Routers - Out of Interest

[RayintheUK]

Since I've been involved in woodworking (probably >35 years), plunge routers were the norm in the UK and still are. It's difficult, if not impossible to get a fixed-base machine here, but I can't imagine, having used a plunge router for all those years, both hand-held and inverted in a table, why anyone would want to.

I suppose that - if you've got a fixed-base machine, you either have to use it inverted, or tilt it into the work, which doesn't sound either safe or practical. The sole reason for this post is to find out how you view things, where fixed-base seems to have been the norm until comparatively recently. TIA!

Ray.

[BobSch]

I've had a PC690 with both bases for a several years and, I'm ashamed to say, have just started using it. Both hand-held and in the table, I've only used the fixed base. Perhaps it's because I haven't had a need for the plunge base that I haven't even had it out of the case. I'm sure that will change as I start getting into more complex projects.

[cabinetman]

When I firest started using routers, there weren't any with plunge bases. If there were, I didn't know about them. So, all my applications were either hand held or inverted in a table, or set up horizontally.

Tipping into the work was the norm, and not difficult to do. Some routers have a rack and pinion height adjustment, which took a bit of practice to get used to for a plunge procedure. Others I have required the router body to rotate within the base frame to raise and lower. But as archaic as it seems It entailed learning with what you had.
.

[Tom Slick]

I use my fixed base in my router table and and mostly plunge for hand routing. I also have a D handle which is great for edge routing larger projects.

[Popeye]

For the most part I don't use a handheld unless there is just no way to make the cut on the table. I think usage probably has more to do with the type routing you normall do. That big honkin Triton you demo is my number one in the table. I have an old Dewalt plunge in a drawer somewhere, I like the feel of it but it only uses 1/4" shank bits andI've all but switched over to 1/2". I've also got a Dewalt fixed base, a Milwaukee body grip, and a Ridgid trim router. The trim router has become my normal handheld. Pat

[LCHIEN]

I'm with popeye, I always look to use the table-mounted, fixed base router first. If a moving wood-solution (router in table) won't cut it then I look to a moving tool (handheld) solution.

[Mr__Bill]

Ray, when I got my first router it was from Sears in the early 70's it didn't last as long as leisure suits but got me hooked. Fixed base was all I knew about and the next one, also from Sears, I had a Sears Card, lasted right up to when it walked. I see a real use for the plunge base but my latest router a Milwaukee did not have the plunge base available for it when I made the purchase. That now is on my Christmas list*. Have to admit though that for the most part I use the router in the table. I did discover that I can cut out the rot on my house siding with the trim router and not cut through the tyveck. (sp?)

*Unlike most kids, my Christmas list I keep to myself and use it to keep track of what I am looking for 'on sale' at Christmas time. Sometimes I even add things for other people.

Bill, on the Sunny Oregon Coast, 3 days and 4" of rain, fall is starting.

[crokett]

I use my fixed the most but that is because it is in the table.

[Len]

Fixed base in the table gets used most often. The smaller plunge unit mostly gets used for edge trimming & chamfering of table tops, etc.

Len

[poolhound]

I have 2 routers. One stays in the table in its fixed base. the other has 3 bases which get used about equally.

I tend to use the table more than freehand.

[John Hunter]

I have 6 routers, 1 in a table and one in my BT3100. One is a trim router, 2 are plunge, 4 are fixed. What router I use depends on what I am doing. The 3 1/4 HP Freud Plunge Router is in my router table and gets the most use.

[Ed62]

I only have a plunge router that somehow found it's way to a router table, where it is used most of the time.

Ed

[Russianwolf]

I have two routers, a 3 base combo and a second plunge router. I usually use the fixed base of the combo in the router table. I rarely use the router handheld but when I do it's the plunge router.

Couldn't vote as I didn't like the options,

[Sawatzky]

I have a fixed based PC router with an additional fixed base in the router table. That way I can simply use the same motor for freehand or table. I have never used a plunge base.

[bthere]

Multiple routers here, also. One is the Milwaukee 3.5 HP fixed base that is for the router table. I have an old Sears fixed base router that lives in a small table that I sometimes take with me. I have a multibase Bosch kit that usually is used as a plunge router for handheld work. Lastly, I have a Bosch Colt that is fixed base that I use for edge trimming and such when I don't take the piece to a router table.