Best Wood Router Packed With Useful Features

This model from Bosch is one of two palm-sized tools on this list. It brings an impressive list of features to the table along with the Bosch name, which is synonymous with superior quality power tools.

Product Highlights

This is an ideal tool for smaller, more intricate work. It has a variable speed function that really gives it a high degree of control, and a 1-horsepower motor is fine for small projects. The aluminum fixed base has a unique design incorporating a pair of indents where you can place your fingers.

Again, this really helps with intricate work as you can easily use both hands to control the tool. It’s also nice and small which makes it easy to hold and manipulate into tight cutting patterns.

If you’re looking for a router specifically designed for smaller projects, this model is ideal. It’s very well designed for intricate work and the aluminum guard has finger indents making careful, small movements that much easier and accurate.

With just a single horsepower under the hood, it does feel somewhat underpowered. This may not be the ideal router for larger projects as the motor is probably going to start feeling the strain of holding up for the prolonged period of operation required for longer projects.

When it comes to selecting the right wood router for you, there are a few key features to bear in mind when making your selection, such as those detailed below.

Very simply, if the router you select has a speed adjustment option, sometimes called variable-speed or multi-speed, then it will have the ability to adjust the speed at which the bit spins during operation. Typically, you’ll see this on the pricier routers, as many of the budget models will eschew this option to keep the overall unit cost down.

Adjustable speed can be quite helpful in numerous ways. For example, some bit sizes should be rotated faster or slower than others.

Different types of wood will respond differently to speed too, with a high speed causing friction that can singe or burn some wood and a slow speed struggling to cut denser material. If you can afford the extra outlay, adjustable speed can lead to a superior finish overall.

By classifications, we mean motor capacity. Just as with most power tools, routers come in a range of sizes and motor capacities. This specific tool generally comes in three classifications:

• Palm: These are compact-sized models that lack the handles that come with larger-capacity models, hence the “palm” name since they literally fit in the palm of the hand. Equipped with an engine capacity of around one horsepower, they are still relatively powerful for their size. They will certainly tackle most routing jobs but are best reserved for the more intricate work.
• Mid-Size: By far the most popular overall, these models combine the best features of the palm and full-size routers. On the one hand, an engine capacity of around 2 horsepower provides plenty of power to tackle nearly any job. At the same time, they are small enough to easily manipulate the tool to perform more intricate work. It’s no surprise they are so popular!
• Full-Size: Typically packing a 3-horsepower engine, a full-size router definitely has the power to tackle any size job you can throw at it. That powerful engine, however, is both bulky and heavy, making the full-size router ill-suited for intricate, handheld work.

In addition to engine size, selecting the right base is also of key importance. There are two styles to select from:

• Fixed: The original and standard base, you will find that most routers, especially cheaper models, come with a fixed base. Typically equipped with a ring-style depth adjustment tool, this is a solid design that won’t let you down in operation. Because the router bit is essentially locked during operation, if the router is attached to a table it will only be able to work on the edges of the wood. It does, therefore, lack some of the high-end performance features you will find with the other base style.
• Plunge: This is a more expensive setup simply as there are more parts and therefore more engineering required to build a plunge-style base compared to the simpler fixed base. The benefit here, however, is that it is a far more versatile tool. In handheld mode, it does everything that the fixed base does. The tool moves up and down on the base via a spring-loaded mechanism rather than a fixed ring. This means that you can make small adjustments to cutting depth on the fly and can also use this kind of base on any part of the wood while it is locked into a table because you can “plunge” the cutting bit into the center of the wood.

The collet is the metal tube mounted underneath the router into which the router bit is inserted and tightened. They come in two sizes:

• ¼ Inch: You will typically find this size on the smallest, palm-sized routers. Naturally, as a smaller size, the router bits that can be attached are also going to be that little bit smaller. That makes them perfect for smaller scale intricate work but can also mean that large-scale jobs take more time. You may also struggle to get a really deep cut with the smaller bit size.
• ½ Inch: This is more likely to be found on mid-size and full-size routers and is arguably a more useful size overall. Firstly, the bits are a little larger, helping to make light work of larger projects. More usefully, many routers also come with adaptors to allow a ½ inch collet to accept ¼ inch bits, allowing them to be the best of both worlds.

The final consideration is in the horsepower of the router motor. We briefly touched on this factor above. However, to clarify there are, broadly speaking, 3 levels of motor capacity.

• 1 Horsepower: Or sometimes even less. Found mounted within the smallest, palm-style routers. Perfect for intricate work on small-scale projects.
• 1.75 to 2.25 Horsepower: Around 2 horsepower is the average but the middle range of motor capacity can vary from 1.75 to 2.25. Found in mid-size routers, they are a great, all-purpose motor size suitable for the widest range of projects.
• 3 to 3.5 Horsepower: The big boys! These large and powerful motors are only found in full-size routers. Whilst extremely powerful, their large size and considerable weight make them less portable than smaller models and less suited for very intricate work.

A router is a pretty interesting tool actually. While it’s easy to learn its basic operation, it’s far tougher to master it for truly superior results! As with all things, only practice makes perfect, however to even move onto the practice stage you need a firm grasp of the basics of the tool.

For a thorough grounding in wood routers, no one is better than the infectiously enthusiastic Steve Ramsey, proprietor of the fantastic Woodworking for Mere Mortals channel. Here is his highly recommended guide to routers.

One of the big benefits that a router brings to woodworking projects is its ability to cut to curves. You can take this ability to its logical conclusion and also use a router to cut out a perfect circle.

It’s relatively simple to do, and if you have a very steady hand you can mark out the circle, cut a shallow marker line and use a bit with a ball bearing tip to follow the line.

For more accurate results you can use a circular jig. They are available to purchase online or from any good hardware store. You can also save some cash and make your own jig by following this excellent guide.

At its most basic, a router works by spinning a metal bit that cuts into wood to achieve the desired finish. Pretty simple, right?

Well, as with most things, it’s a little more complicated than that. However, it’s those little metal bits that really make the difference. They come in an incredible range of sizes, angles and even materials and finishes, all of which have a different outcome on the wood.

Some bits are gently angled to allow you to cut gentle edges to wood to give an attractive finish to a piece of worked wood like a shelf or drawer. Different shaped bits can cut ridges and dados, which are crucial elements in seamless construction when building objects from wood.

Other bits cut rabbets, one of the most useful joins in woodworking. They can even be used to cut Dovetail joins, another popular and very attractive joining method, and can cut shallow inlays that you can fill with veneer strips or other decorative finishes.

The router does all this via its diverse selection of bits, so it really pays to have as diverse a selection as possible. Here is a great guide from Popular Mechanics to get you started.

What does a wood router do? Well, what doesn’t it do! The router is designed primarily to cut wood, though that description doesn’t really do it justice. Unlike say, a drill or a saw, a wood router is very versatile.

As we discussed above with the various bits, the attachment you use will affect the outcome. So, on the one hand, it can be used in purely decorative ways. This can be to round off the edges on wood such as you may see on a desk or chest of drawers.

It can create shallow inlay cuts such as you may see around the borders of furniture or carved into intricate photo frames for example. Or it can be used in the background of woodworking projects, providing vital but unseen joins and joints in various sizes and used to connect pieces of wood during construction of an item.

It really has multiple uses across a wide range of applications. No wonder the wood router is routinely held up as one of the most important power tools in all of woodworking.

A wood router is essentially a motor that spins a bit. Of course, as we saw above there is more to it than that. The power of the motor, the size of the bit attachment, the type of base it is mounted on and even such simple things as whether the model has handles attached all have a bearing on its operation and suitability for a range of tasks.

Therefore, it is extremely important to weigh up the pro & cons of the various features that different models have when deciding which model is the best for you. 

It’s hard to look past the Triton Plunge Router when selecting the best on this list. It simply brings too much to the table, is too well designed and is too good to use to really say that any other tool can beat it. Like we said though, just be sure you’re going to get the most out of it before dropping a fist full of bills on it. All these were plunge routers,  best cnc routers are also available in the market.

For smaller scale jobs the Bosch Colt Palm Grip Router is the best palm-sized router. It’s lovely and accurate, has the usual high standards of construction you’d expect from Bosch and it won’t empty your bank account. All above were among the best wood routers, but what is the best plunge router? interesting to find out.