Edges, joints & profiles
A router is the most versatile machine in the shop and the one most often bought in the wrong size. We compare collet capacity, plunge smoothness, electronic speed control and — for tables — whether you can change a bit and set the height from above without crawling underneath.
12 V · brushless · 8 mm (0.31 in) collet · bare tool
A one-handed 12 V edge router at €140 that publishes the one number that matters on a trimmer — the collet size.
Best for: Rounding over, trimming laminate edges and chamfering, one-handed, on site
710 W · three bases · 6, 8 and 10 mm (0.39 in) collets · €90
A €90 router sold with three bases and three collets — and with a placeholder where the part number should be.
Best for: Occasional edge and trim work where a broken tool is an annoyance, not a crisis
Plunge router · €57 in Germany
A plunge router for the price of two good bits. It is the cheapest way to find out whether you want a router at all.
Best for: Finding out whether a router earns a place in your workshop before spending properly
≈ $160
18 V · brushless · multi-base trimmer · bare tool
A cordless brushless trimmer with variable speed and soft start, cheapest in Britain — and not the 1,800 W plunge router the search asked for.
Best for: Edge work, trimming, hinge recesses and small housings — one-handed jobs
Professional plunge · fine-adjust fence
A professional plunge router that ships with the parallel fence, the template guide adapter and the wrench — the parts usually sold separately.
Best for: A workshop that wants a professional router working properly on day one
18 V cordless · plunge or trim base · brushless
The cordless router, in both bases, with a brushless motor — and a genuinely different tool from every mains machine on this page.
Best for: Edge trimming, hinge recesses and template work, especially away from a bench
≈ $790
2,400 W · dual function · table-ready
The router built to live under a table: 2,400 W, above-table height adjustment, and the reason most home-made router tables have a Triton in them.
Best for: A router table — this is the machine the category is built around
Under a table the machine runs for long periods and on heavier passes. Power reserve is what prevents overheating.
The most affordable model in the aisle, with a few decent bits, already covers rebates, grooves and rounded edges.
A column with play makes the third pass different from the first. The stated plunge travel and fine adjustment decide how even a groove comes out.
For edges and grooves freehand, a compact machine is enough. Under a table with large bits, power becomes genuinely limiting.
Always on a deep cut. A single heavy pass burns the wood, tears the fiber and puts the bit at risk.
Against the bit's rotation, meaning left to right on an outside edge. The other way, the machine runs off on its own and becomes uncontrollable.
A straight bit for grooves, a round-over for edges, a flush-trim for templates. Those three cover most first projects.
On powerful machines, yes: without it the starting torque tears the machine from your hands or trips the breaker.
Technically often, comfortably rarely. Check that a suitable plate exists and that height can be adjusted from above.
Feed steadily without pausing, with a clean, sharp bit. Burning almost always comes from hesitating mid-pass.
The electronics add a part that can fail, but they protect the motor by limiting the starting current. On large-diameter cutters, they are what make the work possible at all.
The router is the most versatile tool in the workshop, and the most dependent on its bits. Choose the collet size before the power, always feed against the rotation, and never try to do in one pass what needs three.
There is no table here, and the reason is in the listings. The figure published most often across these 7 products is motor, given by 4 of them — short of the four in five a column needs to compare rather than to display gaps. Each product page says what its own maker published.
Specifications: manufacturer sheets for woodworking machines and the matching Amazon product pages. Prices and availability: Keepa.
Most recent revision in this category: August 12, 2026.
Prices quoted in these summaries are dated readings. The live price is shown next to each product.
