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MLCS 9564 3-1/4 HP Variable Speed Router Table Motor

Tom Niemi

Tom Niemi

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Any opinions on this router? My 20+ year old Porter Cable 1 3/4 hp router is rattling and rolling down to its end of life. I want a larger and better router than 1 3/4 hp I had. This is in my router table.
 
I had two different routers for my router table. I had the Porter Cable Speedmatic 3 1/4 HP and a Freud 3 1/4HP plunge router on plates that fit in my top. They each had advantages and disadvantages. In many respects it was easier to adjust the Freud with the plunge depth adjustment to obtain fine depth control.

I haven't bought any routers in over 12 years so I don't have any current knowledge about what is available.
 
No experience for the MLCS, and I didn't realized you could buy just the motor halves now. :thumb:

I bought new bearings to install in my PC 690, as it's rattling a bit on startup and wind down. I just inherited a couple more lightly used PC 690's, so that may not get done for a while.
 
While you want to move up in horsepower, and that is great, you need to realize that the size and weight of the router increases significantly with higher horsepower too. 3+ hp in router tables are great, but I just want to warn you that many of the things that you used your present 1 3/4 hp router for are not going to be all that easy to do with this new bigger router. This is why I own many routers of several sizes. I'm suggesting that if you are going to have only one router for all of your routing needs, that you should continue to have a mid sized router. And if a second router was needed for a router table, it could be a 3 + hp fixed base router. You can get by and work comfortably and safely using a mid sized router hand held for most of your routing needs. You can also use it in a router table, but I would never want to use my 3 + hp router hand held. It's just too heavy and too powerful and unsafe to be wrestling in your hands, for most of what you will need a router for. Keep it in the router table and have a second, mid sized router for what you do hand held. Multiple bases let you do more with it than you would expect, and using it hand held is much safer and lighter than trying to use a 3 + hp router hand held.

So, what do I use? -

My smallest router is a laminate trimmer with several bases , one of which is like a fixed base of most routers. and it is about 7/8 hp. It can't over power me, and it's a nice small diameter and light for small delicate work. It also has an offset base that has saved me several times when nothing else could be used. Then I have the 1 hp DeWalt 611 with 2 bases, fixed and plunge. It is 1 hp. It's the perfect router for sign carving, small molding cut's etc and general small routing jobs. I do a lot of my smaller routing and laminate work using these two small routers and an M Power 5 way (actually 6 way) guide fence system. The M Power fence system can even work as a circle cutting jig for circles up to about 48" in diameter, but it isn't heavy duty enough to handle routers larger than 1 hp.

Then I own two of the DeWalt 2 1/4 hp DW618 routers in the 3 base kits. These get used for most general routing, hinge routing, dovetail and mortise and tenon cutting using my Leigh D4R and FMT jigs, etc. They have become my most often used routers for the kind of work that I have done in my shop. The 3 bases include fixed, plunge, and a fixed base with a D handle and trigger for the power switch. These D Handle bases make their use on my Leigh Jigs very easy and comfortable.

Then I have a Milwaukee 3 1/2 hp router that only gets used in my router table. It's just too big and too heavy for most of what I do where I need to hold it in my hands, and with too much power to safely hand hold, but it has been great in the router table.

Oh, almost forgot my old 1 hp fixed base Black & Decker fixed base router that I have had since the early 1970's. It's now semi permanently installed in my RBI Router Shop tilting router table. This table isn't built sturdy enough for larger routers, but when you need special moldings and wish they made certain router bits, sometimes a bit of what I have mounted in this router and tilted at a desired angle will let me make these special moldings easily while using 1/4" molding and other bits that I already have.

I probably have more routers than I really need, but each has something that it does far better than the rest, so I continue to keep them all. For me, routers are kind-of like cats. After you get one and like it, others keep appearing, each with it's own personality and traits that you find worth keeping them around for.

Charley
 
I have to agree with Charley about the 3 1/4HP routers being heavy. For me they were dedicated to the router table. I may have used them one time for a task outside the table.

I had a Porter Cable 690 for use with my dovetail jigs. I had a DeWalt 1 3/4" plunge router that I used for specific tasks like in my surfacing jig when I was cleaning up and flattening highly figured timber. I really liked the plunge routers that made it easy to adjust the depth of cut in fine increments by just screwing down the plunge stop a thread or two. And I had a Porter Cable trim router that was easy to use for freehand tasks like routing hinge mortises.

I had other routers as well, just not as many as Norm Abram. I had router envy. :p:ROFLMAO:
 
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