Trend Router broke.

[conny]

Bought a Trend T5 router just over 12 months ago. When it arrived the packaging was damaged and, on opening the box, discovered the router was also damaged. Sent it back and got a replacement with no bother. Must have used it just a couple of times for fun/experience, nothing serious then boxed it back up till I needed it to do a 'serious' job. That job came along this week so I fitted the router to my Trend table. Quick switch on to make sure everything was working then isolated it while I set up the job, (routing a couple of slots into a new table saw guide I'm making). Switched on, motor ran up to speed then, just as I was about to slide the workpiece to the cutter, the motor ran down and simply died. Quick check everything was ok, (i.e. still plugged in, spun freely by hand, no mcb had tripped etc), all ok. Switch on again and same thing happened. This time I by-passed the safety emergency stop socket and went direct into a standard socket outlet. Same thing. Tried indoors after removing it from the table. Now it was refusing to start occasionally before repeating the original fault. Contacted Trend who said box it up and we will have it collected. Got collected on Wednesday afternoon by APC, free of charge and they even provided the address label.
This afternoon I received an email to say it was B.E.R. and would I accept a new unit. The new unit is an upgrade on my original so I gladly accepted.
Brilliant customer service from a very good company. This is what they are sending me.

T5EB/MK2 - 1000W ¼” Variable Speed Plunge Router 240V UK

1000W ¼” Variable Speed Plunge Router 240V UK

www.trend-uk.com

One very satisfied customer who will highly recommend doing business with them.

 

[blup]

That's good to know, I wondered how good the company was since it closed down production in Watford. Which model router table do you use and is it any good?

Blup

 

[conny]

I bought this one, though I doubt I paid £350 for it! I'll check.
Not used it much to be honest but its quite sturdy. I swapped the adjustable feet out for a set of lockable castors, so it's easy to pull out into the middle of the workshop, use it and then roll it back into its place. Quite heavy to move otherwise.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07HZKL7NR/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Just checked and I paid £279.95 for the table and £46.75 for a set of castors.
Table is now £350 on Amazon and castors are £51

 

[Deleted member 174758]

That's good to know, I wondered how good the company was since it closed down production in Watford. Which model router table do you use and is it any good?

Trend have never made any of the routers they sell. Did you know that they started out as the UK importer for Elu ? The T5 is actually a Perles design, now made in Slovenia, and started life as a knock-off copy of the old Elu MOF96, which was sold in much of Europe badged by AEG, in the early 1980s. It has gone through considerable revision over the last 4 decades, and variants are nowadays also sold badged Perles and Virutex. I find it amusing that these days deWalt actually buys in a variant of this "knock off" design and sells it as the DW615 (having destroyed the original MOF96 tooling because they presumably thought there was more mileage in the cheaper to make B&D SR100/DW613 design, a cheapened version of the original MOF96). FYI the Trend T10, T11, T12 and T14 are all variants of the deWalt DW625 (T10, T11) or DWE625 (T12, T14) - all of which are made by Perles, although originally designed by Elu and DW respectively

 

[^woody^]

I've bought a few Trend accessories/bits and suchlike in the past few years and it seems they are all made in the Shenzhen zone, and perhaps should have stayed there.

 

[blup]

Trend have never made any of the routers they sell. Did you know that they started out as the UK importer for Elu ? The T5 is actually a Perles design, now made in Slovenia, and started life as a knock-off copy of the old Elu MOF96, which was sold in much of Europe badged by AEG, in the early 1980s. It has gone through considerable revision over the last 4 decades, and variants are nowadays also sold badged Perles and Virutex. I find it amusing that these days deWalt actually buys in a variant of this "knock off" design and sells it as the DW615 (having destroyed the original MOF96 tooling because they presumably thought there was more mileage in the cheaper to make B&D SR100/DW613 design, a cheapened version of the original MOF96). FYI the Trend T10, T11, T12 and T14 are all variants of the deWalt DW625 (T10, T11) or DWE625 (T12, T14) - all of which are made by Perles, although originally designed by Elu and DW respectively

I do now the 20 plus year old T5 1/4" router I have, compete with metal carry case is more robust than some of the more recent stuff. I used their 1/2" kitchen router bits recently and they lasted well.

Blup

 

[Deleted member 174758]

Trend used to get their professional router cutters made by Titman in Clacton (once part of the Wadkin empire), but they had a parting of the ways many years ago. Trend have subsequently bought quite a few cutter products from a firm in Israel (I believe Dimar - who also supply one of the big American names). At least some of the jigs are made by M Power in the UK, but marketed by Trend, whilst the Trend Snappy range are manufactured mainly in the USA by Snappy (although Trend do have some unique items not sold elsewhere)

 

[blup]

I would say the trend cutters were on a par with the wealden equivalents I also purchased, but I found the wealden burned out quicker if over heated.

Blup

 

[Deleted member 174758]

... I found the wealden burned out quicker if over heated.

Then keep them clean and sharp and don't overfeed! TBH I rate the Wealden highly - not as good as the Trend Professional range, but better than the Trend Craft (green) range and around the same as the Trend Trade range. Titman are a bit better (at the price, so they should be), but AFAIK their target market is industrial and CNC users

 

[blup]

Yes the trade range.

Blup