Wood Router

Overview

A wood router spins a shaped cutter at very high speed to hollow out, profile and trim wood. Held in two hands and run freehand against an edge guide or a template, it cuts grooves and dadoes, rounds and chamfers edges, and machines the slots and mortises of joinery. The plunge variety adds a sprung base that lets the operator lower a spinning bit straight down into the middle of a panel and back out again, which is how stopped grooves and inlay recesses are made.

This is a 2¼-HP variable-speed plunge router. The Wood Router centres on the Wood Router motor pack riding in the Plunge Base: two posts, a pair of return springs and a lock lever let it travel down to a set depth and spring back. The Collet & Chuck at the spindle nose clamps the bit, the Variable-Speed Board sets the RPM for the bit and material, and two Grip Handle grips plus the Sub-base Plate sub-base give the control to steer a fast, grabby cutter accurately.

How it works

The Universal Motor is a high-RPM universal motor; its shaft is the spindle, so the cutter turns at motor speed with no gearing. Current reaches it through the On/Off Switch and the Variable-Speed Board, whose triac chops the mains waveform to hold a chosen speed. Big-diameter panel bits run slow to keep their rim speed safe; small bits run fast for a clean cut. Soft-start ramps the motor up so it does not lurch on switch-on, and the board feeds in more power as the cut loads the motor to hold RPM steady.

The bit is held by the Collet & Chuck: a slit tapered sleeve that the collet nut draws into the spindle bore, squeezing it evenly around the shank so the bit runs true and cannot creep out. A spindle lock pin blocks the shaft for a one-wrench bit change.

To cut, the operator sets the Plunge Base depth on its turret stop, sets the router on the work, squeezes the plunge release and pushes the body down until the stop bottoms out, then locks it. The springs would otherwise lift the bit clear, which is the safe rest position. With the cut depth set, the router is fed along an edge, fence or template; the clear Sub-base Plate keeps it flat on the surface and frames a view of the bit. Released, the lock frees the springs and the cutter retracts back up into the base.