looking for recommendation - trim router for routing small mortises

[Steve Wurster]

I have the Dewalt as well, and just used it and Phil Thien's mortising jig (https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread....-jig-for-DW611) to make a ton of mortises for loose tenons in an office desk that I'm building. Worked great.

[Dennis Yamamoto]

Thanks everyone! Looks like the Dewalt unless I want something smaller like the Ridgid.

Mike,

Thanks for your suggestion for routing close to the line, and finishing with a chisel. I have a small down cut spiral so I will use it.

Dennis

[Charles Lent]

Dennis,

If you get a CRB7 and all of the options, you really should make a box to keep all of the parts that go with the CRB7. When I bought mine and layed out all of the pieces it became obvious to me that I needed to make a special box to keep from losing anything. Attached are a few photos of what I built. Having the I-box jig and the Freud SBOX8 blade set already, made it relatively easy to build this box from scraps of various thicknesses of Baltic Birch plywood. No plans, I just laid out all of the pieces and figured out what was needed from there. There are several levels in both the box and the lid.

Charley

[George Bokros]

That is truly professional.

[Thomas McCurnin]

The DeWalt 611 has an identical Porter Cable clone, which is nearly identical, except the DeWalt has a LED light.

[Dave Cav]

And the LED light is a lot more handy than you might think.

[Mike Henderson]

And the LED light is a lot more handy than you might think.

True - and I wish it was brighter.

Mike

[Dennis Yamamoto]

I got the DeWalt. It worked great for the knife hinges! I can see why so many folks recommend these small routers and especially the Dewalt.

Thanks everyone!

Dennis

[Rob Luter]

I have the Bosch Colt kit. It works well, but the fence doesn't lock as securely as I'd like. I had it slip once. You really need to tighten it down.

[Charles Lent]

Rob,

That's true with every fence or router attachment, even the CRB7 that I have. One time, when using my DW611 and CRB7 I didn't get the jig tightened on the rod well enough when routing a large circle, and I got a gradually diminishing circle diameter. Fortunately, I needed two circles, one with a radius 2" smaller in diameter, and I had started cutting the larger one first. This first one with the diminishing diameter became the smaller of the two after I re-cut it. Then I cut the second, making absolutely certain that nothing would slip, because I didn't have enough plywood to make this same mistake again.

Charley

[Rich Engelhardt]

Another DeWalt 611 PK user here....(both fixed and plunge base)

Also another cordless Makita user.. (just fixed base at this time though)

The DeWalt kit has the advantage of having both fixed and plunge bases - - the Makita has the advantage of having more power & better dust control.

Knowing now, what I didn't know when I bought the DeWalt - I would have bought the Makita kit w/both bases.

[Wojciech Tryc]

I have cordless Makita kit and I love it. Got an 8mm collet for it and made a small adapter plate to use it with Festool LR32 kit. Works perfectly. Strongly recommended.

[Stan Calow]

Yeah, I have the Bosch, and not happy with the way the base slips down while in use. Don't know about the new model. I used it to rout those knife hinges too. I picked up a Ryobi trim router at a garage sale for $5 that I will set up and leave the mortising bit in all the time, to use from now on. I got the Jig-it jig for the Brusso hinges from Rockler and it saves a lot of heartache.

[Fred Falgiano]

I picked up the Dewalt DCW600 when it came out (March, I think) and I’ve used it quite a bit and am very pleased. My other “bring to the work” router is the Dewalt 618 and I’m using it much less now.

The 600 is the 20V router and I love not having to worry about cord management when using the router. The last thing you want when working on a detailed piece is for the cord to get hung up on something and cause the router to tip.

[Derek Cohen]

Out of curiosity, Fred .. do you use the router with dust control?

See: https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread....s-trim-routers

Regards from Perth

Derek