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This is a highly specialised tool which performs a variety of tasks. It is used for trimming laminates, cutting patterns into cupboard and drawer fronts, rebating sliding track doors and making mouldings from flat timber.

The router is used with a range of fluted cutting bits which mould or trim to a pre-determined shape and size. The large round tool plate on the router is its cutting guide: the machine can be turned at any angle and yet still cut at the preset distance from a fixed point. It is this particular facility which makes it indispensable for most joinery work around the home.

High-speed routers run at speeds in excess of 30,000 revolutions a minute. In doing so, they set up a high pitched scream. It is not extremely loud, but some people are frightened by the noise and others find it unbearable.

People who are used to working with machinery hardly notice the scream, but if you are in doubt, test a router before you buy it so that you will know what it sounds like. What is more important, you will see what it can do.

Routers are safe to use. The depth of cut is minutely adjustable which means the blade is almost entirely embedded in the work being done.

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