You just saved me a couple $$ ... thanks. I've got a B&D router that I've been using for about 25 years and never really used an attachment for a straight edge. Probably why some of my cuts have been a little off. :wacko:
Last week I bought the 2hp Ryobi plunge router (RE180-1PL). The local manager honored another sale, so I got the router and a new band saw for a really great price.
For what it's worth, I was in Vegas last weekend and ended up buying two of the clamp style edge guides. I've wanted these for awhile, and now that I'm getting a little more serious about my work it was time to pick a couple up.
I got both the 24" and the 36" from the store in Vegas. Another sale, so I got them both for under $20. I've used the 24" for a couple small projects already. It doesn't attach to the router, of course, but it sure helps cut straighter paths through plywood and MDF. I'm not good enough yet to use expensive woods.
One reason I didn't buy the attachment was that it seemed to limit the depth or width of the wood cuts. In other words, if I was cutting a path more than a few inches in from the edge then the attachment wouldn't seem to work. The straight edge clamp does the job, though, and I can position it just about anywhere on the sheet of wood. As an example, I cut a couple stopped dados in a 4 foot wide sheet of plywood so that I could mount some slides even with the wood. I could not do that with the attachment, so I can quickly see that having both edge guide systems will be very helpful in the future. Now to just find one that fits the router.
