Router speed control that actually works?

Tried 2 router speed controls this weekend- neither worked at all.
Has anyone had any success actually slowing the dewalt router down?

if you want to slow it down anymore than it already goes then you will probably need to use a dimmer switch wired to an outlet…this may damage your router. Why do you want to run slower than it already does??

The probable reason that a speed control wont work on you 611 is the soft start feature, and also the full time electronic electronic feedback for torque control as well.

I have this on my table mounted porter cable but that does not have a soft start. Flip the switch and its all there right now.
http://www.harborfreight.com/catalogsearch/result?q=speed+control

That was the first one I tried. Then returned and bought the same thing from Rocklet for $55. Didn’t work either.

Most of the after market speed controllers use a triac type circuit to vary the duty cycle of the AC wave form to control the speed of the motor. This only works on routers that do not have electronic controls.

For my personal use, I’m developing my own speed control device that works with the internal electronics of the Makita router. It’s in the prototype stage, but I have the components working and I think the idea would adapt to other routers.

1 Like

Hey, how the routers provide feedback with the triac control? What are you adding to alter the speed? I would love to try something similar with my dewalt, something that could use the actual electronics adding some pwm external control easily instead of hacking the softstart and ripping all the things from the router

crossing streams

you need to control the speed of the DeWalt because it spins too darn fast…
solving this would be valuable for all of us…

My setup only works with the characteristics of the router. So, for the Makita, its speed ranges from 10,000 rpm to 30,000 rpm (manufacturer’s spec). In actual practice it will run a little bit slower than that.

My controller will allow me to select any speed between 10,000 and 30,000 for the Makita.

I think if you use something like the superPID, it will allow you to choose speeds slower than the manufacturer’s range, but you have to gut your router to use the superPID.

Also, consider that the speed of the router also sets the speed of the internal fan which cools the motor. At slower speeds the air flow might not be sufficient to cool the motor.

As an update, I was able to cut the aluminum sheet I needed to cut with the dewalt, by using the proper feed rate and before each cut, coating the single flute router bit with some Blaster multi lubricant spray with Teflon. Those little aluminum chips are so cute, lol.
So far the first bit has cut over 40, 46x46 mm squares, and shows no signs of dying anytime soon.
BTW, I’m super impressed with the repeatability of my X Carve, after setting up the homing switches, and setting my work and z offset with the G10 command and using UGS for sending my gcode.
:+1::+1: