Official Luthiers Forum!

That's right, Amazon.com has this router on sale, unfortunately for myself and my fellow Canadians they won't ship to us, but for the USA guys its a great deal at 50% off.
http://www.amazon.com/Porter-Cable-7310-4-Horsepower-Laminate-Router/dp/B0000222Z6/ref=pe_32240_14914700_as_txt_7/

They have quite a few other woodworking tools also reduced.

Fred

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Fred Tellier
http://www.fetellierguitars.com
Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/FE-Tellier-Guitars/163451547003866

There are some good prices out there. I bought one a couple of weeks ago for $46.95. It didn't have anything with it, but I didn't need anything but the router. I have wrenches - all over the place!

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

I was planning on picking up the Bosch Colt - how does this one compare ? I know the Colt has a micro adjust - does the PC have that as well ? The Colt is about 100 from the home centers with the edge guide.

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It's this new idea from recent decades that everyone gets a participation award. - MUX

The 7310 has an adjustment screw, but I don't know how accurate it is. I didn't find the Bosh one to be all that great either. Lots of slop. I think this one is that way too.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

The height adjustment is not all that great, but the only one I've ever seen that was is the Porter 310. The 7310 is a nice, compact machine.

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Howard Klepper
http://www.klepperguitars.com

When all else fails, clean the shop.

The height adjustment is not fantastic, but it's workable. It's not really a micro-adjust. When you loosen up the base to adjust it, there's a lot of play in it. But if you turn the little adjustment dial a bit and tighten things back up you can make pretty fine adjustments. I use a 7310 for my luthiertools binding jig and it does pretty well. I picked up a 310 later on when I found a good deal on one, but the 7310 does well enough that I'm not planning on switching it out.

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Jonathan Kendall, Siloam Springs AR

I'll offer $0.02 and say that with the complete redesign of their 2400 laminate trimmer, the new Ridgid R2401 is now a clear contender for the best laminate trimmer for lutherie. I love most Porter Cable stuff, but the 7310 is very clunky to adjust the depth of the bit, and very difficult to assure that the base is 100% perpendicular to the bit - items that are critical for lutherie use. I left Menards and went into Home Depot to buy a Bosch Colt (thinking I might save 10%), but saw and checked out the Ridgid R2401 and walked out with one. Ignore the 2400 if you find one on sale or even a blowout sale, and spend the $99 for the R2401. If you think of Ridgid as being a "house brand" of Home Depot, well, it isn't.

I apologize if my post, denigrating the PC 7310 and lauding the R2401, is a turd in a punchbowl, but I have bought my share of poor quality to middle of the road tools, and get excited when I can share some news about a very good tool with good bang for the buck.

Dennis

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Dennis Leahy
Duluth, MN, USA
7th Sense Multimedia

I have a Rigid too, and it is nice, but it has it's drawbacks as well. I think mine may be the older model though, as it has no fine adjustment method.

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

I hope that this blow-out pricing is not a prelude to dropping the model.... The PC-310 is a great laminate trimmer but not available anymore....

I have a couple of 7310's and they are fine if you dedicate them to a single task and don't mess with the adjustments after setting them correctly for the task at hand. This is the best price that I have seen on a 7310.

The colt a friend of mine purchased and his had .005 of runout which is far too much for what we do with these things. Might as well use a sloppy Dremel is .005 of runout is not a problem for you....

Good review on the Rigid Dennis. Isn't Rigid the brand with free forever replacement parts?

Good find Fred!!!

Hi Waddy, yeah, next time you go to Home Depot, look the R2401 over, even if you're not in the market for buying. You'll see that a smart engineer (hey, they are not all smart ), spent the time to start from scratch and redesign the unit. They should not have called it the 2401; they should have called it the 4800 or XIBL122 or something to make it obvious (by model number) that it is a completely new and different (and much better) tool than the 2400.

Dennis

p.s. Hesh: Yes, they have a "Lifetime Service Agreement."

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Dennis Leahy
Duluth, MN, USA
7th Sense Multimedia

Hi Waddy.
Just wanted to say, I think the colt is sold in UK as Bosch 600 palm router (in a binding jig) and I have no trouble setting depths to less than 0.1 millimeter. I don't open the clamp fully when adjusting, but open it just enough to to be able to adjust the setting with the other hand.
Just wondered what you were using it for?

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Dennis,

How is the depth adjustment as compared to the old Ridgid 2400? I found the 2400 to be poor in the adjustment category.

Bob

Bob, take a look at one, if there's a Home Depot nearby. It's completely different. There's now a thumb wheel - not perfect, but better than the other brands - up near the top of the sleeve. There's a quick-release clamp for the sleeve, which does not alter the depth or pitch of the base. That's key. With the quick release open, turn the thumb wheel to ride up and down the surface of a long screw. The follower piece that touches the adjustment screw threads is a tapped hemi-cylinder, and is spring loaded to keep it in contact as you use the thumb wheel. But when you want a gross adjustment, or just want to quickly move the base & sleeve to a position for bit changes, you can lift the spring-loaded follower and then the base/sleve moves easily. I think that part is pretty well engineered, and the only minor gripe I have is that the thumb wheel could have either been a bit larger, or could have had deeper furrows for knurling, to allow a better grip by the thumb or finger.

Further observations:

There is also an integrated LED light that shines down on the work near the cutter. Not bright enough to be terribly useful, but in that area where any tidbit of extra light is appreciated, it doesn't hurt.

They made the top of the unit flat, so you can stand it on its head (for bit changes or whatnot.) The body near the head is also squarish, so the whole unit does not roll when you're doing bit changes with it laying down.

Wrenches work well and work easily.

The collet sleeve is too small. That's the other deficiency, in my estimation. I had no bit slippage, but would prefer as much of the collet sleeve grabbing the bit as possible.

Soft start is nice. It also has variable speed, but I think for what most anyone does with laminate trimmers, full speed makes the most sense. Slower speeds make sense to me only on bigger routers, when using wide bits (like panel raising bits.) But maybe cutting through some specific materials, like plastics, slower speeds might make sense in a laminate trimmer.

The cord is nice and long, high quality rubber, and terminates in a plug with its own power LED - I guess a reminder that the router is "live" when you go to change bits, it might help you to remember to unplug it. Oh, I guess it would also quickly tell you if the circuit is hot or not.

Base plates (square and round included) are clear polycarbonate, and seem well made.

I haven't tried the edge guide, but it looks well made.

Comes in a "cute", zippered, canvas, lunch box kinda thing. Once you unpack it, it is difficult but not impossible to get the whole thing back in the case.

If you click on the image in this mini-review, you'll see a larger image to see the details well:
RIDGID’s New Palm Router...

Dennis

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Dennis Leahy
Duluth, MN, USA
7th Sense Multimedia

Dennis -

I purchased a Colt last night at Lowes - and this morning I walked into Home Depot to get some other stuff and I saw the Rigid - in my opinion - Much better than the Colt - I promptly returned the Colt and I have Rigid 2401 now. So I agree with your review.
Furthermore - there are threaded post holes in the body, to take thier straight edge guide. Well it looks liek it was made for the Wells Carol jig !! I am building my Wells Carol now and will be using the post holes in the body as part of it - will post pics when done.
Now I have to practice routing stuff as I have never used a router before. Argh...

OK - I will prob post pics of this in a separate thread - but here is my router circle jig in progress. As mentioned the Rigid makes this easier as it has threaded holes in the body and the rods are from the same Rigid straight edge guide.
I will post a write up - this is only about 85% complete -

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It's this new idea from recent decades that everyone gets a participation award. - MUX

I need to put some thumb screws on it and some plexiglass as a base.

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It's this new idea from recent decades that everyone gets a participation award. - MUX

Thanks, John. Your recognition of the superb adaptability of this laminate trimmer to a Wells-Karol type circle cutter rounds out the review for luthiers perfectly.

Dennis

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Dennis Leahy
Duluth, MN, USA
7th Sense Multimedia

Dennis
It seems H.Depot does not stock the 2401 in canada yet. Plenty of the 2400 tho. Maybe we could strike a deal?
Regards
Allen

I just came across this laminate trimmer type tool, seems pretty appropriate for lutherie, plunge base included for $90 bucks. Mlcs is a good company but this seems too good to be true at the price. Any one have any experience with it?
Rob


http://www.mlcswoodworking.com/shopsite ... outer.html

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http://shastaguitar.com/
http://www.kalimbakit.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/comfyfootgr ... ature=mhee
http://www.facebook.com/robert.renick.7

looks great as well as their other products ! please let us know how it works out -

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It's this new idea from recent decades that everyone gets a participation award. - MUX

Fred,
Thanks for the "heads up" on this sale. I bought one. I have another, a Bosch Colt, but it is in a binding cutter jig. I need to have one to freehand when I need it.
Mike R.

I went to check out the 2401 and came home with one. I also plan to make a circle jig for it. As stated earlier in the thread, this machine has some fantastic design points.

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rono

Let me know if you have questions on the jig.

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It's this new idea from recent decades that everyone gets a participation award. - MUX

Another vote for the Rigid 2401.

Really nice new features.

Peter

It always pays to check camelcamelcamel: http://www.camelcamelcamel.com/product/B0000222Z6

Looks like its been priced that way for a while. Also, no speed control. Me personally? I would rather pay a little more for the Colt and get speed control.

Mike