Scott Vroom
I started with absolutely nothing. Now, thanks to years of hard work, careful planning, and perseverance, I find I still have most of it left.
Right, onboard soft start and the remote speed controllers don't coexist well AFAIK. There needs to be only a motor and switch, no fancy schmantzy stuff. Re the Milwaukee router, I don't have one but wonder how hard it would be to 'amputate' the variable speed unit (just a circuit board like Porter-Cable?), extend the wires and mount the variable speed part and a switch in a small electrical box. Not something to do while under warranty though.
I think the price point pretty much killed that bird. I use a remote switch on my 5625 / PRL setup. I have never missed the remote speed control as I oriented the motor so that the router mounted speed control face the router table door. I am a big fan of proper speed for bit type/size but, the frequency of speed changes is not enough to make me need a knob 18" closer to my hand ;-) A nice feature to be sure but, as stated, I have never missed it. I have always had good dust collection in the table and never had any issues with the switch or speed control. I have run the router for 6 or 7 years.
Last edited by glenn bradley; 01-24-2014 at 9:12 AM.
"A hen is only an egg's way of making another egg".
– Samuel Butler
I had considered doing something similar with my DeWalt DW-618 motor. But at least in the case of the DeWalt, the speed control is a single piece. That is, the tach (the thing that detects the spinning magnet on the shaft) and the potentiometer and any electronics that compensate for load are all built into a single piece that is potted (it can't be broken into individual parts).
This thead got me curious. I had a P-C 8529 speed control module go bad so have a little experience there. I went to Ereplacementparts.com and downloaded the parts list for a Milwaukee 5625 router. It doesn't look like it'd be that hard to 'transplant' the speed control module, extending the leads from the motor to a remote mounted speed control module and power switch enclosed in an electrical box. Certainly not $300-$400 worth of hard. Of course 'surgery' like this would make that motor table only usage unless it were returned to its original configuration and it'd void the warranty I guess.
Ummm. I'm done.
Never, under any circumstances, consume a laxative and sleeping pill, on the same night
So to sum up this thread for the OP, 1) The unit is discontinued 2) When it was available people paid anywhere from $200-$550 3) Some online dealer has the last one in North America and is charging a fortune for it 4) Some people like the idea of remote speed control and some don't 5) Some people are willing to pay for this convenience and some are not 6) Some people have done there own mods and some are thinking about it 7) And Myk is done.
I assume designs vary. I looked at the electronic speed control module on the parts diagram at ereplacementparts.com. It appears to be 'free standing' but there's only one view. The failed Porter Cable unit had 3 leads, two to the motor and one I assume to some sort of speed sensing mechanism (monopole?) on the motor shaft. I learned -after I threw the speed control module out, naturally() that one of the failure points on the P-C router boards were bad caps. Sound familiar? Two 70 cent parts from Radio Shack resurrected the otherwise-unavailable speed control module for one guy.