The new DeWalt router was installed into the router table today. It came with a 2 piece collet. The 1/4 inch fits inside of the 1/2 inch. I will order some extra one piece collets.
In the process, Charles L tore the entire lift down to it’s components. It got a thorough cleaning.
Actual 1/4" collet is preferable. Sleeves will be lost. They also need to be very clean before inserting into a 1/2" collet, otherwise they can get jammed and/or will be loose while the router is running. I purchased the same DeWalt router about five years ago and it had a proper 1/4" collet, so I’m not sure why they would switch to a sleeve.
I’ve used sleeves and they seem cost effective but they don’t hold as well. Admittedly our new sleeve is of a better design than the ones I’ve used in the past (see below) but I suspect they’d suffer from a similar less-effective grip. Two walls of friction grip are inferior to one wall of grip.
Thanks for getting this done! It worked beautifully during the safety class last night.
I noticed 2 things when running it I thought worth mentioning: 1) the variable speed doesn’t do anything. The router only ran with full power. 2) the spindle lock seems to no longer be working.
Not pointing these things out as problems necessarily; just drawing attention so everyone is aware.
It’s a soft-start/variable-speed router. We probably the same problem I have on my Porter Cable 75182 - you can’t have an electronic speed control in series with the internal electronic speed control. If that’s the case, we should replace the knob on the router table with an on/off switch and point out to people that they can set the speed on the router motor.
The DeWalt is soft start so @Jon is right. I plugged in the variable speed controller but did not test it. I’ll find DeWalt’s speed / bit circumference chart and tape it to the cabinet front door.
The spindle lock was working when I installed so I will take a look over the weekend.
I used the new router table today and the spindle lock works fine.
Here’s what perhaps you were experiencing … locking on the wrong surface.
You can either lock in the hole (pic 1) or think you lock by pressing on a face (pic 2).
The former locks tight while the latter slides along the surface, not really locking.