Router recommandation

[Anonymous]

May need to buy a router tomorrow for an acrylic project, and wonder if any of you have any specific recommandation?

It is primary for 5/8 inch material, so I think a one horsy router with 20,000 rpm (no load) is good enough?

(took me an hour to make a cut 9 feet long. don't mind about the work, but the cut is not very straight, and I am running out of time. )

 

[Anonymous]

I used a Ryobi table router for my MACO acrylic projects. The router and the table were under $100 at HD.

I never had to router any thing over 3/8" tough.

I wonder if James might stop in and add his 2 cents worth. He'd know for sure.

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

Each is under $100 or both for less than $100?

My local plastic shop want to charge me $75 for making two cut 8O I guess more tools for my garage.

 

[minibowmatt]

I use porter cable routers all day. They stand up to even the worst abuse (by H.S. Students). The dewalt is also very good. I would stay away from ryobi and other cheapo's unless you will only be using it a few times a year. They are not dependable IMO. The porter cable 390 (i think) is a good all around router. Comes with both 1/4 and 1/2" colllets.

Edit: I use the 690 with a fixed base inverted in my router table (the rockler table is sweet!)

 

[Anonymous]

The router table combo is under $100 at HD.

For long cuts you should be using a table saw anyway. Of course the appropriate saw blade will set you back $200.00. If you lived near me you could use mine.

Router cutting 9' with a clamped on straight edge would be tough, but it is possible I suppose.

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

>...If you lived near me you could use mine.

If you live near me, you would regret saying that. I will be in your garage every weekend from 1pm to 11pm.

 

[Anonymous]

My favorite is Porter Cable, and I have a bunch of different ones.

If I were you, and was going to be doing this kind of stuff fairly regularly I would by a nice one.

My good one set me back 250$

Its 1.5 horse I think...

 

[Acrylics]

Hi CK,

If you can swing it, get the Porter Cable. It's well worth the extra $$ IMHO. For 5/8 - 3/4" I would use no less than a 2hp esp if you are trying to route through the material but I'm picky thataway and for the extra $50 you can pick up the 3 1/4hp

I should probably ask what you plan on doing with it but the above would still stand IMO. So...what are you doing with it? Kinduva difference between shaving an edge and routing through acrylic.

Hi Louey !!!

HTH,
James

 

[Anonymous]

http://portercable.cpoworkshop.com/rout ... 7538r.html


This is the one I have.

The best thing is the weight, its heavy, so it tends to be very solid as you are routing, not a lot of jumping around like some of the lighter ones.

 

[Anonymous]

hi James! It was nice to talk to you the other day.

I need to cut an old tank into 3 pieces so that I can reuse the material. Got most of the work done with a hack saw, but for cuts that will need to be cemented, I want the edge to be straight and neat.

Here are two pics for the before and after shot. The perimeter of the front panel is more than 10 feet around, so it was hard work to do it with a hack saw. Running out of time so I will need to get a router to get the job done.

Obviously, it would be cheaper if I get virgin material, but I want to be able to recycle as much as possible. I have several hundred pounds of acrylic that I want to reuse eventually. (long story)

Basically I want to make overflow boxes out of it.

 

[Anonymous]

For some reason, I'd like to spend a week with CK. Just to follow him around and see what's doing.

 

[Anonymous]

You and me both

 

[Anonymous]

Is three a crowd?

 

[Anonymous]

I would like to follow three of you around one by one, but not all three at once.

I will post some more pic. Need to fill the overflow box with water to see if it leak... it is a real pain to make a good joint when you work with old tank with curved panels.

 

[Anonymous]

Try Cisco!

 

[Anonymous]

I only want something with 3 wires or less. Cisco is too complex, and does not take regular 1/4 router bits....

 

[Anonymous]

Stupid question....what do you use a router for exactly that a saw can not do? I'm a noob to DIY/carpentry and am just curious what unique things a router does.

 

[Anonymous]

different saw do different. Miter saw, table saw, jigsaw, for example, all for different task. Router, on the other hand, has several functions. But using different router bits, you can use it to cut, "mill", etc., very complicated tasks that no other saw can do. Think of it as a beefed up Dremel tool. However, there are some tasks that other saw can do much better than a router can accomplish.

With other accessories, such as router table, pantograph, special base, template, bits, using a router can be an advance task. HTH

 

[Anonymous]

Kinda does....sounds like a multi-tasker. Now do you use it to cut the acrlyic or just do special cuts like overflow teeth and such?

 

[Anonymous]

The router bit pretty much will remove anything in its path, so if you move it acrose a straight line, you essential make a cut, albeit lossing a lot of acrylic compare to regular saw due to the size of the bit.

For the overflow teeth, the size of the bit actually is a advantage. For my overflow box, for example, I cut a slot 3/4 in wide by using a bit of the same size. The cut is done in one pass with a router. For a jigsaw, it will be down, rotate, cut, rotate, then back up.