Has anyone tried one of these  http://tinyurl.com/7ag7e ?

It sounds too good to be true for 60 quid - but I've bought other Erbauer
kit which seems to be fairly well made. Any comments?
-- 
Cheers,
Set Square
______
Please reply to newsgroup. Reply address is invalid.

Set Square wrote:

> Has anyone tried one of these  http://tinyurl.com/7ag7e ?
> 
> It sounds too good to be true for 60 quid - but I've bought other Erbauer
> kit which seems to be fairly well made. Any comments?


Never tried it but: the fence & trammels looks flimsy for a big router, 
the dust extraction port looks a little small and there does not appear 
to be a precision plunge adjust.

Have you considered the new cheapo Trend? Don't think it costs much more.

HTH,

Alex.

Which Tred would that be? Sounds interesting.

I'm looking for a new router, sub 100, something with a little more power. 
I've tried making a box jointing jig using my router table, but it does seem 
to struggle a little on thicker pieces.

Was thinking of buying a new router, the Trend T5 seems to be about 160ish 
and the T3 just looks very cute, but not very powerful.

Ta

On Tue, 20 Sep 2005 22:03:02 +0100, "J"  wrote:


>Which Tred would that be? Sounds interesting.
>
>I'm looking for a new router, sub 100, something with a little more power. 
>I've tried making a box jointing jig using my router table, but it does seem 
>to struggle a little on thicker pieces.
>
>Was thinking of buying a new router, the Trend T5 seems to be about 160ish 
>and the T3 just looks very cute, but not very powerful.
>
>Ta
>


12.7mm routers under about 160 or so are too much of a compromise.
Major issues that beset sub-100 routers in this size are poor quality
plunge mechanisms that stick, heavy in weight and mechanical output
from the motor that is much less than suggested by the power input.

All of these are really important in this class of router.


The T5 is a very good router for up to 8mm use (but more typically
used at 6.35mm).    I have one for doing light work.   It is also OK
in a router table, again for small work, but not suitable for anything
sizeable.

To get something decent, is normally a 200+ purchase like the DeWalt
625 or Trend T11.     If you have around 160 to spend, then the Freud
2000 is a good option for a 12.7mm machine.

 


-- 

..andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

Set Square wrote:


> Has anyone tried one of these  http://tinyurl.com/7ag7e ?
> 
> It sounds too good to be true for 60 quid - but I've bought other Erbauer
> kit which seems to be fairly well made. Any comments?


It looks like yet another a badge engineered model that seems popular 
with alot of suppliers

(http://www.diyfaq.org.uk/powertools/category.htm)

Even axminster have a version:-

http://www.axminster.co.uk/product.asp?pf_id=21362&name=router&sfile=1&jump=0

NuTool also do a version of it.

I have "handled" a few of the varients, and they are nothing special, 
but then again they are not obviously really nasty either. As usual you 
may find the power output at the sharp end a bit disapointing for heavy 
work, and the quality of finish achieveable not first class.

Depends on what you need it for really. Decent 1/2" routers tend to 
start with something like the Freud FT2000E - but that will be over 100 
more!


-- 
Cheers,

John.

/=================================================================\
|          Internode Ltd -  http://www.internode.co.uk            |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
|        John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk              |
\=================================================================/

AlexW  writes:


> Set Square wrote:
> > Has anyone tried one of these  http://tinyurl.com/7ag7e ?
> > 
> > It sounds too good to be true for 60 quid - but I've bought other
> > Erbauer kit which seems to be fairly well made. Any comments?


I have a second-hand example of the previous version.  The new version
looks very similar.  However, the new version has a 2100W motor and is
half a kilo heavier, so there are clearly internal differences.  My
1850W version has a soft start and it's not clear that the 2100W
version does.  The bushes which are supposed to keep both sides of the
body parallel on their respective plunge bars leave a lot to be
desired on mine when the depth is not locked, but I don't know whether
they're all like that.

On the whole, I'm not convinced the 1850W version is worth the GBP 85
which Screwfix sell them for.  There's nothing exceptionally fine
about the design or build as far as I can tell.  I suspect the 2100W
version is only worth the GBP 60 if you want some of the features not
available on a Happy Hedgehog model (e.g. the 8-stage turret,
rack-and-pinion depth scale or easily-accessible motor brushes, etc).
Personally; if I had to buy a 1/2" router for occasional DIY use, I'd
go for a Happy Hedgehog (such as
<URL:http://www.toolstation.com/search.html?searchstr=28295>)---but
I'm not a tool snob.


> Never tried it but: the fence & trammels looks flimsy for a big
> router,


The trammel and guide rods are suitably sturdy.  But the fence is
flimsy---and made much more flimsy by the fine-adjuster.  I think all
routers in the bottom half of the price range have rubbish fences.  If
I need to use a fence, I use a plain softwood homemade one, which
obviously doesn't have any micro-adjustment.  Good after-market guide
fences are available separately...


> there does not appear to be a precision plunge adjust.


The knob on the top left of the picture is the plunge depth
fine-adjuster, if that's what you mean.

-- 
Mark

J wrote:

> Which Tred would that be? Sounds interesting.
> 
> I'm looking for a new router, sub 100, something with a little more power. 
> I've tried making a box jointing jig using my router table, but it does seem 
> to struggle a little on thicker pieces.
> 
> Was thinking of buying a new router, the Trend T5 seems to be about 160ish 
> and the T3 just looks very cute, but not very powerful.
> 
> Ta
> 
> 


The new cheapo Trend, is a bit basic and rough round the edges, I forget 
the model no. Spotted it in a B&Q warehouse. Its a big one c. 2KW and is 
not the T3/5/11 etc...

Alex.

AlexW wrote:

> J wrote:
> 
>> Which Tred would that be? Sounds interesting.
>>
>> I'm looking for a new router, sub 100, something with a little more 
>> power. I've tried making a box jointing jig using my router table, but 
>> it does seem to struggle a little on thicker pieces.
>>
>> Was thinking of buying a new router, the Trend T5 seems to be about 
>> 160ish and the T3 just looks very cute, but not very powerful.
>>
>> Ta
>>
>>
> 
> The new cheapo Trend, is a bit basic and rough round the edges, I forget 
> the model no. Spotted it in a B&Q warehouse. Its a big one c. 2KW and is 
> not the T3/5/11 etc...


And not T9/10 either which I forgot. Nor is it on Trends website. Hmm, 
its probably a re-badge which they don't admit to (other than for B&Q 
customers).

Alex

Set Square wrote:

> Has anyone tried one of these  http://tinyurl.com/7ag7e ?
>
> It sounds too good to be true for 60 quid - but I've bought other Erbauer
> kit which seems to be fairly well made. Any comments?
> --
> Cheers,
> Set Square


You could probably buy the same thing cheaper under another name like
Challenge etc.
If you look at the SDS drills by Erbauer they are pretty much identical
to the Power Devil/Challenge stuff. IOW most likely out of the same
factory.