base is unsupported.

[Cary Falk]

I like my DeWalt 611 as well

[Mike Henderson]

I really like the Dewalt trim router. And my favorite is the cordless. I have five of the DeWalt's, three corded and two cordless. Two of them came with the plunge base/fixed base combo and the other three with just the fixed base. I use the plunge bases and never thought they were too large.

I now use a trim router for a lot of work that I used to use a 1/2" router for. A lot of router work does not require a lot of power.

Mike

[Thomas Colson]

What have I done?!?!?!? Posted this morning, 611 was in stock everywhere, now it's not!!!!!