Has anyone used a Bauer router from Harbor Freight, part #64944
Wanted to use it with the optimized Makita mount from Thingiverse.
Apparently it is basically a Makita clone down to the collet and size and has universally great reviews.
Seems an extended warranty is about $7 for it so if it craps out on me it’s a half mile drive to replace it.
Man, if I’d seen that, I would have put it on my lowrider just to see. The harbor freight warranty is pretty much no questions asked for thirty days, so I’d say pick one up, measure the runout on the collet, install it on a router table if you have one or come up with another way to fix it onto something, then turn it on and let it run for a few hours this weekend. If the runout is too much (somebody here will know what a good number is, I don’t) take it back right away or slap it on a router table. If it blows up or gets hot over the weekend, same thing, or just take it back. It’s been my experience that harbor freight tools either fail right away or work for a fair amount of time.
I went ahead and grabbed one to test. $69 for the router, $10.99 for 2 years of no questions asked warranty. We shall see.
Did you get to mess with it yet?
I have taken it out of the box and ran it a while, seems to be built very well, stayed pretty cool after 15 minutes of running or so. no side to side play in the shaft. Still building my MPCNC so haven’t tested under load but so far I am happy with it.
That’s good news! Please do let us know how it goes. I’m really thinking I might want to slap one on my build unless you give me a reason not to. Do you have any way to measure/estimate runout before installing it?
In the interest of science and all that, I ran at lunch and picked up a dial indicator and a 1/4" bit and tested the run out on it. 1.5 thou it looks like. https://youtu.be/NHDGmqeithg
I tried to measure my dewalt, but I’m too lame to have proper mounting for the dial indicator. Anybody know if this is a good/bad result?
Also, does that bauer have the electronic speed control?
It does have electronic start, since it has a soft start feature to ramp up to speed when turned on. Like you i have no frame of reference for runout good or bad. I did get my machine built and dirty last night, and it cut like a dream. It fit perfectly in the Makita mount.
Well that’s great news! I read somewhere that all the clones so far have omitted the speed control, but it wasn’t clear if the bauer did or not. I mean the feature that will pump a little more juice under load so it maintains rpms.
I was looking at the makita for the slower speed, but by the time I add collets, it’s the same price as a dewalt, for which I already HAVE collets (on my lowrider). I’d like to run 1/4 mills on my aluminum cutter, but even at 16k rpm they’re over 1000 fpm, which I think is kinda high for dry cutting aluminum. Won’t know until I try, but everything got hot last time I tried it with the 660.Added bonus for a 611 is that if one goes out, I could swap in the other until parts show up. But if this bauer prices out and is basically equivalent…
Don’t forget too that for $10.99 they will exchange it no questions asked for 2 years lol, wear that sucker out.
Here its doing the first test cut. https://youtu.be/z-2KoYjekZg
This photo shows the speed control dial.
Right, but does it bog down when making a heavy cut? THAT’S the control the other clones seem to be missing.
I accidentally took a 1/8" end mill down to 4mm doc at 14mms and it powered through it without breaking the bit off on me or bogging down much at all, about all the experience I have with it being overloaded by mistake.
Based on this, I’d say 0.0015 total runout ain’t bad at all for drilling. Later in the video he says 0.001 is basically NFG, but then, he’s a precision machinist, not cutting wood signs. I guess we aren’t any closer here after all.
Wonder how much one has to spend to get a router with that kind of accuracy, hell if we had that kind of money we wouldn’t have built our own.
More that you’ve spent on your entire rig, possibly multiple times over. And that’s just the spindle (and maybe even the tool holder, as evidenced by the video). I’ve owned (currently own?) cars that cost less than the machines that those spindles are bolted to. Hell, I’ve owned cars that probably weigh less than those machines.
At one point I had FIVE cars that certainly cost less than that machine. I know 4 of them together wouldn’t have bought me a Tormach, lol.
For the record, I was just pointing out that we aren’t closer to knowing what good 'nuff runout is for us, not that we weren’t closer to having professional tool runout. I don’t think anybody misunderstood that, but reading back over it, I could have been more clear.
Oh I know, I’m just to the point where it was like when I was a Marine, close enough for gubment work lol.