Thread: Used or new router bits?

Couple of thoughts on this.

Firstly, it's often good advice to buy individual bits when you have a need for them, rather than sets. Reasons for this are that people often don't use some of the bits in a set, so pay for things they don't need now or in the future, particularly if they are starting out and not sure exactly what they need/want. This spreads the cost, avoiding a big upfront expense for things that may not be used.

If you buy a used set, there is a significant chance that half the bits have little to no use, and the rest are rapidly approaching end of useful life. That way you end up paying for a combination of things you probably won't use either, and things with not much life left. Sharpening bits and cleaning them is possible for the casual user, but is probably not something to be approached while you are learning to control a power tool which appears to have a mind of it's own.

Another common suggestion is to buy a limited set of cheaper bits for training purposes, and replace individual ones with mid range or high quality ones as you expand your knowledge and expectations. This way you have access to a reasonable range of bits at moderate cost, and they help indicate which bits you should upgrade along the way.

Malb's comments are pretty good advice.

My comment - depends - depends upon if the used set has had any use at all? or abused? There are plenty of "second hand" or "used" tools available including here in the Marketplace that have been purchased with grand plans in mind, but for one reason or another have never been used or perhaps once or twice. So used may be the way to go IF you have been lucky enough to find a set from a a little old wood worker who never got a roundtuit.

If you’ve only got a trimming router then many of the bits in a standard set won’t be suitable; trimmers have a very small baseplate with a tall motor and are difficult to control if you use large diameter bits or take too big a cut.

As trimmers don’t have a plunge mechanism you will be limited to edge work using bearing guided bits; for sign writing then you will need to use template guides and develop a way to safely put the cutter into the wood.

Can you tell us what trimmer you’ve bought?

Problems with used router bits.

Sharpness - obvious. A dull bit is a PITA and even dangerous. Some bits can be resharpened but unless you have the sharpening gear, knowhow and the inclination, that's not something most newbies would want to be doing. The bits may already have been sharpened so's they have a sharp edge but the geometry might not be right which can cause problems.

Bent Shaft. Router bits spin at high speed so even slightly bent shafts can cause big headaches. Sometimes you cannot even see the extent of a bend visually, you have to actually use it to determine if this is the case

Bearings - gummed up. Usually easy to detect, fix and/or replace.

Chips in the cutting edges. Large chips are easy to see but look closer for small chips which can be PITA to have to sand out later.

The main feature of expensive router bits is they last longer and are worth getting if you are going to be using them often and/or on hard timber. FWIW I bought a cheap 1/4" shaft about 20 years ago, bent one shaft - the rest are still fine. Not long after that a relative gave me his "1/2" shaft all sorts" router bit set containing about 20 bits as he was moving interstate and not taking his WW gear with him. By "all sorts" I means there are a mix of Freuds, CMTs and no-names. Some of these bits were already >10 years old and they are still fine today and I cannot tell the difference in performance between the branded and unbranded ones. I won a 1/2" shaft Carbitools router bit set as a door prize about 10 years ago. I guess these are mid range bits - all are still in excellent shape.

I decided to go for the used CMT which costs me $120 for the set or $10 each, plus the shipping cost.
The seller was an experienced woodworker and only reason he didn’t get much use on it is because he switched to a 1/2 shank.
I bought a cordless milwaukee trimmer & plunger set. I guess i’ll have to practice with the used router bits and later buy a new one once i get the hang of it.

Thanks for all your advice, I really appreciate it.