Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

With the exception of a few cosmetic details, this router is the same as the plunge router offered by Harbor Freight. Is it total junk? Not quite. If you are experienced with routers, especially the cheap imported varieties, then you can use this to do almost anything good routers do. Likewise, if you are a part-time woodworker, and don't ask too much from the tool, it performs OK. The spindle-lock is "ify" and doesn't inspire confidence when tightening the collet. That COULD be dangerous! Cast cadmium-pot metal / zinc body will not allow heavy torque on any of the adjustment mechanisms, especially for plunge-depth and stops. Even cheap screw threads are harder than this metal. The dust port on the cheaper Harbor Freight model is actually BETTER than this B&D. The motors on both of them are EXACTLY the same. They are strong at high-speeds, but bog-down at lower settings. So, do not imagine you can use either of them at lower speeds for larger-bits; such as for panel raising or shaping. The motor bearings are cheap. That means they will only last a short while. That's OK for the "weekend-warrior" or the "bargain-basement" guy that only needs to do a few routing jobs to justify the cost, but this thing will not handle professional demands. Neither will the HF version. My buddy bought both this, AND the HF models. When this one died, he got the cheaper one at HF and was OK for a while. Then the brushes on it failed too. ( he ran it slow, for larger bits, so the machine drew too much current and ate brushes.) I repaired both of them by replacing brushes and installing better bearings. I modified both of them by smoothing the collets for better grip. I ground a 'flat' on the stop-column and replaced filed the cheap set-screw on the stop-collar flat so it would grip better. I also showed my friend how to adjust depth with gauge blocks so the sloppy depth gauge creates no problems. Bottom line: if you need a cheap router and don't use it much or very hard, this is marginally acceptable. You can get the exact-same "quality" for a few dollars less Harbor Fright. If you know how to fix and "tune" routers, you CAN get better performance, but at the expense of labor and hassle. Personally, I wouldn't wish this quality of tool upon anyone... well ALMOST anyone! ;-)