A plunge router drops the spinning bit into the middle of a workpiece and lifts it back out, which is what fixed-base routers cannot do. For most shops a combination kit is now the better buy: the Bosch MRC23EVSK includes both bases. The Triton TRA001 remains the best single plunge router.
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The useful change since this guide was first written is that the dedicated plunge router has mostly stopped being the thing you buy. Three of the four machines below ship with a fixed base in the same case, for less than a plunge-only router costs, and that reshapes the decision entirely.
Comparison
| Router |
Motor |
Speed range |
Bases |
| Triton TRA001 |
15 A, “3-1/4 HP” |
variable, soft start |
Plunge + rack-and-pinion fixed, one button |
| Makita RP2301FC |
15 A, “3-1/4 HP” |
9,000–22,000 rpm |
Plunge only |
| Bosch MRC23EVSK |
15 A, “2.3 HP” |
10,000–25,000 rpm |
Plunge + fixed, hard case |
| SKIL RT1322-00 |
14 A, “2.5 HP” |
electronic feedback |
Plunge + fixed |
Ignore the Horsepower Numbers
Look down that motor column. Three of these four draw 15 amps from the same 120-volt outlet, and they are sold as 3-1/4, 3-1/4 and 2.3 horsepower. The fourth draws 14 amps and claims 2.5.
Fifteen amps at 120 volts is about 1,800 watts going in, which is roughly 2.4 horsepower before any losses — so a genuine 3-1/4 continuous horsepower from a household socket is not physically on offer. These figures are peak or stall ratings, measured in ways that differ by manufacturer. Makita is honest enough to hang an asterisk on its own number.
Compare amps, and compare the speed range. Those are measured the same way by everyone.
Still the one, and still sold — it is one of only two machines from the original version of this guide that survived.
What makes it worth the most money on the page is the bit-change arrangement. An automatic spindle lock plus a single wrench through the base means you change bits with one hand and no second spanner, and you can do it with the router mounted upside down in a table. Anyone who has fought two wrenches in the dark under a router table understands immediately why that matters.
A single button switches it from conventional plunge to a rack-and-pinion fixed-base mode, and the micro winder gives continuous fine depth adjustment through the full plunge range rather than in detented steps. Soft start and variable speed are there as well.
It is big and it is heavy. For freehand work on a small bench that counts against it; bolted into a table it counts for nothing.
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This is the machine that replaced the Bosch MRP23EVS this guide used to recommend. Same 2.3 horsepower, same 15-amp motor, now sold as a combination kit: one motor, a plunge base, a fixed base and a hard case.
Variable speed runs from 10,000 to 25,000 rpm, which is the widest range here and the one that matters for large-diameter bits — a 3-inch panel-raising cutter at 25,000 rpm is dangerous and at 10,000 it is fine. The trigger control sits in the handle rather than on the body, so the router switches on without letting go of it.
The fixed base gives 1-5/8 inches of continuous microfine depth adjustment and has threaded holes for mounting in a router table. That combination — plunge for mortises, fixed base living permanently in the table — is why a kit beats two separate purchases for most shops.
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The other survivor. Fifteen amps, 9,000 to 22,000 rpm, and the two features that separate it from cheaper routers are both about control under load: electronic speed control holds the set rpm when the bit bites, and an electric brake stops the cutter when you release the trigger instead of letting it coast.
That brake is worth more than it sounds on a plunge router, because the moment you lift out of a stopped cut is exactly when a coasting 3-inch bit finds something it should not.
It is plunge-only, which in 2026 makes it a specialist’s choice rather than a first router. Buy it if you already have a fixed base in a table and want a dedicated plunge machine beside it.
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Fourteen amps, both bases, at well under half what the Triton costs. The feature nobody else has is a speed-control LCD: you tell it the bit type and the material and it suggests an rpm.
That sounds like a gimmick and for an experienced user it is. For a first router it is genuinely useful, because bit speed is the setting beginners get wrong most often and the consequences run from burnt maple to a shattered cutter. Electronic feedback holds the rpm under load, and a live tool indicator lights when the router is plugged in.
What you give up against the Bosch is the speed range at the top end and the refinement of the depth adjustment. For a shop that routs occasionally, neither is likely to be the thing that limits you.
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What Plunge Actually Buys You
A fixed-base router has its bit set at a depth before you switch it on, so every cut has to start at an edge. A plunge base rides on spring-loaded columns, letting you lower a spinning bit vertically into the middle of a board and raise it again.
That unlocks four things specifically:
Stopped dados and grooves that begin and end inside the panel, so the joint does not show on the front edge.
Mortises. With a fence and a couple of stops, a plunge router cuts mortises faster and squarer than a chisel, and it is the main reason furniture makers own one.
Inlay and recesses — a hinge mortise, a pocket for a brass plate, a routed sign.
Template work where the cut starts somewhere a bearing-guided edge cut cannot reach.
For edge profiling, round-overs, rabbets and anything living in a router table, the fixed base is better: lower centre of gravity, finer depth adjustment, and no spring resistance fighting you. This is why the combination kits exist, and why recommending a plunge-only router as someone’s first router is usually wrong.
How to Actually Cut a Mortise With One
Mortising is the job that justifies the machine, so it is worth laying out properly rather than leaving it as a bullet point.
Set the workpiece in a vice with the face you are mortising uppermost and level. Fit a straight spiral upcut bit matched to your mortise width — an upcut spiral lifts chips out of the hole instead of packing them in, which on a deep mortise is the difference between a clean wall and a burnt one. Attach the edge guide and set it so the bit sits centred on your layout line.
Now set two stops. Most plunge bases take rods or a turret, and clamping a block at each end of the travel is just as good. The stops define the mortise length, which means you are no longer trying to steer by eye with a spinning cutter.
Then take it in passes of about an eighth of an inch, not one plunge to full depth. A 1/2-inch bit asked to go three-quarters of an inch deep in a single bite will deflect, chatter, burn, and on hardwood it may snatch the router out of your hands. Plunge, travel to the far stop, retract, lower the turret a step, repeat. A three-quarter-inch mortise is six passes and takes under a minute.
Square the ends with a chisel if the joint needs a square mortise, or round the tenon’s corners to match the router — which is faster and just as strong.
The one mistake to avoid: do not plunge with the router tilted. The columns need to be perpendicular to the work or the mortise walls come out splayed, and a splayed mortise cannot be fixed afterwards.
Before You Buy
Check the collet
Half-inch shank bits run truer, deflect less and are available in bigger profiles than quarter-inch. Any router in this power class should take both with an adapter collet in the box — confirm it does, because buying a 1/2-inch bit set for a 1/4-inch-only machine is an expensive lesson.
Think about the table before you buy the router
If a router table is anywhere in your plans, buy the machine that mounts in one: threaded base holes, above-table bit access, and a motor you can lift out without dismantling the base. Retrofitting that later means buying a second router. Our router table guide covers the mounting side.
Dust is worse than you expect
Routers throw fine dust upward and outward at 20,000 rpm. Shop vac port, eye protection, and a mask that is not a paper one.
Verdict
Buy the Bosch MRC23EVSK if this is your main router: two bases, the widest speed range here, and it goes in a table. Buy the Triton TRA001 if a router table is the point and you want the best bit-change system there is. Buy the Makita if you already own a fixed base and want a dedicated plunge machine. Buy the SKIL if you are finding out whether you need a router at all — it is a real tool, not a toy, and the money saved buys a decent bit set, which will change your results more than any of these motors will. For the wider category, see our wood router reviews and our introduction to wood routers.
