Official Luthiers Forum!

Has anyone dared to try the cheap laminate trimmers that you see on e-bay or Harbor Freight? Too loose for precision work? Thinking about upgrade from dremmel, but curious as to saving money. Gut feeling is it would be a waste of money to try the cheapos. I appreciate your input.

Secondary question: auctions seem to have Bosch and others fairly cheap. PC seems to be the favorite from what I gather from luthiers. What is most important, the brand, the bases that it comes with, etc.
Thanks

Donovan D Stewart38940.6834259259

Harbor freight are JUNK !!!! I have seen them throw the bit. The run out is extreem and they butn up brushes like a hippie at a pot convention. one trashed my brazilian rosewood so I will never use them again. The hand tools are fair but not the electric tools. Remember you get what you pay for.
   Porter cable is the top of the line. I like the 7310. the depth adjustment is very good as compared to the slip bases that others use.
john hall
blues creek guitars

I've been using the least expensive Ryobi Lam trimmer for a couple years without problem and the Ridgid doesn't look too bad either. I think both may be around $80 at HD.

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Tickle your guitar daily, and it'll tickle you back.

I picked up a Harbor Freight for $20 and it does the job for a lot of tasks fairly well, but I don't think its accurate enough to binding channels. Its a little rough and the shaft isn't completely perpendicular to the base, so it has a VERY slight wobble. Its fine with a flush cut bit to do some trimming and it worked great to carve out my radius dishes. Great for grunt work, just not accuracy. I'm keeping my eyes open for a decent dewalt, porter cable, or similar for my dedicated binding jig.
-j.

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“If God dwells inside us like some people say, I sure hope He likes enchiladas, because that's what He's getting”
-jack handy

Well, John pre-empted anything nice I would have said about the Harbor Freight unit. I've used mine on 5 guitars now, and the only errors that have occurred have been in between the tool and the wall plug, so to speak. (I'm trying to paraphrase the "between the chair and the keyboard" idea)
I thought it was a pretty good deal at $19.95. (It's the only HF thing that I've ever purchased, aside from feeler gages and small stuff like that.)

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

A guy over here had imported some Chineese trimmers and was selling them very cheap, I bought three to evaluate them, the ones I have are based on makita trimmer, ( I bought them pimarily for the bases as I own amoungs others a Makita Trimmer) Out of the three one burned out immediately, One spun so out of true, The third one is perfect and has been on rosette duty for a while now.all of the collets were poorly engineered to the point of being dangerous I replaced the collet with a Makita on the one I use.

I also own a Dewalt trimmer that a friend bought for me in CA i think it is a DW670, which I have in my binding jig, it is a great trimmer.

I own a Makita that I like for other tasks as it has a pivoting base. Makita usual high quality.

My advice would be for routers and trimmers these are high rpm tools with the potential to wreck a guitar or worse you ! I would spend the money on some thing high quality, The Dewalt in the states is $90, I have no direct experience with Porter Cable, but I know many of the guys on here say there trimmers are top notch.

I also use a Dewalt Router for heavier task such as truss rod slots and neck tennons, I find this a very realiable tool as well.RussellR38941.387662037

I've got a very old Ryobi (back from the days when they made real tools, as it has an aluminum housing and it works great after 14 years of use), a Porter-Cable 310 and the new Bosch Colt.

Of the three my favorite by far is the Bosch. It is variable speed, it is very easy to adjust depth of cut as it has both a gross adjustment and a fine depth adjustment, it has a soft start, and the best part is that it has a self-releasing collet.

The Porter-Cable is a great tool, but the collet sucks. I have to really wack the shaft to shock the collet into releasing (and its not because the bit is bottomed out in the collet). I also do not like the height adjustment on the 310 which doesn't always seat properly.

You're much better off buying a good tool once than a bad tool several times over (not to mention the conversion cost of changing your fixtures).

PC 310 gets my vote. I believe it to be the most rock solid,predictable router type tool that I own. The infinite threaded adjustment is perfect and capable of very fine increments. It is smooth-starts soft even though it technically is not a soft-start design. The only improvement I have done to mine for hand use is install one of Pat Warner's fine offset bases,with PC template guide specs. If I never routed anything except guitar stuff, I think it could be my single router-If not abused, I'm confident it could do neck mortise/tenon,trussrod,binding etc.I have three other routers-Bosch 1617esv,PC 690 combo and PC892 combo. I never fear using my 310-I always have to think through the others.Just my opinion.MT

I've been using a DeWalt DW670 for about a year now. Prior to that I was using a Dremel Advantage, a real POS that has since been discontinued (not surprised). I bought the DeWalt mostly because of the accessory guide that came with it, which looked to be perfect for routing bindings. However, about the same time I bought it I also bought a nice bit and bearing set from Tracy, and I use this instead of the accessory guide.

The DW670 is a well made tool with plenty of grunt. The only real complaint I have about it is that it tends to get pretty warm after only a few minutes of use. But since it scarcely takes more than a few minutes to cut a rosette or binding channel, this isn't a significant issue for me.

Best,

Michael

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Live to Play, Play to Live

Porter Cable 7310 for the last 8 months and i'm still satisfied.

I am with David. There is nothing more expensive than a cheap tool. A good lam trimmer is something you will be using constantly. It is worth it to buy a good one.

However, if money is a critical influencer, before I would take my chances on a Harbor Freight POS I would turn to ebay and buy a used PC or other name brand trimmer. Sure... there is some risk in that as well, but at least there is a CHANCE that you will get a good tool.

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

Thanks for all the input. Pretty much what I thought. Hit and miss quality just doesn't get it with expensive tone wood and priceless body parts.

Looks like I be shopping for the PC or Dewalt.

Thanks to all.

Donovan

i have 10 routers, including two pc trimmers, two pc 690's, one pc 7518(more or less permanently in the table), two pc/rockwell 100's, one bosch in a pc plunge base, a dewalt 621 plunger, and a harbor freight trimmer.

the hf is noisy, has a poor collet which makes changing bits a pain, but otherwise works well. it is permanently in a flush trim jig.

the pc's are all workhorses, as are the bosch and the dewalt.

when i bought the 310 quite some time ago it was the best trimmer around, and whilst i've had a good look at the newer models from bosch, ridgid, and makita, the 310 is still my favourite. really need to get another one so i can leave it in the binding jig permanently.

Has anyone seen/used Bosch's Colt? Rockler is advertising them.

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Aoibeann

Lillian, I was wondering the samething.

Has anyone on the forum had any experience with the Colt or any other Bosch units who can give Lillian and me some insight on dependability, accuracy, and personal comparisons?

Thanks for bringing that up Lillian

[QUOTE=tippie53]   Harbor freight are JUNK !!!!
john hall
blues creek guitars[/QUOTE]

Amen John, amen.

Like my father used to say; "Buy good tools, and you only cry once."

I have both the Rigid, and the PC 310. Thie Rigid is a good tool, with the exception of the depth adjustment - I find it awkward to use because of that. Plus I have found that with prolonged use, that thing gets HOT! But I think for the money, one can tolerate these shortcomings.

The PC 310, well what can ya say? It is just an outstanding trimmer! Plus it kinda looks like R2D2...

-Mark

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Pullman, WA

The more I know, the more I know I don't know.

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anyone have any experience with the Homier brand trimmers which i believe you can get for $20... I don't but thought i'd throw it out there for conversation..
Mikemikev38946.0637962963

Calling them crap is being kind. A friend bought one for a project and it didn't last an hour.

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Aoibeann