Replies

1. 
   Bolts | Jul 14, 2007 09:29am | #1

   I am in Australia the combo kits you mention aren't sold here either I don't think it has to do with quality probably the different voltages we are on 50 hertz 240 volts The US is 110 Volts.

   Regards from OZ

   You can make it fool proof but not idiot proof 

2. 
   SgianDubh | Jul 14, 2007 10:35am | #2

   Plunge routers in Europe long ago usurped fixed base routers in popularity. I haven't seen a fixed base router sold in the British market since probably the mid 1970's. The only exception to that are the very small lightweight laminate trimmer type of routers that appeared about fifteen years ago.

   I'd guess manufacturers aren't going to push a style of router that users see as a backwards step compared to the ubiquitous plunge router. Whether the European users are right or wrong is a different subject, but that seems to be the way we think.

   I've used both plunge routers and fixed base routers a lot over the decades. The only common situation I can think of off the top of my head where I've found a fixed base router have some advantage sometimes over a plunge router is inverted in a table or in a side mount table.

   On the other hand when I went and lived in the US for ten years beginning in 1993, I gathered crowds of woodworkers around me in the workshop where I worked when I pulled out my plunge routers to use. To all of the American guys in the workshop this was a new tool that they'd only seen in magazines. And I was equally surprised to see them all using fixed base routers, a tool I hadn't used then for nearly twenty years.

   It's interesting how different continents, even now with the internet spreading information like wildfire, have different traditions and practises. Slainte.

   Richard Jones Furniture

1. 
   esc | Jul 15, 2007 01:50pm | #6

   Thanks for replying. But my doubts are not over yet. I noticed that a combo router in USA costs about 200 dollars (145 euro), while the one you mentioned from axminster is about 290 pounds (420 euro). Why is that? This is not just about routers. All power tools in USA are much less expensive than in Europe and I can't understand why. I would be tempeted to buy one from USA. Including the high shipping it might be less expensive than buying in Europe. The problem is voltage. Do you know if it is possible to just use an adapter?
   Thanks for your kind response.
   Enrico

1. 
   SgianDubh | Jul 15, 2007 02:37pm | #7

   I've been using the power tools I purchased in the USA during the period I lived there for four years now in the UK with a transformer. There's never been a problem with any of my routers, angle grinders, saws, power planes, biscuit jointers, drills, etc..

   It's said that these tools run a bit slower because UK electrical supply is 50Hz compared to US 60Hz. I don't notice it, even if such a phenomena actually exists.

   Edit. Regarding your question about importing tools to Europe from the US. I don't think it's worth the aggravation on the whole. If you regard your tools as disposable then perhaps it's worth it. But if you get a lemon, how much is it going to cost and how are you going to send it back for replacement? If a tool breaks down and it's not a common European brand, where are you going to go for spares and repair work? Slainte.

   Richard Jones Furniture

   Edited 7/15/2007 7:41 am by SgianDubh

1. 
   Lataxe | Jul 15, 2007 10:43pm | #8

   ....and there is also the import duty on top of the VAT - often adding in excess of 20%.  Then there is the cost of carriage - probably another 10% or more, especially when the sly British carriers add £10 or so for processing the taxbill!  (Oh, they are rascals without shame)!!

   In Britain we are more heavily taxed.  Not that I am complaining as we also have the welfare state (not to be sneezed at unless you are rich or never get ill).  Of course, one does wonder about how much of them taxes are spent on various loony armed escapades here and there....but this to the side.

   Lataxe, a taxpayer.

2. 
   BarryO | Jul 16, 2007 08:42am | #9

   All power tools in USA are much less expensive than in Europe and I can't understand why.

   Well, the low value of the dollar these days has something to do with it.  So does the typical European "Nanny State" cradle-to-grave coddling, and the resultant uber-high taxes it requires.

   But I think the biggest reason is that, from what I hear, the large hobbiest woodworker market essentially does not exist in the EU, at least not like it does in the USA.  And that's what lowers prices:  huge market drives huge volumes, which drives production efficiencies and product designs that allow prices to be brought down low enough to suit the mass market.

3. 
   Lataxe | Jul 14, 2007 11:53am | #3

   Enrico,

   Axminster Tools in Britain have recently begun to sell the Bosch GMF1400CE combo router kit in Britain.  I imagine Bosch also sell combo kits via other European outlets.  Perhaps European devotees of the Norm Show (the only US WW programme we get)have begun to clamour for them.

   As Richard Jones points out, very few woodworkers in Europe seems to want the fixed base versions, as a plunge router does it all and plunges too.  I confess that I would no more consider a fixed base router (having read about their many drawbacks) than I would buy one o' them US tablesaws with no riving knife, sliding crosscut carriage etc..

   Of course, the Aussies are now world leaders on the routing front wth them orange Tritons, which work exceedingly well in the router table, as I can attest from personal exxperience.

   Personally I feel we should send a European (or maybe Aussie) delegtion to demonstrate modern woodworking machines to the poor unfortunates over The Pond.  Richard mentioned that he has illicited gasps of awe and wonder in the past with his (then) novel plunge router, when in Texas.  Let us send him again bearing a Woodrat and one of them Martin tablesaws he uses.............  :-)

   Lataxe of Europe (where civilisation comes from).

1. 
   wilburpan | Jul 14, 2007 03:32pm | #4

   If you arrange for one of those delegations to come over here, could you please bring over a whole bunch of 10" jointer/planer (sorry, 260 mm planer/thicknesser) combo machines? Thanks!

2. 
   SgianDubh | Jul 15, 2007 11:02am | #5

   Now, now Lataxe. Be careful of the hyperbole there. I haven't use a Woodrat myself, although one or two do get used in the workshop, and the sliding table saw I use isn't a Martin, so there's not much point sending me over as some kind of envoy, ha, ha. Slainte.Richard Jones Furniture