just got that Craftsman
I just bought that Craftsman combo for $107 a couple days ago (model 17543). The day before that, I bought the Ridgid 2 1/4 HP combo for about $200 at Home Depot. I had forgotten to look at Sears and had already tossed the Ridgid box out, but fortunately Ridgid as a 90-day return anyway.
Last night I took both routers out and examined them side by side. I have no previous routing experience, but did a bunch of research and I'm not a stranger to tools. First I compared the fixed bases. The Sears has a larger window to see the work, and three LEDs as opposed to the Ridgid's two. The height adjustment on both units is fairly sloppy, but the Craftsman's is pathetic. It's of no use at all, for three major reasons:
1. The scale ring around the height-adjustment knob is loose and stops turning while you turn the knob.
2. There's a dead spot in the gearing where you can turn the knob a full 180 degrees and the router motor doesn't move at all.
3. After you get the bit flush with the base, you push a button to disengage the height-adjustment knob so you can zero the scale. After you release the button, the gears do not re-engage, even if you jostle the assembly. They only snap back into each other after you turn the adjustment knob a quarter turn at least, meaning that the scale is now totally inaccurate.
You will be using a ruler to make your height adjustments with the fixed base, period.
The Ridgid's height adjuster isn't what I'd call precise, because the motor can slide up and down a bit before hitting the retractable stop that holds it into the base. But it works much better than the Craftsman, in that you might get away with using it without a ruler.
Switching both machines on, the Craftsman was slightly louder but vibrated less than the Ridgid. The Craftsman "soft start" is much softer than the Ridgid, taking a couple of seconds or more to reach full speed. The Ridgid winds up quickly, and still twists a little with torque. I didn't mind either, but I like the Craftsman action. Sitting on a board, the Ridgid rotated slowly with vibration, and the Craftsman stayed put. The Craftsman's base is wider, however.
The location of the Craftsman's power switch is much better than the Ridgid's; you can, with effort, flip it without taking your hand off the handle. No way can you do that with the Ridgid. This is such a common complaint that it's a little ridiculous at this point.
Next I took out the plunge bases. No obvious advantage to either one here. The Craftsman does have dust boots on the rods. The Craftsman does suffer from one shoddy piece of engineering, though: The rod that limits plunge depth comes down and hits a small pedestal (see picture). That pedestal is stair-stepped in a circle, allowing you to rotate it and make coarse adjustments to plunge depth. It's a useful feature, but unfortunately that pedestal teeters slightly when the rod comes down and hits it. If your pressing force varies much between each plunge, you can get slight depth variation. This thing is held on with a simple screw through its middle, and I'll bet it'd be easy to modify it for the better.
I decided to try the Craftsman, routing a half-inch-deep rectangular well out of some pine (not all at once, of course). I couldn't use the Ridgid for the task at the time, because I found that while the Craftsman comes with an edge guide, the Ridgid doesn't. Also, the Craftsman comes in a hard plastic case that holds the router, bases, edge guide and wrench securely. The Ridgid comes with a canvas bag with no interior pockets and only a divider to separate the bases. The wrench, extra collet, flimsy plastic dust-collection attachments, and base-alignment tool roll around loose in the bottom. The bag has outer pockets, none of which is wide enough to hold the manual (not that you really need the manual after day one, but come on). LAME.
The one thing that the Ridgid comes with that the Craftsman doesn't is the base-alignment tool, which is basically a metal pin that goes in the collet and a plastic cone with a hole through it.
I used the Craftsman with the plunge base to rout my rectangular well, and it worked fine. Really the only issue was my inexperience.
I didn't try the Ridgid, because it's going back and I didn't want to make a mess of it. It don't see what would have made it worth more than double the cost of the Craftsman, when you factor in the lack of an edge guide.
As far as I can tell, the Craftsman is a very good deal.
I do have a question for other owners: Where can I get a good guide bushing for it?