Official Luthiers Forum!

I'm looking to get a laminate trimmer, primarily for routing binding
channels.

What should I look for as far as size, features, etc.? Any
recommendations as far as brands (to buy or to avoid)? Not
necessarily looking for cheap, but extremely affordable would be
nice.

Thanks.

PC 7310 is pretty good choice for the money HD had it on at $89 a couple weeks ago here in Odessa. I got by for a couple years with Harber Freights Chicago Machine's $20 jobber. You may get a good one or you may get a piece of junk according to some. I have had three and all three were pretty good. But the brushes wear out fast and the bearings are not sealed very good so they wear fast as well. but for $20 what do you expect.MichaelP38464.7400115741

PC 310 is another good choice.

_________________
Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

Don't waste your time or money. Get a PC 310. It is solid and very
accurate. Nothing else is even close.

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Sylvan
http://www.wellsguitars.com

I'd got for the PC310 right now; I just ordered one from Amazon, where they've got a 25 buck mail-in rebate from Porter Cable on anything over 150 bucks, 50 bucks on over 300 dollars worth of purchases. When I asked the question a couple months back, the faves were the 310 by a long shot, with a lot of people quite liking the DeWalt trimmer and the PC 7310 for lighter duty work. I'm looking forward to playing with mine!

I'm slowly retooling my shop with PC 310s. I bought a bunch of the orange lam trimmers from Harbor Freight and they have gotten me by but the accuracy isn't there at all. I like the 310 so well that when my big router dies, I'll most likely just replace it with another 310. Save your change and splurge for one of these , you won't be sorry.

[QUOTE=Mattia Valente] I'd got for the PC310 right now; I just ordered one from Amazon, where they've got a 25 buck mail-in rebate from Porter Cable on anything over 150 bucks, 50 bucks on over 300 dollars worth of purchases. When I asked the question a couple months back, the faves were the 310 by a long shot, with a lot of people quite liking the DeWalt trimmer and the PC 7310 for lighter duty work. I'm looking forward to playing with mine![/QUOTE]

Also get another $25 off from amazon for anything over $199 in tools. The 310 is 159, so throw in a couple of bits or something else you need.

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Scott Thompson
Port Townsend,WA

"In a perfect world we'd all sing in tune
But this is reality so give me some room"
-Billy Bragg

There are many good ones. I agree that the PC is a good choice. Makita also has a good one. The PC will fit the bill for sure. HF may get you started but the PC will go the distance
john hall
   

THere seems to be an emerging concesis that the Porter-Cable 310 is the best by a large margin. Perhaps more importantly, however, is the fact that you can get a Cochran base for it. This base also receives rave reviews. With this combination you can get the best of the best.

I don't own either of these but they on my acquire list. As soon as I need a new lam trimmer.

In my router stash I have 3 PC brand routers. I have the 310, the 7310 and the 690 with dual base setup.

With these three I can do just about anything that comes up. And there are a lot of third party add-ons for PC routers as well.

I don't think you could do too bad with any of these.

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Dave Rector
Rector Guitars

I have both the 7310 and the 310 (and a cochran base). I think Mike is right. The 310 and cochran base are a fantastic combo across the board. I realize that these tools are a ** little ** more expensive than others, but the cost is not SO much more that you won't be thrilled the first time you use it.

I always have my eye out for sales of the 310 and slowly but surely I am converting my special purpose routers over.

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Brock Poling
Columbus, Ohio
http://www.polingguitars.com

Thanks to everybody for the recommendations. Looks like the 310
will win out.

I ran across the Cochran base when I was scanning the net for the
310 and it's definitely going on my wish list.