Customer Reviews

DEWALT DW670 7/8 HP Fixed Base Laminate Trim Router

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

When I asked to look at Laminate Trimmers at my local tool shop, the Dewalt stood out immediatly as a superior product. No crappy plastic here. The buisness end of the motor has a machined aluminium end that is a perfect fit where it locates in the aluminium base, & it locks in place with a lever. Height adjustment is by a micro adjustable dial that should make it real easy to get an exact setting, another trick feature is the button you push in to lock the rotation of the shaft for bit changing. Add to this a 600watt motor & a range of optional bases for any job & you couldn't go wrong......or could you? As it turns out, the marketing department at Dewalt decided not to include a template guide in the Australian model (my country) & the Dewalt people here found it to hard to deal with. In frustration I called the U.S. office & managed to get the girl at the switchboard of the Baltimore head office to put me through to a senior person in marketing, I was assured all would be taken care of...5 days later I've heard nothing & don't expect to. I'm going back to the tool store today to reluctantly exchange the Dewalt for a Makita....lots of hours & a fortune in long distance calls, all for a disk of metal that wouldn't cost more than 5 cents to make & should be included. If your willing to take the risk that you wont need to call upon Dewalts pathetic service, it's probably a good buy.

This trimmer suffers from several critical defects:
The depth adjustment is difficult to use and worse loosens often during use unless you tighten the lock knob with a tool instead of your hands
The base doesn't sit at a reliable ninety degrees so one side of the router trims to a different depth than the other
The collet has an on-board lock that grabs the motor leaving you with no leverage to loosen it, i.e. you have just one wrench and holding the motor with one hand while turning the wrench with the other after a 30,000 rpm motor has tightend the collet isn't fun.
Not ready for prime time.

I am a dyed in the wool DeWalt user. I have over four-thousnad dollars worth of DeWalt hand tools and accessories and there is a reason for that. I do a lot of custom carpenter work in the Denver-metro area, and I have found that not only are DeWalt tools designed and constructed to hold up under demanding use but when things go wrong, which they sometimes do, the local service center is right there to get me back on the job.

When the laminate trimmer came out I was in the market for a new tool and it was pretty much a no-brainer that I would give it a try. It runs very smooth, and is well balanced. The plate height adjustment is a simple asssembly and works pretty well. I guess the only drawback I found was that of the weight and size. Although it was not extreme, I felt that the size and weight brought it in just under a five star rating, but still a very good tool.

If I had to replace it, it would be with the same tool.

This router is poorly built. I send back the one I received for replacement and the new one had the same problems. On both routers the base was not square with router and they had high vibration. I also found the routers to be heavy, large and awkward to use. These routers deserve 0 out of 5 stars.

When I asked to look at Laminate Trimmers at my local tool shop, the Dewalt stood out immediatly as a superior product, perfect for my contracting work. No crappy plastic here. The buisness end of the motor has a machined aluminium end that is a perfect fit where it locates in the aluminium base, & it locks in place with a lever. Height adjustment is by a micro adjustable dial that should make it real easy to get an exact setting, another trick feature is the button you push in to lock the rotation of the shaft for bit changing. Add to this a 600watt motor & a range of optional bases for any job & you couldn't go wrong......or could you? As it turns out, the marketing department at Dewalt decided not to include a template guide in the Australian model (my country) & the Dewalt people here found it to hard to deal with. In frustration I called the U.S. office & managed to get the girl at the switchboard of the Baltimore head office to put me through to a senior person in marketing, I was assured all would be taken care of...5 days later I've heard nothing & don't expect to. I'm going back to the tool store today to reluctantly exchange the Dewalt for a Makita....lots of hours & a fortune in long distance calls, all for a disk of metal that wouldn't cost more than 5 cents to make & should be included. If your willing to take the risk that you wont need to call upon Dewalts pathetic service, it's probably a good buy.

Poor adjustment on the base. Wish I hadn't burned the box so I could send it back.

J. Kumorek used this tool putting his Martin Guitar Kit together, so I thought I'd try it too on my Martin herringbone D-28 Kit from Martin. It's super, adjusts easily, vertically and horizontally with the bearing guide. I've used downspiral carbide bits and regular carbide rabbetting bits successfully to cut the stairstep binding ledges for acoustic guitars.

One of these tools is dedicated to cutting the tail wedge trim, and I never adjust it. One is set up for cutting the .060 by 1/4 inch binding. The third is set up for purfling ledges inside the outer binding. And they do a great job.

I have no idea how they work as a laminate trimmer, but bet they would work great for that too. Bruce Dickey Russellville, Arkansas

This tool is difficult to change a bit on due to the motor lock and single wrench operation. It is on the heavy side as well. The base is difficult to adjust and does not sit square with the bit.

I would not recommend to a friend or an enemy...