Router, bench and saw advice

In the meantime, I am happy to pay a premium for tools manufactured in Germany by German companies with a pedigree of quality- eg Festool.
If they knew how to make tools, they wouldn't have lost the war. They were pretty good at making profit from tools, which resulted in their downfall.
 
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@opps thoughts on this:

https://www.screwfix.com/p/refurb-triton-jof001-1010w-1-2-electric-precision-plunge-router-240v/594pa

Will need an additional 1/4 collet (£20) for a bit I have ordered that is on it's way...

Your link is faulty.

I suspect that you are talking about collet extensions. A collet extender that fits in to an existing collet.

My understanding is that they are fine for routers mounted under tables, but should never be used for freehand use.

On reflection, I am not sure if you are still talking about routers that will be table compatible.

If you are simply talking about the router itself, I would expect a 1/2" to be supplied with a 1/4 collet. 8mm is normally an additional purchase.

If I were you, at that price range, I would go with the Trend rather than some no name chinese product. It should be compatible with most (underside mounted) router tables. Trend is a decent brand.
 
If they knew how to make tools, they wouldn't have lost the war. They were pretty good at making profit from tools, which resulted in their downfall.

Jesus wept.

So in your opinion the only reason that the Axis powers failed was because the Robert Bosch company outsourced production of their cheaper products to China? China being a country that was trying to prevent an invasion by the Japanese ( a country renown for quality engineering).

I would be tempted to accuse you of losing the plot, but I am not sure that you ever had the plot in the first place.
 
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Your link is faulty.

I suspect that you are talking about collet extensions. A collet extender that fits in to an existing collet.

My understanding is that they are fine for routers mounted under tables, but should never be used for freehand use.

On reflection, I am not sure if you are still talking about routers that will be table compatible.

If you are simply talking about the router itself, I would expect a 1/2" to be supplied with a 1/4 collet. 8mm is normally an additional purchase.

If I were you, at that price range, I would go with the Trend rather than some no name chinese product. It should be compatible with most (underside mounted) router tables. Trend is a decent brand.
Ah sorry think it's now out of stock. It was a refurb Triton 1/2 router. Strangely it didn't come with a 1/4 bit, that's an additional £25 and few places actually have it in stock. I was leaning towards the Trend kit, seems like the entry 1/2 isn't bench compatible, that being said I feel I would need to be doing quite a lot of repeated work to warrant that and I wont.
 
If you intend to do a lot of DIY (rather than site work), the tool that has been a revelation to me is my bandsaw. It sits there in my workshop, and gets used for so many jobs. Need a 20mm batten? have a 25mm one and it's a few seconds to push it through. Because it's out and not away boxed up it's always conveniently available. I use it for 95% of all ripping jobs. The track saw comes out for sheet materials, accurate crosscuts go on the sliding mitre and the table saw sits there gathering dust.

My bandsaw is set up with a 3/4" blade although I do have others, and I can take off a 3mm "veneer" from a length of 4x2 across the 4" face. It's a record power BS350 that has been modified to have guides similar to the sabre version. (american conversion kit). If I was recommending one it would be the RP 350 Sabre. A big investment but in 20 years time you'll still be using it long after you've forgotten what you paid!
 
If you intend to do a lot of DIY (rather than site work), the tool that has been a revelation to me is my bandsaw. It sits there in my workshop, and gets used for so many jobs. Need a 20mm batten? have a 25mm one and it's a few seconds to push it through. Because it's out and not away boxed up it's always conveniently available. I use it for 95% of all ripping jobs. The track saw comes out for sheet materials, accurate crosscuts go on the sliding mitre and the table saw sits there gathering dust.

My bandsaw is set up with a 3/4" blade although I do have others, and I can take off a 3mm "veneer" from a length of 4x2 across the 4" face. It's a record power BS350 that has been modified to have guides similar to the sabre version. (american conversion kit). If I was recommending one it would be the RP 350 Sabre. A big investment but in 20 years time you'll still be using it long after you've forgotten what you paid!
If only I had the money and space. I think at this stage of my life with a 10 and 14 year old i'm still a few years away from having both the time and space for serious gear. In semi-retirement it's something i'm very much looking forward to.

With regards to my other purchases I compromised based on budget, availability and length of warranty. I decided a router with 3 years rather than one was probably a bit better as I'll be using it for a job now, and probably wont pick it up again for another 6-12 months, and when I do I want it to work flawlessly. From the reading i've done online it's seems handy to have a couple of routers (plunge, handheld (battery), etc.) so I expect that will be my next investment, perhaps to work with my other Bosch cordless gear...?

In a few years i'll probably look at a MFT and a router table and a few other bits. I built myself a workshop a couple of years ago (see pics below) but at the moment it's full of family things so no room for 'proper' things. This is a long-term project... I guess like most DIY things

I quite like these little projects, I started with the climbing frame that you can see in the background – that's 12 years old, I then built my wedge shaped office – 10 years old, then my workshop. I plan to build a gym out of the same material, in between the two in the spring... I was going to do it this year but I have a small front extension going on and plan to use overs and waste to build a retaining wall and some of the construction. It's all clad with the same stuff so weathers down to match and is actually quite soft.

I'm quite proud of my outhouses and they were constructed single handed which took some careful planning and a lot of strong coffee (and swearing). They perform very well...

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It all looks great! I think I'd be getting rid of that CFL lightbulb hanging down. At some point you are going to catch it and snap it! Nice LED batten needed :D
 
It all looks great! I think I'd be getting rid of that CFL lightbulb hanging down. At some point you are going to catch it and snap it! Nice LED batten needed :D
yup totally. It's worse than useless... it was a stop-gap that seems to be hanging around (you know how it goes). I have the same in my garage and I would prefer two bigger LED battens, I've just not got around to it.
 
1/2" router is great for bench work. If you are ever going to do fiddly vertical stuff (like hinge cutouts in door frames) they are much easier with a 1/4" or 3/8" router cos smaller and much lighter.
 
If you are ever going to do fiddly vertical stuff
and even easier with a chisel and mallet - trying to hold a router up to door frames, especially with rebates is a silly idea IMHO.
 
I'm leaning towards one of these TBH. I do use a circular saw, they care the **** out of me! A track saw sounds a better idea!
Isn't what you push along a track basically a circular saw?
 
Isn't what you push along a track basically a circular saw?

It might be a plunge saw that runs along a track. If the user makes an error, the blade will retrct into the body of the saw. And some are designed to stop the blde after a second or so.
 
Does a plunge saw have a circular blade which goes round and round?
 

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