[Rebelwork Woodworking]

Ryobi and Craftsman routers

I’ve got several name brand routers mounted in tables and haven’t been used in 10-12 years. I see a lot of Ryobi and Craftsman routers cheap in pawn shops and Marketplace and curious if there were+certain models that would be suitable for router table usage?

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[Rebelwork Woodworking]

From the lack of responses, I've about come to the conclusion there aren't very many good Craftsman or Ryobi routers..

 

[TenGees]

The 315 in the model number of old Craftsman routers were made by Ryobi, I believe. I have an old Craftsman fixed-base. I leave a round-over bit in it. It's been running trouble free for decades but doesn't get used much anymore. Lotsa people have posted with problems in getting parts.

Haven't heard much about the newer ones.

 

[jw2170]

I have a Ryobi ERT241200, 1200W, plunge router (1/2" and 1/4") which I have had for a number of years.
Manual was saved in 2006, so I have had it for a while.....

This is still working well, and I leave it attached to one of my circle cutting jig.

I have just purchased a Ryobi cordless trim router, but not fully tested it yet.

So far, very happy with Ryobi power tools...

 

[jdonhowe]

Several years ago I bought a C'man router combo- 320.27683. As best I could tell at the time, it appeared to be a rebadged Bosch 1617, with a few cosmetic changes (color, different power switch, base handles). It was okay, but nothing special. I recently bought a genuine Bosch 1617 for my router table. No comparison in motor smoothness and quietness. For kicks, I tried putting the C'man motor into the Bosch fixed base. Turns out while of similar design, the locating pin on the Bosch motor doesn't fit the corresponding slot in the base. In hindsight, I'm pretty sure the C'man is a sloppily reverse-engineered copy of the Bosch design. Now I see there are some old posts about it, including mention of possible patent infringement. At least my lesson didn't cost me a bundle, and I can use the C'man for non-critical work.

 

[Wooden Dreams]

From the lack of responses, I've about come to the conclusion there aren't very many good Craftsman or Ryobi routers..

I have Craftsman routers in both my router tables. The Craftman routers have been performing great for me in the router tables. I also have Craftman routers not in the tables, that I use as a portable router. I also have other brands of routers in my arsenal. Some woodworkers look down on the Craftsman brand, but, I like the Craftsman brand. There are more sales with the Craftsman brand. So, Craftsman can save you some money. If you want to spend more money on other brands for the same performance, Have at it. But your it's your money.