Routers Reviews

I'm slowly going through and replacing many of my cutting tools with Freud products. Every Freud saw blade and router bit has held its edge better than other maker's products. Freud tools cost more, but since I get to leave them on the saw longer, it's worth it to me. I wish they made drill bits!

My only complaint (after practicing with the finger joint bit all afternoon) is the limited instructions that come with it. Safety advice only. You have to figure out yourself how to use this properly, but once done it makes tight joints.

First thing to know is that all cutter heads need to remain on spindle to have to nut engage the threads, cutters you don't need are placed above the wide top cutter and just "cut the air" above your workpiece.

I used it on a shaper with a mitre gauge. Was impossible to hold the workpiece tightly against gauge so I built a sacrificial fence (this also reduced chipping as the cutter exits the back side). First attempt was too deep a cut and bit pulled work free from my clamp AND knocked my mitre gauge off 90 degrees. This made next hour's worth of practice confusing as the cut was deeper on entering the wood than on exited. Getting the mitre gauge back to 90 degrees mitre solved this.

Cutter does indeed cut 5/16" deep as they say, so I started marking a 5/16" guideline on my workpiece and aligning this to the end of my fence; this allowed me to touch the collar bearing but also to clamp the workpiece to my fence. Pull the workpiece slowly thru as a lot of wood is being chopped if all or most of the cutter heads are used.

I had to adjust height of bit for mating halves. I measured from the side of the workpiece cut by the wide top cutter to where the last narrow cutter (one above collar bearing) ended. This distance became the height of the bottom cutting edge on the wide top cutter and it fits beautifully.

All in all a great product.

It cuts the slot, but you have to move the bit along the work to get the full width of the biscuit. This makes sense since biscuit routers have very large diameter bits (~6") and this bit is only about 2" in diameter.

I'm using it to cut repetitive slots on my router table on small pieces. I made a jig to hold the wood and some stop blocks and it works fine.

The 99-270 bit set I purchased took a little getting used to. When I first opened the package and studied the profiles, there was no way these bits would match. Or so I thought. After some practice cuts and a little trial and error I was on my way. The bits are of course Freud quality all the way. Mine unfortunately were assembled incorrectly from the factory. (4 Stars) One of the cutting heads on one of the bits was installed up side down. This made for an interesting first cut. After correcting the assembly error, I had no problem making all the parts for a divided light window. You will however, have to use mortises to assemble your project. Overall these are a great addition to my Freud collection. Solid as expected!

As always, Grizzly router bits never dissappoint. I have bought a few others from them, and they are just great to work with. There is a little bit of chipout when I use this one on maple, but I think that is to be expected when you buy the cheapest bit in the Grizzly catalog.

I suspect spiral-bladed bits would do better on reducing chipouts. Even the cheapest bits from Grizzly are wonderful. They are an excellent value compared to the ones in the stores, and I have had nothing but good expericences in dealing with Grizzly. You won't be dissapointed!

OK, this isn't your everyday router bit. In the first place the picture is misleading as it shows a MUCH smaller roundnose bit. This one is a big mushroom head deal, with a diameter three times the 1/2" shank size. But if you need to make a big trough in wood this is the ticket.

For an art project I needed to rip some 1-1/2" copper tubing lengthwise. I don't have a band saw, and I don't have the shop space for one anyway. But I do have a table saw and a laminate blade that will also work on non-ferrous metal. So I split a 2x4 and ran both pieces over this big cutter on my router table. Put the pieces back together and voila -- a rectangular box with a circular cutout 1-1/2" wide, a perfect carrier to hold the tubing so I can rip it on the table saw. The cuts, in redwood stock, were nice and smooth.

Grizzly's packaging is pretty good, which is important for a heavy cutter like this one. The bit fits in a two-part clear plastic box. Inside the box the cutter was in a heavy protective plastic coating, which took 2-3 minutes to carefully cut away with my utility knife.

The cutter's two carbide flutes look pretty substantial. They'd better be, as they remove a LOT of material: my two 3' passes on this cutter turned 64 cubic inches of redwood 2x into sawdust, which made an interesting, colorful decoration for my back yard. I had to crank my 3-1/4 HP router motor up to top speed to do the job. My only reservation about this bit is whether it's going to hold up to repeated use; I don't know yet.

Delivers a Great finished edge with minimal wood burn. Definately worth the money.

I only wish this was a carbide set. The accuracy and weight of this set is excellent, and the price was very good. Also it was difficult to find a raised panel set that is roman ogee in style.

I've owned one of these for about a year and a half and have cut some beautiful dovetails using this system.

Set-up is easy and explained well by the manual. Incramental adjustments are easy, and the positioner is rock-solid. You have to be very careful, because your stock may want to move in the middle of a cut when clamped to the right-angle feature.

Making dovetails: The templates are easy to follow, but require too many steps to set up. Adjustment and centering of your workpiece is critical, and cutting dovetails by incramental changes in fence position takes just too long if you have more than a couple to cut. I would rather spend the time to hand-cut the dovetails. After my initial few, I haven't used the dovetail function of this jig.

As a router table fence, this system can't be beat for the money. For the price of many standard router fences and a little modification, you can have tremendous functionality. The bit hole in the fence is too small, but with the t-slots on the front, you can attatch a second adjustable fence that you can make from MDF and laminate. Using 3" thick MDF covered with laminate as a second fence, I have even used raised panel bits. The ability to adjust the fence position at will is great. The fence is solid, stable, adjustable and a breeze to use. I tend to measure, but when you get the template guide zeroed in, you can simply set the fence where you want it using scale measurements. I wouldn't buy this as a dovetail jig alone unless you are VERY patient, but it is well worth its price for use as a router table fence. I use mine at least weekly and wouldn't trade it for any router fence system out there. I'm currently looking at Keller and Leigh as better dovetail options. Thanks for reading.

The freud bits are as always great. The problem is that I ordered two item at the same time. I paid extra for two day delivery. I see from the tracking # that the second part of my order is still 100 miles away and won't be here until Monday or Tuesday. So much for the two day shipping. Pay extra and get nothing. I also used my amazon business credit card(just ran it through the shredder) which is supposed to have a $30.00 credit on the first purchase according to my invoice I received a credit of $26.80. I never had any problem with Lee Valley Tools who will continue to get all of my business for now and in the future. Instead of amazon.com it should be gypsies.scam

THIS IS THE BEST BIT SET THAT I HAVE EVER USED