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The plunge base is now just a useless relic, and it is suitable for use with the fixed base only. It is essentially useless for precision work. I had originally purchased it for exactly that; as a plunge router for use with guides on templates. I have several Porter Cable routers, and they have been reliable and well built tools. If you're looking for a medium sized plunge router, look elsewhere. The router is fine when in the fixed base, but the plunge base is a different story. That is why I chose this when I was looking for a lighter plunger router. There is quite a bit of slop in the plunge bushings which allow the router to angle from side to side as it is plunged, and it invariably binds in the process of plunging which forces you to rock it back and forth to complete the plunge.
Yard sale bound. Additionally, the dust port on the plunge base is too small for any vacuum hose/fitting I can findand I finally rigged a dodge 318 bypass hose to facilitate connection to my shopvac. Since dust and chip management were my primary for selection of the 890, I am very unhappy with this purchase. The 890 router is a fine, quiet machine. Maybe I should have waited for the arrival of the new MLCS I have only found one type of router operation in which the dust removal functions adequately-template routing of dishes. However, the grip-vac and plunge bases leave a lot to be desired. All other operations, free hand or on a table less than 10% of chips and dust are removed.
Worse yet, with large bits, the entire unit must be removed from the table to change bits. The motor unit cannot be brought down far enough to engage it.3. With the dust shield in place, it's impossible to make above-the-table bit changes. Overall, it's a fine system, and I'm glad I bought it.However there are some astonishing design blunders:1. Without the dust shield, above-the-table bit changes are quite easy; but you get a lot of dust sprayed around. This makes it impossible to read the depth indicator.2. On some of the plunge bases, the depth indicator is made of translucent plastic instead of transparent. The spindle lock actuator on the plunge base is completely disfunctional.
The motor release and height adjust controls are very accessable through the cabinet door and the accessory top-side height adjust knob, though a free mail-in item, is not really needed. Unfortunately, the audio periodically fails. By the way, the CD they give you with the kit includes a video of instructions on building a simple router table. The clear plastic sub-bases ae less impressive. No fine plunge adjust, either. The only things you have to reach for are the speed control (easy), on/off (easy), and the collet lock (less easy, but tolerable).
Not a big thing, but it does make P-C look bad to ship such a thing. I bought this set mostly for use in a Bench Dog RT150 router table with the fixed base. Wanted the GripVac base for occasional "out of the box" use where the vac feature would be nice. Somebody stopped thinking too soon in the design stage.
An annoying thing about the plunge base is that it has a 1" dust port, but the location makes it very inconvenient/impossable to use with P-C's 1" dust hose. Too cheap to pass up. Overall, a very good product and worth the money. I think they need a little Demming influence there.
Milwaukee does "lifetime", why does P-C only do 1 year. Seem like polystyrene, but I hope they are something more durable that that. Sure wish P-C was less stingy about warranty. The fixed base/motor work REALLY well in the RT150.
I give the GripVac base 5 stars and the plunge base three, so an average of four. It's OK, but compared to my P-C 7529 plunge router, it's pretty crude in features, but then it only added $30 to the cost of the fixed-base router and $6 of that is for the plastic base that can take guide bushings. The motor is very quiet, the soft-start "way cool", and power more than adequate. I am less impressed with the plunge base.
The dust collection system is functional, the multi-point accessible power switch is a great innovation, and the general feeling of solid quality is P-C at its best. It is, by far, one of the quietest routers I have yet to use (other than the original Elu I used in Europe). If I had any complaint, it would not be against P-C - it would be that you really should peruse the manual first - I didn't notice the additional switch access until later (who uses manuals anyway, until they have a problem with a product). I recently bought this router to supplement my Milwaukee 3.5HP table router. I have, thus far, been nothing but impressed by this new offering from P-C.
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