Official Luthiers Forum!

My makita laminate trimmer gave up last year after 25 yrs of use. I have 3 HF trimmers 3 ryobi trimmers and 2 PC. and 1 ridgid mounted in a cradle. I am looking for a lam trimmer that has very little or no runout in the arbor for routing rabbets on my ukes, and I also use a bunch of dremels. Some use a dremel for routing binding/purfling but I find the bases IMHO too small. I/m looking at either makita or dewalt ?

Ernie,

Between the two, I much prefer the Dewalt height adjustment.

Pat

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formerly known around here as burbank
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

Happy New Year Ernie!

When we put the Collins Saddle Mill in production we tested every available laminate trimmer sands the Festool... and determined that the DeWalt was the lam trimmer with the least runout and most value in terms of features. In combination with a aftermarket collet from Precise Bits the DeWalt lam trimmer can have very respectable runout numbers our testing determined.

Since we standardized our product line on the DeWalt we have gained a lot of experience with the trimmer and so far no issues what so ever. We also use the DeWalt in our busy repair business in our own saddle mills and it always works great and provides very respectable results.

Of course we still miss the PC-310 even though we have three of them too currently.... which IMO remains the standard that all others just can't meet. But the DeWalt is pretty good and sometimes pretty good might be good enough.

Height adjustment on the PC trim router is a show stopper for us (KMG) (unless they changed it in the pass five years). The Colt is pretty bad too. Seems the "Precision" collect is what you need if you want to maximize any of the top brands. I like the rack and pinion on the heavy duty Grizzly these have worked well with our off line (non-CNC) operations. All three of our CNC machines have 3 1/4 hp variable speed PC's --- an amazing product!

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Ken Cierp

http://www.kennethmichaelguitars.com/

Thanks everyone, ken . I have 4 large routers hitachi freud . Makita and freud plus some mid sized PC an others. And le shana tova to you hesh .I will check out the Dewalt and I have bought from precise bits before .I think homeless depot here locally has dewalt and so does lowes. The el cheapo HF rtrs will get delegated for woodwork grunt jobs that don/t require accuracy. Binding is such a Pita , that I would rather spend more $$$ than constantly scratching and wondering why my binding is out by 10 thou. PS which dewalt laminate trimmer do you folks use, the one for 160 or the 100 $$ one ? I/m assuming it/s the more expensive one ???? thanks

I bought a Dewalt 611 in the last year.
It arrived a few days before a precise bits collet. It had .005" run-out 1" away from the stock collet so I was going to return it.
I put the new collet on and it ran dead nuts.
I don't know why no one can make a base that fits the motor housing any more.
If your going to use the base I think the Dewalt is the only one left with a threaded ring height adjustment.

One thought would be to get a router that fits in a Bishop Cochran plunge base. I have my PC 310 in one and it is an amazing hunk of hardware. I wish I would have gotten it earlier.

I think he only makes bases for the discontinued 310 and the Bosch Colt as well as the Dremel.

http://www.bishopcochran.com/

You can still get 310's and parts but they can be pricey.

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R4 ... +cable+310

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It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

Semantics, but I'd look into "compact routers" instead of a laminate trimmer, which you may very well be looking at anyway.

Not unlike Pat, I like the height adjustment on the Dewalt DWP611PK compact router, and at 1 1/4hp, it's only slight larger than the laminate it replaced on my binding jig. Fortunately, I got the plunge base kit (PK) and use that for my new bridge slotting jig. LED lights are awesome.

I liked it so much, I got another one (no plunge on the 2nd) and an extra base for my headstock binding routing jig (I just move the motor between jigs). Both binding jigs have custom (read: DIY) bearing feet and works really well.

Porter Cable has a sister version as well. Sorry, can't speak to the Makita, but my research landed me with yellow.

I have a few laminate trimmers but i'm liking my Ridgid most these days.

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Joe Beaver
Maker of Sawdust

Yeah, pretty hard to beat the height adjustment on the Rigid. I have used both PC 310, 7301 and the Ridgid, and I never noticed any run out. However, if it was only 10 thou I might have not noticed it.

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Pat