Routing

Wood routing - A small guide to routers 

Plunge routers 

In Europe, the first thing that comes to mind when we think of a router is the so-called plunge router, in which the drive unit with the routing tool and operating elements can be moved in a height-adjustable manner on two guide columns. In the USA, on the other hand, most routers are equipped with a fixed base. In our country, this type of construction is only found on edge routers. The plunge function is very useful, sometimes even indispensable, for many jobs with the hand-held router. When the router is used stationary in a router table, however, it is not needed; it is replaced by height adjustment of the entire router or the router motor, for example, with a router lift. We offer routers from the manufacturers Mafell, Trend, Bosch, Perles, Festool, Makita, Triton and DeWalt. 

Edge routers 

The edge router is a light and small special device for routing workpiece edges in different materials. It can be used for chamfering or rounding off edges, for routing bonding strips flush with material boards and similar work. Its light weight and handy size are an invaluable advantage over the normal router, as it is often used for the above-mentioned work in one-handed operation. In contrast to the plunge router, the edge router has a fixed base. 

Router motors 

Originally, a router table used a router as the drive unit. When the first router tables were designed the routers used did not have a plunge function. It is also not necessary for use in the router table, as the height adjustment in this case is done in a different way. You pay for the functions and accessories you don't need when you buy the machine. You can avoid this by using a router motor in the router table. It also offers some features that are missed on the plunge router, such as the ability to tilt the unit, as enabled by the unique pivoting router lift OFL3.0. Of particular importance is the fact that new routers must have restart protection, which leads to certain limitations when used in a router table. This is another reason to use a router motor rather than a router in the router table. In addition, router motors with the 43 mm standard neck can be used not only in a router table, but also in a router stand or in a CNC system. This considerably expands the range of possible uses. 

Bench routers 

The bench router is a stationary machine and is mainly used in the commercial and professional sector. It is used for profiling work of all kinds, grooving and rebating. In this respect, it is an alternative to the router table with router or router motor. However, certain work can only be done with the hand-held router. We do not offer stationary routers, but we do have an extensive range of router heads and cutter heads as well as the matching profile knives and limiters. 

Dowel routers 

The flat dowel router is a special case of the hand-guided router, which is already clear from the design of the device. With the flat dowel router, wood joints are made with the help of an external spring. The router cuts a groove to accommodate so-called flat dowels, e.g. Lamello. We offer flat dowel routers from the manufacturers Bosch, Makita, Trend and DeWalt. In contrast, a round dowel router, such as the DDF40 from Mafell, routes two parallel dowel holes next to each other. This wood connection corresponds to a classic connection with wooden dowels. Festool rounds off the range of dowel routers with its Domino router. 

Panel router 

The Aluminium Groove Cutter from Makita makes it possible to cut grooves in aluminium composites so that they can be cleanly bevelled. With an appropriate saw blade, it can also be used as a plunge-cut circular saw for wood and other materials. 

Groove cutter 

The groove cutter and the kerven cutter are electric devices that are mainly used in carpentry. Accordingly, they are designed to quickly remove large amounts of material, which is reflected in both the power consumption of the motor and the weight of the device. We offer a combination model from Mafell that meets the demands of professional users. 

Carving unit 

The Power Carving Unit from Arbortech may resemble an angle grinder, but the tools and mode of operation can clearly be classified as a router. It makes carving even very delicate objects a real pleasure. 

PERFORMANCE CLASSES OF THE ROUTERS 

The routers in our range are all designed for professional use: precise, resilient, versatile. So when choosing a router, you can be guided by other criteria without having to compromise on these three factors. The most important of these criteria are the motor power and the size (i.e. also the weight) of the router. Naturally, the size of the machine increases with the power of the motor. Very powerful routers, for example, are not as easy to handle and guide as smaller ones. It can therefore make sense to forego higher power in favour of better manageability. 

Think, for example, of the edge router, which should ideally be operated with one hand, but which can get by with a smaller motor, as it is not usually used to remove large quantities of material. However, there are also small, lightweight plunge routers in the power class up to 1300 watts, which are more suitable for many jobs than some larger ones. On the other hand, there are the large machines that are often used in router tables and come with 2000 watts of motor power or more. Also, when it comes to working with large end mills or removing a lot of material quickly, the higher power is positively noticeable. Between these two extremes is the mid-range around 1500 watts, which cover a wide range of applications as all-rounders. 

The router accessories 

There is a wide range of accessories for routers. The most important accessory for most other routers (panel routers, slot routers and cotter routers), is the guide rail, to be able to guide them precisely by hand. For flat dowel routers, the corresponding flat dowels are available as consumables and various tools as accessories. The same applies to domino and round dowel routers, for which we also stock dowels and drilling or routing tools. 

The routing cutting tools 

The most important accessories for any type of router are the bits that are inserted into it and used to make the cut. You can get the right tools for all types of routers from us in the usual high quality. In the router, in the router motor, in the router table and in the RUWI table router, these are the cutting bits; in large table routers, milling or cutter heads are used. For flat dowel and round dowel routers we have the special tools in our assortment. For the Arbortech brand of routers, there is an extensive range of cutters, milling discs and grinding attachments that leaves nothing to be desired in power carving.