Router size for lift??

[Nick Decker]

"(note, if you want some excitement in your life, try a router collet extension and a big panel bit. I bought one, used it for the amount of time it takes to turn a router on and then immediately off, and have never used it since)."

Probably depends on the quality and balance of the collet extension. I use panel bits, up to about 2.5" diameter, in my Muscle Chuck quite often. No problem.

[Bruce Page]

(note, if you want some excitement in your life, try a router collet extension and a big panel bit. I bought one, used it for the amount of time it takes to turn a router on and then immediately off, and have never used it since).

Richard, I also use a Muscle Chuck in one of my table routers without any problems, it makes bit changes a snap. Can you describe what you were using and what was “exciting”? The info may be helpful to others.

[Richard Hash]

This was maybe 15'ish years ago, and I don't recall the vendor (it was maybe 3" long) but as soon as I powered up, it was obvious that it wasn't balanced properly. It started things shaking and I couldn't get it powered off fast enough, it was enough to raise the hairs on my neck. That was enough to convince me to look into addressing my actual problem, which was that (with that setup) I couldn't get the collet up high enough to easily change bits from the table surface and/or sink enough shaft in it to feel safe. Once I moved to a better lift/router setup I never looked back.

I am sure there are high-quality brands of collet extensions, whatever I had wasn't one of them. It would have torn the router apart and flung pieces all over my shop if I had left it on, I wasn't interested in finding out how long that would have taken! In general a large mass spinning fast on the end of a long shaft can raise eyebrows unless things are just right..

[Nick Decker]

I've put Muscle Chucks (silly name, IMO) on two different routers and have been impressed with the quality in both cases. It adds maybe an inch of length, compared to the standard collet. In the case of the PC 7518, the quality of Muscle Chuck machining was much better than the stock collet, which made me nervous from day one.