bellaw

Thanks to all of you for your answers, sorry I havent sent this note before now, been out of state. I think I've decided to go with the 3hp Dewalt plunge router and maybe put the Ryobi stuff on E-bay or return it to HD if I can. I'm a member of the BT3 Central site also and have enjoyed the information I've recieved from both sites, great bunch of people. I'll send some photos of my home built router table to get some input. Thanks again to all!! Tom

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ejant

Good choice, you will be happy with the DW 625

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Ron Farmer

Guys give serious thought to the Milwaukee routers for some serious table routing.First of all you do not have to buy a router lift as you can adjust the depth from above the table. Also the Milwaukee routers have a five year warranty.

P.S. The newest router combo (2 1/4 HP) from Craftsman also allows you to adjust the depth of cut from above the table.

Mike

There are so many good quality products it is hard to choose. And of course we all look for the features we know will fit our applications. I bought a Craftsman 1 1/2HP router 16 years ago just because it had an easily changeable worklight built in. Plus it had this really cool new product included at no extra charge: a mat that let you freehand router a piece without having to clamp it. Ok, now that everyone is done laughing... When it came time to upgrade from that router I was working in the machine repair department for one of the nations largest optical companies. Most of the 130+ stores had labs with a couple of machines to cut the plastic eyeglass lenses to shape. And most of these machines used a Bosch router motor. I figured since these routers were so durable, accurate and easily repairable that they would do a great job with wood. I bought a 1617 combo kit with plunge and fixed bases; as a bonus they included a nice adjustable fence. I picked up a rebuilt motor from the service center and ended up with 2 mid-power range routers for about $240. I intended to mount the plunge base to a table until I took a good look at the mechanism. The 1617 has a locking bar and 3 locating notches for a very fast rough adjustment and an easily accessed knob for fine adjustment. The router body does not spin so the fixed base is great for table mounting leaving the plunge base available for free hand routing. I'm very happy with my choice.