Hi Stuart,
I think we should shake some youtube reviewers and see what falls out…
Those guys have all the machines… and only have them on the shelf to show off… So why not ask them to take them apart.
There are so many machines out there it’s a nightmare to figure out the differences, and some brands have several revisions of the same machine. Take for instance the Hitachi M12V
There is the rather old looking M12V then several revisions, and now they have given it a ‘transformer’ makeover… But it still goes by the name M12V.
And these days all seems to be moving to brushless. And on top of that having different base options. All of that comes with a lot of marketing bullshit sauce on top.
We must learn to become deaf dumb and blind to all that marketing crap and get x-ray vision on all the adjustment knob differences.
A candidate list… Maybe we should make one big spreadsheet…
Brand:
Machine Type:
Revision:
base type: Fixed, Plunge, Trim.
motor type: Brushed, brushless
motor power: Voltage, Amps, Watts
If you, or anyone else, find a router that looks usable then maybe just make a specific topic for that machine. And try to find as many people as possible who have access to that type of machine to collect as much data as possible. Don’t underestimate how difficult it is to collect specific data.
This is why I started “the big router lift topic” to try to smoke out eventual candidates.
First put anything that remotely looks usable in the spotlight. Then filter out the best ones and give those some extra attention…
But that takes time… And a lot of attention.
So this looks like an ideal task for us as community.
Maybe there is someone who repairs these kinds of machines? Or someone who has access to older machines that are no longer used?