Woowork tools: Routers

I may end up needing a router to cut some thin ply. Rather a lot of thin ply if the truth be told. A router is the perfect tool for this, so I was wondering if the more tool-minded STW residents could advise me of decent quality routers.

Cheap is good (if they fall into the “cheerful” category rather than the “nasty” category) as that means more money to spend on the actual wood.

Cheers

Trend T4, cheap, cheerful, sorted

Plunge router is what is required, 1/4 inch collet with extrraction to connect to vacumn, screwfix or band q are ok for price.

teend t4 is a re badged Elu router the best.

Aldi had some routers in yesterday for £30

Trend router is fine.

Are you looking to rip down lots of sheets of ply? A router would be a slow way of doing this wouldn’t it?

Woowork? Is that what Edward Woodward without the “W”s does in his spare time?

I have a Trend T4; it’s a nice, well made light and versatile tool. Good spares back up. With care it will last for years. Great for smaller jobs, but if you want to work with bigger stuff, go for a 1/2″ collet router with at least 1200W.

Connection to vacuum/dust extractionis essential, and for the love of Mike; pleae be careful with the 20,000rpm spinning bits!

Plywood contains adhesive compounds which can bunt bits quickly. A set of small ‘Drmel’ style grinding stones mounted in a pillar drill can be used to resharpen them.

If it’s straight cuts a circular saw might be quicker / easier…

As above, if straight cuts then a circular rail saw or table saw would be quicker and cheaper on blades.

If it is a router you need then I’d look for a used Makita 3612, they are bomb proof but don’t sell for a lot 2nd hand. I’ve had mine 15 years nearly and is in every day use on worktops.

I may end up needing a router to cut some thin ply.

A router is more for shaping, moulding, edging… For cutting ‘lots’ of ply, I’d get a circular saw. The mini ones are quite handy and a little less intimidating.
Use one good edge of a board to run the saw along to cut another…

footlaps & kayak23 have it right. If you need a router though Trend would be my choice

I got a Worx one of those mini circular saaw that kayak23 put a pic of, to cut through some toungue and groove flooring.

It is fantastic. Amazed how accurate it was. I set the depth using a piece of floorboard I’d previously lifted and used that to get the depth right. It went through no problem and even left a few thin fibres where it hadn’t quite broken through.
It got quite warm in use though, so if you are cutting lots of stuff, perhaps look for a more industrial one than the Worx, or give it the chance to cool down regularly.
Will only cut to 22m as well.

Mine was from homebase (on offer)….I think I paid £60 and it should have been £90…
This one:
http://www.homebase.co.uk/en/homebaseuk/worx-wx424-handycut-circular-saw-310w-124721

Yep worx thing is great:

Worx mini circular saw by brf[/url], on Flickr

I have a circular saw and will almost certainly be using it for the straight sections that I need to cut, but I thought a router would be a better choice for cutting curves. Maybe I need to try and get my jigsaw back…

This is all to re-ply the inside of my van… I’m trying to decide whether to cut the large single sheets into smaller ones that are closer to the VW ones and will look neater, or just put the big sheets back on using the same self-tapping screws. Hardly an awesome looking job, even though it will be carpeted.

To be honest, the whole project is starting to blow my mind. The original plan seemed so simple and yet every time I start another small job, more stuff appears that takes time to fix/modify. It’s also a pain trying to do it all myself (wife gets bored easily and goes off to watch Hollyoaks) as I run out of hands. Christ knws what I’m going to do when I get round to getting carpet.

Jigsaw probably a better idea then. As with most tools a decent one would help – I recently bought a half decent DeWalt one to replace a 15 year old something or other. Night and day.

That’s what I thought. I’ve already asked the bloke that had my decent one for it back, but I have no idea whether he’s in the country or not. I still have a spare though.

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/diy-jigsaw-recommendations-please

Jigsaw a better bet for that job 🙂