How many woodworking routers are available?
There are four, basic types of wood routers on the market today: laminate trimmers, lightweight or low-powered routers in the 7/8 to 1 1/2 HP range, medium-powered routers in the 1? to 2? HP range and high-powered routers in the 3-4 HP range. Each has its use and I have owned all of them at the same time. The laminate trimmers do what their name implies as well as other light-weight tasks such as making hinge mortises. They are only suitable for small router bits but they are easily maneuverable and fit right in your palm. Every woodworking shop should have a handy lightweight router for bench-top work. If you need more horsepower but still like the ease of a lightweight router, the 7/8 to 1/12 HP routers will do a fine job of spinning router bits up to ?” radius round-over bits. They are a bit small for router table use. 2? HP woodworking routers have sufficient power to spin large router bits through hardwood and yet they are still light enough to be manageable as bench-top wood rout
