Hi All,

I purchased a 15 amp variable speed plunge router and used it for the first time yesterday. Now, this is a new tool to me. My question is: When i squeeze the ON button, the motor makes an electronic humming sound and the bit slowly comes up to speed. Is this normal or should it go to full speed right away (like a Dremmel tool)? Is this what is meant by a "soft start" motor?

Any help would be appreciated.

 

Sounds like a soft start to me. My Porter Cable does the same thing and it is a soft start.

 

Cool. Thanks!

 

yep, soft start. What kind is it?

 

That is a soft start router. The 'good ones' usually have this feature. It keeps the torque at start-up down to where the router will not jump out of your hands.

This is a good thing.

 

I never understood the need for a soft start in a plunge router. Seems to me, you want it up to speed when plunging and when starting the bit is usually up and out of the wood. The advantage in a std. router is more obvious.

 

Alot of people use the plunge router as a standard router still.

 

Soft start is nice because it's controlable. With a plunge I like it even better. I can lay the base on the wood right at the place I want to start and not worry about it bumping when I start it. (Even when holding one handed.) Use one for a while and you get spoiled. I keep my standard installed in the table now and can't remember the last time I freehanded with it.

Soft starts get up to speed almost as fast as a standard, but like already posted, they don't have that "jerk" at the beginning.

The only negative I've heard is you can't use an external speed control with one, but I don't use many big shaping bits anyway, so the control on my router does OK for me.

 

Its a "Power Fist" from Princess Auto. http://www.princessauto.com/PAcountry.cfm?CTRY=CAN&INF=pal

I'm in Ontario, Canada and I think that Princess is sort of like Harbour Frieght in the U.S? They have generic type brands , surplus and a lot of farm/mechanic/garage etc items. The quality is usually pretty good, heavy duty and the prices are very good. I got the router for $77.00 CDN, which is like, what...$10.00 US).

The instruction booklets that come with these things leave a lot to be desired. They contain just basic info to identify the parts and operate the tool, which is fine.

It didn't say anything about being a soft start and since I have never used a soft start router before, when I pressed the ON button and heard this hesitating, humming noise and the bit wasn't spinning really fast, I thought that there might be something wrong.

However, a little research and the help from you fine folks cleared all that up!

Thanks Again.

Howdy, this one can be mouted to a table and there is a dial wheel near the top of this tool that allows you to set the speed. The speed setting would be accessible under a router table, but no there are no inputs or anything for an external speed control or on/off switch.

Can't wait to start making dados and rabbets and such. The wife better not give me any grief about my tool purchases anymore; she might start to find ogees appearing on all her furniture. Ha!

 

The soft start on ANY router is one way of avoiding the initial startup amperage draw. It allows the motor to start up at a lower speed and amperage then some cheaper routers that only show their runnig amp rating, not start up rating.