1600W Electric Plunge Router, 60mm Depth, 12.7mm Collet

This is the router for a shop that works in hardwood and runs big cutters. Mahogany, mvule, camphor and the harder imported timbers will stall a smaller machine when the bit is a panel raiser or a wide moulding cutter. Sixteen hundred Watts and a 12.7mm collet are what let you run those bits at full depth in two passes instead of five, on doors, staircases, counters and heavy joinery.

The collet is the real difference. A 12.7mm shank is far stiffer than a 6.35mm one, so a large diameter cutter runs without the chatter that leaves ripples in an edge, and it does not flex when the bit is buried. Electronic speed control between 10 000 and 30 000 revolutions a minute holds the chosen speed as the load rises, which is what stops a big cutter dropping speed and burning the timber halfway along a cut. The speed control and the on off switch sit in the handles, so you adjust them without letting go. Plunge goes to 60mm and micro adjust depth control sets the last fraction properly.