Where do you get your router bits?

[mrojec]

I've bought some from Price Cutter that were fine, but have seen the sources routerbits.com, mlcs, holbren, and HF mentioned here. Who's the best?
Mark

[LCHIEN]

MLCS www.mlcswoodworking.com has a good selection, helpful guides, a useful catalog, good customer service, reasonable prices, free shipping and decent bits. I have used them a lot.

Holbren has good prices, decent bits, supports this forum. A discount for forum users here.

I would not buy HF bits.

[Uncle Cracker]

I would avoid HF. Holbren has great stuff and gives good service. I also get some Freud bits when Amazon has a sale, but have to be careful that they are shipping the current designs. Whiteside bits are awesome, but very pricey. If you have a traveling WW show come through your town, you can often get some good discounts on quality bits.

[Knottscott]

Usually Holbren....between his prices, free shipping, and choice between Whiteside and Holbren bits, my bases are pretty well covered. But I'll also grab a few Woodcraft bits now and then, or will take advantage of some Amazon deals.

[jziegler]

I use Holbre and Woodcraft. I've gotten a number of $5 bits at woodcraft when on sale, and sometimes the Whiteside bit of teh month is a very good deal. Holbern's bit are of good quality, and his service is good. I have a good number of bits from him. I also bought a rail and style set from Rockler, and the bits are fine, but I paid way too much (bought before I knew about MLCS and Holbren). Rockler was probably about twice the price.

Jim

[jhart]

Mainly Holbren and MCLS plus a few Woodcraft when they were on sale for $5 each. bought 2 Rocklers for a project that couldn't wait and a 5 piece Craftsman starter set which was a gift when I got my first router. Brian's are very good for the price. Would love to try some Whitesides.

[BigguyZ]

I've bought from Holbren, but prior to that I've ordered from Woodline.com and have gotten great prices and great service as well.

So those are the two that I'd reccomend.

[LarryG]

Since router bits are consumables, I try to anticipate my needs and buy them whenever they're on sale, from whichever vendor has a good price. My "good" bits are mostly by Whiteside, and a lot of them come from Hartville Tool since they have fairly frequent 20% off sales. (Now that Holbren has Whitesides, I'll no doubt be ordering from them, too.) I've also bought the (Whiteside) Bit Of The Month at Woodcraft a few times, as well as their green house-brand bits when they're on sale for $5 each.

For prototyping and for-the-shop projects, I have two mid-sized budget sets: one from Blades 'n Bits, one from Holbren. Together they total about 50 bits, for about that many dollars -- cheap enough that everyone should have at least one such set.

[Knottscott]

Since so many here use Holbren, I've got to give him a plug for extraordinary service. Last summer I ordered a thumbnail profile from them...it would have been ~ $16 shipped. I didn't realize that he had a 6-piece thumbnail set on sale for $20, but he sent me the whole set at no additional charge. Things like that make it hard not to consider them first now....

[jhart]

Brian is a super classy guy to do business with. I usually look at his site first when looking for a new bit.

[THyman]

Holbren has great prices and great service! I also got some of the Infinity overstock bits that are very well made and good prices.

It's a good idea to get on the vendors email list that way you are notified of any upcoming sales.

[rnelson0]

Where do people get starter sets that are of decent quality? I had a router and zero bits, so I bought the 30 bit Skil set at Lowes for $100. I figured it offered a good variety and it was at a price where if I blew them up, I wouldn't care as much as if I got them for $10/each ($300). Is there a better place to get starter sets that offer that kind of variety?

And no, Craftman's 4-piece "starter" set for $60 doesn't interest me. Talk about expensive!

[SARGE..g-47]

I've replaced all my most used ( round-over.. cove.. straight.. over-head pattern bits.. double bearing pattern and trim bits.. chamfers ) starter set bits over the years with 1/2 shanks. Varied sources of CMT.. Eagle America.. Whiteside.. MCLS Katana's.. etc.

Good bits are expensive.. but I just feel that with a bit spinning into expensive stock at those rpm's.. best to replace if heavily used with quality. There are a number of every now and then bits I still have from a Hickory Wood-working (made by Oldham or American Saw) that may never be replaced. I have found the Hickory Woodworking to be pretty good over-all but not the quality of the above mentioned.

MCLS is another ooption of very good, but not quite (almost though) great as reflected by their pricing IMO. But.. if I were not a heavy user.. I would probably chose them in 1/2" as the best value with pretty good quality as an option to going to more expensive. I have found their is not a lot of real difference in the top lines with the exception of some are more expensive than others.

I prefer the lines that don't do extremely heavy advertising which steers me away from Freud and Bosch. Probably good bits.. but I feel they are probably over-priced as the manufacturer can get away with it on name alone and have to pay for the heavy advertising. Actually I suppose "you" will pay for the heavy advertising IMO>

[Uncle Cracker]

...if I were not a heavy user...

Sorry to hear of this, Sarge... Have you considered Celebrity Rehab??

[LCHIEN]

Where do people get starter sets that are of decent quality? I had a router and zero bits, so I bought the 30 bit Skil set at Lowes for $100. I figured it offered a good variety and it was at a price where if I blew them up, I wouldn't care as much as if I got them for $10/each ($300). Is there a better place to get starter sets that offer that kind of variety?

And no, Craftman's 4-piece "starter" set for $60 doesn't interest me. Talk about expensive!

MLCS has had sets for a long time.
I find their quality to be very good, the value very good.
http://www.mlcswoodworking.com/shops...rbit_sets.html
the 30-pice set for about $99 is a good starter set, you won't use all of them immediately but it does give you something to experiment with and find out what works for a particular project. Some people say they don't like sets because some bits will go unused... at $3.33 a bit you can afford to have some go ununsed for the flexibility it gives you.

P.S. as mentioned by others, I only buy bits in 1/2" shanks these days, with the exception being for smaller bits that would neck down significantly at the cutter, anyway.

Good luck!