[CharleyL]

Do a search for "CRB7" on this site and you will find many posts about the CRB7. Many of us bought them about a year ago. It is a very nice tool to have for working with your router, but the functions of the CRB7 can be accomplished with easily built jigs, if you don't have the money to buy the CRB7 and it's accessories. Still, getting this many features in a ready made well built jig is quite a bargain for the price.

Look through our posts from last year, and if you still have any questions, reply again to this post. I'm certain that many of us can help you with any question that you have about the CRB7 jig.

Charley

 

[CharleyL]

There are four sizes of rods available for the CRB7. Two pair of the more common sizes come with it, and the other two pair can be ordered, for an additional cost of about $12 for both. My DeWalt 618 routers fit one of the optional larger pairs better than the two pair that come with the CRB7, but it will work acceptably with the larger of the two pairs that come with the CRB7. One pair of the four sizes will fit every router on the market that has cross holes in it for using an edge guide, including the Bosch routers that I've used at work with it (I don't have Bosch routers in my own shop, yet). I have all four of the sizes of rods that are available for my CRB7. Sorry, but I don't remember their dimensions, but they are in millimeter diameters, and I'm not near my shop at this time to measure them. All four sizes have the same size male threads on one end and female threads in the other end, so they can all be screwed together end to end in any order to use when doing large radius work. I just pick the pair that best fits my router of choice when I'm about to use my CRB7. I haven't yet attempted any very large radius work with it though.

Go to this link http://www.routerforums.com/jigs-fixtures/47109-crb7-router-base-6.html
In this long post discussed the different sizes of rods and which rods would fit different brands and models of routers. Also see my post #60 for the box that I built to hold my CRB7 and all of it's accessory pieces, including the four pairs of rods. I built it to keep it all together so I wouldn't loose anything.

Charley

 

[CharleyL]

If you buy a CRB7 with all of it's options, you will end up with 4 cardboard boxes of parts. There is no single box included that will hold it all. This is why I took the time to build the box for it. I had planned to clean up my drawings and parts list for the box so that others could build them, but life seems to have gotten in the way. It's still on my list, but unfortunately, no where near the top. Maybe some day soon though.

The CRB7 is a very well made and thought out tool. To me, it was well worth the money.
If you tried to make jigs to do everything that the CRB7 can do it would cost you considerable time and probably 1/2 of the cost of the CRB7 in materials to make them, and they likely would not likely be made as well or be as versatile as the CRB7.

Charley