TerryMcK Posted June 9, 2014 Report Share Posted June 9, 2014 My Trend T11 router is mounted in my router table. Over the years I have received a few skinned knuckles when trying to get the collet tightened or undone. This is due in part to the router having tools that only work under the table. It's just the way it is! On to the scene came the Musclechuck from De Rosa engineering see here. I bought mine from their European partner Woodrat see here. The device is a precision made accessory that replaces the collet and nut from your router. There are no cams or internal parts just a split collar with a 1/2" bore and an allen head socket screw. It also comes complete with a teebar allen wrench (4mm in my case). De Rosa make 5 different types of Musclechuck so you will find one which fits your router. Installation is easy as you simply remove the original collet/nut and replace it with the Musclechuck. The integral nut engages the router threaded shaft. It does come with a small instruction leaflet telling you how to balance it, not overtighten it etc so you really need to read this to ensure you have understood it. The benefits of the Musclechuck are: quick cutter changes are easy eliminates the use of wrenches when mounted in a router table the chuck adds some length so letting you use the full length of a cutter and most importantly for me no blooded knuckles anymore! The allen screw does not need much tightening to secure a cutter and quick changes are indeed quick. About 8 seconds to change a cutter. I found that the cutters ran true. I did find that one of my extensions had a slight runout but, following the instructions, loosened the chuck and rotated the extension through 90 degrees, tightened the chuck and it ran true. Not a lot else to say about the device other than it does what it says on the tin. I'm really happy with it. All in all a decent addition to the router arsenal. It cost me £56.94 GBP ($95 US) including shipping and taxes so isn't cheap. Some cheaper routers cost that much! so you really have to want one to justify it. Costs may be cheaper in your locality. Here is the Youtube demo of it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulMarcel Posted June 9, 2014 Report Share Posted June 9, 2014 Did you find balancing the thing easy enough? Does it need re-balancing from time to time? I tried something like this long ago and put it in a drawer because of balance issues; it didn't have instructions for balancing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerryMcK Posted June 9, 2014 Author Report Share Posted June 9, 2014 Yes on the very tiny instruction leaflet it says rotate the chuck body to minimise vibration. I did this first of all checking for vibration with a small diameter cutter in the chuck running at slow speed. Then, when there was no appreciable vibration, I increased the speed to full speed and noted no vibration. Then I changed to a larger bit. There was no vibration from that either so I must have got a sweet spot. However when I put an extension in there was runout (as noted in the review) and I rotated the extension thru 90 and it went away and there was no vibration. It just takes a little setting up initially and then you are good to go. My scanner is out of action at the moment so I can't scan the instruction leaflet. I generally throw these things away but I'm glad I kept it! I might take a photo of it and post it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerryMcK Posted June 10, 2014 Author Report Share Posted June 10, 2014 Here are the Musclechuck instructions Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulMarcel Posted June 10, 2014 Report Share Posted June 10, 2014 Excellent, thanks for scanning that! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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