How are router depth adjustments supposed to work?

[Salem Ganzhorn]

I haven't seen this mentioned yet but the cause of inaccuracy for me is locking the body of the router into the base. All of the depth adjustments I have used work fine (body turning, small threaded rod turning etc). The issue I have is that locking the body changes the bit a hair. Does it matter? I think so. I have learned to guestimate the amount of sag/lift that each of my routers have when locking them down and pre-adjust for this.

With a gauge you can get it spot on before you turn the router on but it may take one or two trial lock-downs.

Plungers should make this easier but all of the plungers I have used have relatively inaccurate scales.

[Joe Jensen]

Over the 30 years I've been making sawdust I've moved more and more working without measuring much. I never draw plans. If I need a rabbit for a plywood back, it doesn't matter to me if the plywood is 1/4", 6mm, 8mm, or anything else. I just grab a 3/8" rabbiting big and take a scrap of the plywood, and set the bit to the plywood thickness. Quick and perfect.

I think too many woodworkers work too closely to plans. With the way I work, I can adapt to mistakes. Say the book case was going to be 36" tall, and I make a small cutting mistake. Most times, I can make it 35 5/8" and nobody is the wiser. If you do a detailed drawing and cut all the parts to the cut list, you have to make everything perfect. Make a mistake and that part needs to be tossed and another one fabricated.

In the evolution of my craft, adaptation of the design on the fly has been most valuable...joe

[Jim Rimmer]

Plungers should make this easier but all of the plungers I have used have relatively inaccurate scales.[/QUOTE]

I have two plunge routers - Freud and Ryobi. The Freud is permanently mounted in my router table. The problem with Ryobi is the base plate - doesn't accept after market templates and I haven't found an aftermarket base plate. The plunge mechanism on teh Freud does make adjustments very easy. I also have PC 690 for my dovetails - adjusting it is a little touchy. If you're not careful it will rotate all the way down as soon as you turn loose of it.

[Kevin Johnson]

Have you tried any D-handle routers? They have the switch in the handle.

[glenn bradley]

I wish that I could find a good router for hand held use that has the old trigger switch built into one of the handles.

Problem solved: http://www.amazon.com/Milwaukee-5619.../dp/B00005Q7D9