On 7/22/2016 12:22 PM, Puckdropper wrote:
DerbyDad03 wrote in
:

My Rocky 30 Trim Router kit arrived yesterday. MLCS SKU 9060. It's not
yet viewable on their website, but the SKU can be ordered on the Quick
order page.

It's my first trim router, so I don't have anything to compare it to,
but it seems like a nice little unit.

I wish it came with some sort of carrying case, but I guess I'll have
to pick one up at HF or HD. There's no LED or micro-adjust, but at
under $100 for the router and plunge base, I'm not complaining.

I did a quick round-over on a short piece of 1 x 6 and it was nice to
be able to use one hand for the router and one hand to hold the board.
The plunge base seems to work, but I haven't really tested it yet.

Here's my question:

In with the accessories was a 3/8" collet. As shown in the link below,
the 3/8" collet (on the left) is just a conical sleeve with a single
slot. The more standard 1/4" four-slot collet is on the right.

https://imgur.com/Y36uHMM

I was not aware that router bits came with 3/8" shanks, so I called
MLCS. When I asked about the 3/8" collet, the tech support guy said:

"Yeah, they throw that in at the factory. You won't get much use out
of it since there aren't too many 3/8" shank routers bits available."

Is that true? Obviously the larger the shank the better, so I wouldn't
mind springing for a couple of 3/8" shank bits if they were available.
On the other hand, the fact that the 3/8" collet is much more "basic"
than a standard four-slot router collet, it almost seems like it's not
meant to be used full time.

Your thoughts and opinions are most welcome.


I haven't seen a 3/8" router bit in stores and haven't looked elsewhere.
There's two very usable standard sizes, why throw in a third?

For the most part .25 and .5 covers the normal needs. To go a bit
farther, LeighJigs used to offer 8 mm shank bits, I have a few 8mm DT
bits. These bits were better when you really needed more than a 1/4"
shank bit and when a 1/2" shank bit and bushing would not fit between
closely spaced fingers on the jig.





You'll be able to find 3/8" tooling by looking at end mills, but they're
usually just straight. There's some with round ends, "clipped" corners
and a couple different configurations. An end mill will cut wood just
fine, I've done it.

Heck yeah an end mill will cut wood. If you remember Steve Knight, I
used to cut mouth blocks for his hand planes, I made a few thousand.
I used carbide tip bits to plunge twin 3/8" wide by 2" long through
slots through 1/4" thick Ipe. After about 200 slots the bit was pretty
much toast. I finally ended up using a 4 flute end mill bit and
probably cut 1200~1400 slots with it and it is still pretty darn sharp.






Puckdropper