Dedicated router for dovetails

[Bob Michaels]

I've decided to buy a router to dedicate for use with my Leigh D4R. I would appreciate any suggestions that you may have as to make and model. I am looking for relative light weight, an on-off switch that is convenient, minimum 8mm collet, a really good fine adjustment depth gauge, a method of tuning for concentricity, and anything else that you have experienced that would make the selection a great machine for routing dovetails. My first guess is a PC 690LR but I know there are some who don't like the location of the on-off switch. I have several routers in my shop including DeWalt 618, Festool 1400 and 1010, PC 7518 dedicated to the table, 3 Bosch Colts. What I need is a simple but high quality fixed base router, setup perfectly once, and dedicated to making my most common drawer joint - half blind DT's on the Leigh D4R. The plan is to always use the same stock thickness (closely machined) so that I don't need to fiddle with bit depth adjustments by trial and error. I know most any router will do the job, but I'd appreciate your likes and dislikes for this situation. Thanks.

[glenn bradley]

I use the Milwaukee 5615 and like the control of the strap grip. I do check the collar now and again to be sure it hasn't shifted on me.

[Justin Bukoski]

Bob, just wondering if you couldn't use one of the colts for this. Nice and light and plenty of power to cut dovetails...

[Kelly Anderson]

I bought one of Sears new 2hp routers to dedicate to my dovetail jig. The gray one that came out in the spring not the new red one. It has worked out really well for me. It has 3 leds' so it makes it easier to see what you are doing.

[Bob Michaels]

Bob, just wondering if you couldn't use one of the colts for this. Nice and light and plenty of power to cut dovetails...
Justin, problem is the Colts only have a 1/4" collet. Thanks for your reply.

[Ron Bontz]

I use my porter cable 895 or my bosch 1617. I like the ease of height adjustment and there is plenty of power.:)

[Mark Carlson]

Bob,

I just went thru the same thing but with an Akeda dovetial jig. I have a festool 1400 and a PC 7518 that lives in a router table. The festool worked ok but wasnt ideal. The festool is not very stable on the akeda rails and the visibility isn't great because the bushing insert is metal and pretty much blocks your view.

So, I started looking at fixed based routers I could dedicate to the akeda. It was between the PC 690LR and the Bosch 1617. I ended up getting the 690 because its on sale now at Rockler and Amazon for under a $100. I ended up buying a 2nd 690 so I could further dedicate one router to a dovetail bit and one to the straight bit. Buying tools is a sickness. I also got a couple of Pat Warner offset bases and they work really well on the Akeda.

~mark