1200W Electric Plunge Router, 55mm Depth, 6.35/8mm Collet

A router is the machine that turns a plain edge into a finished one. It cuts rebates for a door stop, grooves for a shelf or a panel, mouldings on a table edge, housings for a hinge, and it trims laminate flush after gluing. For a carpentry workshop making furniture, doors, window frames or shopfittings, it is the tool that decides whether the work looks made or looks cut.

The 1 200 Watt motor takes soft woods and the harder local timbers, and the variable speed between 12 000 and 30 000 revolutions a minute is what keeps the cut clean. A large diameter bit run too fast burns the timber and blunts itself, while a small bit run slow tears the grain, so the speed dial is doing real work rather than being a selling point. The plunge action drops the bit into the middle of a board to 55mm, which is how you start a stopped groove or a housing without running in from an edge. Micro adjust depth control sets the last fraction of a millimetre properly, and the collet takes both 6.35mm and 8mm shank bits.