Bosch Colt PR20EVSK

A quick read of all the one star reviews pretty consistently identify the flaw with this router: the base mount/ depth adjustment is terrible! Although this is perhaps one of the only flaws, it is the most… critical-- anyone who has watched their fine work mercilessly destroyed in seconds when the router slips in the base has felt the pain. Despite tightening the adjustment for the cam lock that holds the motor in the base, the router would still slip. Sometimes that meant that the depth of cut kept increasing and other times it meant that the base became off-centered. When it became off-center, the bit usually grabbed violently, thus stalling the motor. Whatever I tried, I couldn't seem to stop this from happening. It was less than a year before the motor burned out as a result, which in the end was a blessing, because I was tired of nasty surprises and trashed projects. I was happy when I threw the POS in the trash. One last criticism, the base doesn't accept standard bushings, although it is easy to make an after market base. I'm a contractor and professional carpenter. In the past, I have always thought highly of Bosch and I still love their C-20 Sidewinder, but lately all my Bosch tools seem to bite it pretty quickly. This router is just another example of a flawed and short lived product. Do Not Buy.

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I bought a Colt after I installed my only other router into a table and needed something portable. I don't do intricate woodwork but use a router to take care of construction details, like rounding over… ripped deck boards or flush cutting a glued edge. I thought a small, light router would be more maneuverable along the edges of 2x and 4x lumber and would also work well for trimming laminate on some projects I've got lined up. I've used this for a couple hours now. I like it, it's quick. Its small size makes it easy to hold and control on a narrow edge. The soft start really adds to the control--no torquing itself out of my grip when I've got it positioned on the lumber, ready to go. So far it has done everything I wanted: some biscuit slot cutting, 3/16" round over on several feet of 2x lumber, trimming off dowel plugs. Plenty of power for those jobs. No problems changing bits. The rotor lock seems plenty solid enough but remembering some of the other reviews mentioning this has failed, I'm being careful not to over tighten with the collet wrench. Depth adjustment is simple: twist the body to unlock and quickly get to a coarse setting, then twist to lock and dial in to the exact depth with the micro-adjustment wheel. The only downside I've found is that there is some vibration, noticeable when using larger radius bits like a biscuit slot cutter. I figure that's the trade off with a lightweight router. If I had to work with this non-stop for long periods I'm sure my fingers would go numb. But that kind of work is why I set up my router table. Verdict: I'd buy it again, no hesitation.

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I would love to love this router. The tool has great power, fits my hand well, the bit changing is a snap(when it works)and the VS is very useful but, I have had three of these and they all failed in a… very short order. Two of them the VS unit failed and caused the router to quit/run intermittently . I was using a 1/8" round over bit in both instances. The third example the motor shaft lock failed making it most difficult to remove my bit. I also have to take issue with the depth off cut adjustment, when supplied from the factory the clamp is not tight enough to hold the depth of cut, this ruined my first cut right out of the box. On the two following units the clamp was also insufficiently tight. When you tighten the clamp enough to be secure, the depth of cut becomes difficult to adjust, especially after a little wood dust gets into the mix. This is all to bad because it could be a great tool. I couldn't go for a fourth one even though the vendor (a local mom and pop hardware) offered another exchange. In the end I when back to the Porter Cable trim router. It has it's own faults, but reliability is definitely not one of them.

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This is the perfect router for handheld operations. It is light, yet solid. The base comes in and out easily. Changing the bits is better done after removing the base. The router supports using a single… wrench to change the bit because it has a button that you can press with the other hand to prevent the shaft from rotating. I haven't had problems with it like some other reviewers have. I just have to make sure to turn it until it feels locked. Then I hold it and use the wrench to remove/tighten the bit. The only reason I am giving it 4 stars is because even though the base comes in and out easily, it's harder to adjust the height in a controlled way because of that as opposed to routers where you twist the base to adjust the height. This might just be a personal preference. Other than that, this is a great router.

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