Thread: Best Router

The general comment, on reviews and various forums, is that the Triton is an excellent router, probably by far the best for mounting under a router table. My son has one fitted to his Triton for many years without any trouble, and I am about to fit one to my new router table I am building.

If you are not happy with that, I suggest you get a Makita plunge router. PM "Template Tom" for his experience on them, he uses routers all the time.

Everyone I know who has one, including tradesmen, says the Makitas are very accurate (ie., the bits and template guides are accurately centred) and virtually indestructible and should last forever. I have two older Makitas, both going strong after 20 years of work. I have never had to change brushes or the chuck

I have my Triton setup in a router table and thats where its stayed for years. Theres 3 things that i like about it.
1 - It has variable speed, very important if using larger bits
2 - Fine adjustment, great for when you need to nudge it up or down a little
3 - Soft start, so it doesnt #### itself when you start it up.

The only thing I dont like about it is balance. Using large heavy bits it vibrates like hell and have to lower the speed right down.

My Festool 2000 router is smooth as butter which I feel really comfortable using large bits by hand. But it would be out of your budget.

The old routers by hitachi & makita were of a very high standard,hence why people still pay top dollar for them. If your buying 2nd hand give it a quick run, if you see a lot of spark were the brushes sit & make contact with the armature don't waste your time with it as it will cost over $100 to fix., worn bearings on routers are pretty common on the old ones if they have been not used for a while & will usually be around the $85 mark to fix

Originally Posted by JillB

I recommend getting a good variable speed plunge router with a soft start feature, a range of template guides, and as dust collection port - you won't regret it.

From the above, sounds like the Triton would fit the bill..the big advantage of the Triton is the ability to change the bits working above the bench level

Wot JillB and T.C said regarding the larger machine (they make a couple.) Plenty of grunt, change bits above the table, fine as well as coarse height adjustment, variable speed and competitively priced. Anything else comparable is much more expensive and does not neccessarily have all the aforementioned features.

However for hand held use I don't much care for it. Buy a separate, probably smaller, machine if you plan to do much handheld work.

Regartds
Paul

Well I ended up getting the Triton. Bloody fantastic

I have mounted it in a Kreg table and I love it. The incremental adjustment is great. Plenty of power too.

Also got my self one of the Bosch pro trimmers. Think I may love it even more

Both great products for what they are designed to do.