On 2006-08-28 07:41:16 +0100, "Weatherlawyer" said:


Pete C wrote:
On 27 Aug 2006 08:27:20 -0700, "dcbwhaley" wrote:

I'd get one each of these:

http://www.dm-tools.co.uk/product.php/section//sn/TRET3EK
http://www.toolstation.com/search.ht...+router&Search
=1

I'd go down to the local Sunday market (there is someone in Hanley, SoT
on Sundays with reconditioned B&Q tack. Some of it very good and most
of it very cheap) and get the cheapest largest one I could find and a
box of assorted cheap cutters.

At the very worst, you would find out exactly what you wanted next
time. There is a lot of cheap Chinese slave made stuff available that
isn't all that bad, certainly quite capable of getting you through your
first projects.

Knowing how crap cheap cutters are will inspire you to either buy more
or buy the best.

.... or give up....




Can wide grooves be cut
by making several passes with a smaller cutter?

Yup.

But they can also be cut with a chop/pull saw if it has a setting to
stop the drop. Far quicker and a much more useful tool IME.


A little difficult to do along the length of a 2m board.



The price of cutters varies enormously. A 1/4" straight cutter can
cost anything from £2 to £25. I presume that the cheaper ones are
rubbish and using them would make learning more difficult. At what
sort of price does one begin to get a decent cutter.?

IME the cheap ones work fine though are more likely to burn or tear
grain out if run at the wrong speed. The expensive ones give a far far
better finish.

Worth having both, use cheap bits for MDF and most cutting and an
expensive one where a really good finish is needed. Ebay is a good
source of bits.

I repeat until you use the cheap you can't appreciate the need to spend
on them. The difference in prices is worth the learning curve. For some
cuts a cheap one is adequate.

It's a waste of money. All that is learned by using the cheap ones
is the experience of everybody - that they are crap and don't produce
decent results.




It is on features on some material that the pricey ones come into their
own. Housing joints and their like will/may be masked by the work.

Rough edges, joints that don't fit properly......