Ridgid Vs. Craftsman Router

[Stokestack]

Hi all.

I decided to get a router with two bases, so I picked up the 2 1/4 HP Ridgid at Home Depot. It's about $200. I had forgotten to look at Sears, and today I found they have a 2-HP two-base router (http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_00917543000P?mv=rr) for $107. I looked at it in the store and didn't see any major deficiencies. It seems decently made and as far as I can tell has all the features of the Ridgid except 1/4 HP and the speed range is slightly more narrow (12,000 to 25,000 RPM instead of the Ridgid's 10,000 to 23,000).

The Craftsman also comes in a hard case, whereas the Ridgid comes with a canvas bag that offers little protection (especially for the flimsy plastic dust-collection attachments).

Any reason I should keep the Ridgid?

Thanks for any input.

Gavin

[ToddW]

No good reason. Both are good routers, I looked at them before I bought my Milwaukee.

But I'm curious why you would buy the Rigid if you could get the Milwaukee kit for less money. It's a better router than either the rigid or the craftsman and you said they had over 40 in stock for around $130.

Best,

Todd

[guitar_player]

In my experience craftsman routers are crap. They seem like a good deal in the beginning I bought craftsman for my first router and the height kept changing on me when I was using it. I have used it maybe 3 times and instead used my dad's old fixed base router that you have to use a hammer to tighten the wing nut on until I got my Hitachi set. As far as the cases I prefer the bags, all of mine and my dad's tools have never seen there cases since they were bought it's too hard to get them in the cases easily. The craftsman had a canvas bag as a case which is the only thing I liked about it.

[Stokestack]

"But I'm curious why you would buy the Rigid if you could get the Milwaukee kit for less money. It's a better router than either the rigid or the craftsman and you said they had over 40 in stock for around $130."

As it turns out, it was only the 1 3/4 HP set from Milwaukee they had for that price. I logged back in here to correct my earlier post, but couldn't remember which thread it had come up in. I'm interested in why you find the Milwaukee better.

As far as the cases go, the Craftsman one seems pretty easy to use. The canvas Ridgid one is in fact the bigger pain (also noted by others in a couple reviews I read).

I thought the construction of the Milwaukee set was inferior to the Ridgid, but that was a cursory examination. I didn't go back to look at it after seeing the Craftsman.

Thanks for any info.

Edited January 26, 2009 by Stokestack

[Narcissism]

as far as good/better/best goes, it would be ryobe/milwaukee/rigid. Then you have Dewalt with B&D/Dewalt, where B&D is your homeowner and Dewalt is your professional.

There are representatives from both TTI and DeWalt who come to the stores to sell their product, and they'll tell you the same thing pretty much, only with more sales pitch... If you get there on the right day you can get them to fight to the death!

[erikbojerik]

I have one Milwaukee and one Porter-Cable - both are bombproof.

[boundsteelblues]

Just choose one with the on/off by the handle. You don't want to have to let go with one hand to stop the router. Lesson learned.

[ToddW]

as far as good/better/best goes, it would be ryobe/milwaukee/rigid. Then you have Dewalt with B&D/Dewalt, where B&D is your homeowner and Dewalt is your professional.

There are representatives from both TTI and DeWalt who come to the stores to sell their product, and they'll tell you the same thing pretty much, only with more sales pitch... If you get there on the right day you can get them to fight to the death!

That's interesting, because I've heard the opposite. It's true that TTI bought Milwaukee, and since TTI makes the homedepot house brand tools (Rigid), I'm told Lowes won't be able to sell Milwaukee anymore. But I've also heard from the contractors who work at HD that while TTI wants you to think Rigid is better (after all, they designed them), a lot of the Rigid tools aren't as good yet. Clearly HD want's you to like Rigid more since you can get the Milwaukee tools for less at other retailers. You can't get the Rigid tools anywhere else, and if TTI want's to keep their contract with HD, their reps had better push the Rigid line!

That said, I think most of the Rigid tools are great, and they're usually a good value. I just liked the Milwaukee router set more than the Rigid one. I liked the 800 series Porter Cable system too, and it's dust collection looked better to me. The Plunge release lever spring is a bit stiffer on the Milwaukee, but other than that, it just seemed to be a little better designed than the Rigid. The fixed base is definately more comfortable, but I seldom use that.

Most of the reviews that include the Milwaukee and Rigid favor the Milwaukee, but that's absolutely no reason to choose one or the other. People have had problems with both designs, so pick the one you like better. I almost bought the Craftsman, but it sounds like some people here had bad luck with them. Might be model dependent. I think I heard or read someplace that TTI makes some of the craftsman tools now. If that's true and the craftsman looks identical to the Rigid, it might be. In this economy, unless they have non-compete contracts, I'll bet TTI will make a house line for anyone.

Editing to add: http://www.popularmechanics.com/home_journ...661.html?page=1

They liked the Bosch the best. I hear good things about it too. So now you can be really confused, but remember, it's just a router.

Edited January 26, 2009 by ToddW

[Stokestack]

Thanks for all the info, guys.

Given that the Milwaukee has only 1 3/4 HP, the Craftsman 2, and the Ridgid 2 1/4; how big a deal is the power difference? I'll probably want to use the thing for some heavier duty in the future (things like moldings, perhaps).

And yeah, it's just a router, so I'm probably over-analyzing it.

Edited January 26, 2009 by Stokestack

[ToddW]

Unfortunately, those HP numbers are pretty useless. Go by the amps if you want to compare power. That a better comparison, but still not great.

I don't do moldings, I use my router mostly off the table and just put the little Ryobi on my cheesy router table, but I think that if you're putting it in a router table a lot of the time, then maybe you already got the best router for you. Doesn't the Rigid let you adjust the bit height from above the table? I don't think the other two do that.

[Narcissism]

*shrugs* that's how I was trained. I have a skil plunge router, black & decker circular saw, b&d 18V drill, b&d jigsaw, and a Mikita sander. I like my stuff, but i wish i had that Dewalt 18 volt drill. Its got an LED so you can see stuff!

[ToddW]

I have mostly contractor grade tools, Porter Cable, Dewalt, Milwaukee, Panasonic (drill), and such. Steel City bandsaw and Dewalt planer . . . None of it's Festool or Laguna or minimax, but it's good stuff. Good tools don't make me any better as a wood worker, and unfortunately, they never die so I don't get to upgrade.

On most power tools I think the home owner stuff does just as nice a job. Circular saws are circular saws. Cordless drills . . . But having bought a cheap router, and now owning a decent one, I think it's one of the few items where the high end stuff actually gives me a better end result because I can use 1/2" bits. I also love the little step dial feature that lets me plunge a little at a time on deep routes. On hand tools, I think the high end stuff does actually give a better result out of the box. Took 3 hours to tune my Stanley Plane, and my Lee Valley is still nicer.

Anyway, I'm rambling, and I should be working or making sawdust. . . .

[Stokestack]

Last night I took both routers out and examined them side by side. First I compared the fixed bases. The Sears has a larger window to see the work, and three LEDs as opposed to the Ridgid's two. The height adjustment on both units is fairly sloppy, but the Craftsman's is pathetic. It's of no use at all, for three major reasons:

1. The scale ring around the height-adjustment knob is loose and stops turning while you turn the knob.

2. There's a dead spot in the gearing where you can turn the knob a full 180 degrees and the router motor doesn't move at all.

3. After you get the bit flush with the base, you push a button to disengage the height-adjustment knob so you can zero the scale. After you release the button, the gears do not re-engage, even if you jostle the assembly. They only snap back into each other after you turn the adjustment knob a quarter turn at least, meaning that the scale is now totally inaccurate.

You will be using a ruler to make your height adjustments with the fixed base, period.

The Ridgid's height adjuster isn't what I'd call precise, because the motor can slide up and down a bit before hitting the retractable stop that holds it into the base. But it works much better than the Craftsman, in that you might get away with using it without a ruler.

Switching both machines on, the Craftsman was slightly louder but vibrated less than the Ridgid. The Craftsman "soft start" is much softer than the Ridgid, taking a couple of seconds or more to reach full speed. The Ridgid winds up quickly, and still twists a little with torque. I didn't mind either, but I like the Craftsman action. Sitting on a board, the Ridgid rotated slowly with vibration, and the Craftsman stayed put. The Craftsman's base is wider, however.

The location of the Craftsman's power switch is much better than the Ridgid's; you can, with effort, flip it without taking your hand off the handle. No way can you do that with the Ridgid. This is such a common complaint that it's a little ridiculous at this point.

Next I took out the plunge bases. No obvious advantage to either one here. The Craftsman does have dust boots on the rods. The Craftsman does suffer from one shoddy piece of engineering, though: The rod that limits plunge depth comes down and hits a small pedestal (see picture). That pedestal is stair-stepped in a circle, allowing you to rotate it and make coarse adjustments to plunge depth. It's a useful feature, but unfortunately that pedestal teeters slightly when the rod comes down and hits it. If your pressing force varies much between each plunge, you can get slight depth variation. This thing is held on with a simple screw through its middle, and I'll bet it'd be easy to modify it for the better.

I decided to try the Craftsman, routing a half-inch-deep rectangular well out of some pine (not all at once, of course). I couldn't use the Ridgid for the task at the time, because I found that while the Craftsman comes with an edge guide, the Ridgid doesn't. Also, the Craftsman comes in a hard plastic case that holds the router, bases, edge guide and wrench securely. The Ridgid comes with a canvas bag with no interior pockets and only a divider to separate the bases. The wrench, extra collet, flimsy plastic dust-collection attachments, and base-alignment tool roll around loose in the bottom. The bag has outer pockets, none of which is wide enough to hold the manual (not that you really need the manual after day one, but come on). LAME.

The one thing that the Ridgid comes with that the Craftsman doesn't is the base-alignment tool, which is basically a metal pin that goes in the collet and a plastic cone with a hole through it.

I used the Craftsman with the plunge base to rout my rectangular well, and it worked fine. Really the only issue was my inexperience.

I didn't try the Ridgid, because it's going back and I didn't want to make a mess of it. It don't see what would have made it worth (to me) more than double the cost of the Craftsman, when you factor in the lack of an edge guide.

As far as I can tell, the Craftsman is a very good deal.

Edited January 29, 2009 by Stokestack

[Narcissism]

Here's my Skill one if anyone's interested... while we're comparing lol.

It includes a canvas bag with no pockets or sleeves just like the rigid

The dust guard is rounded and secured in two places, so its a lot less flimsy

It has 2 LEDs that automatically turn on and off via sensor on the right grip

The power button is a squeeze on the right grip and it has a lock on top of the handle so you can push down on it and it'll lock the squeeze switch. Just give it a quick squeeze as an emergency stop

Plunge lever is pretty standard on the left hand side controlled by the middle or index fingers

Nice wide base, and a lot beefier than the two mentioned above

Variable speed control marked from 2-6 (smooth transition as opposed to notched)

Has space for ballberrings so you can slide the base easier

Plenty of room all over the base for modifications including: Base changability, edge guide attatchment areas, 1/2" collet adapter (included), flat side on the base for straightedge use, vacuum attachment, and a clamp space on the back so you can attach flat things... like radius jigs

2.25HP

Runs on lightning and abortions... (not really)

[Strato-Master]

Here's my old beast. Its a Power Kraft model number TEB 84-8565A by Montgomery Ward. My Grandpa picked it up for five bucks at a rummage sale.

It may not be the fanciest but I tell ya when I lock it at one height it stays put.

EDIT : Wrong image

[NotYou]

I've had good experiences with Rigid. I have a Rigid laminate trimmer that I use 10x more than my router (Ryobi:rolleyes:). Everything of theirs I've used has worked great with no issues so far.

That's my 2 cents on this. I haven't tried their routers, but, if given the choice, I'd always take a Rigid over a Craftsman.