Last month I posted about the new Veritas rotary tool plunger base, and as some of you pointed out, this wasn’t the first attachment that turns a rotary tool into a router.
Here are 4 more rotary tool attachment options that we learned about thanks to reader comments and some more research. Prices range from very affordable to almost absurd.
Dremel 335-01 Attachment
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The cheapest option is Dremel’s own 335-01 plunge router attachment. This attachment mounts to your rotary tool via it’s threaded housing.
This attachment features a clear base to make it easier to view your workpiece, two depth stops so you can make progressively deeper cuts, and storage for the wrenches and extra bits on board.
Dremel says this attachment is compatible with the 100, 200, 275, 285, 300, 395, 398, 400, 3000, 4000, 8200, 8220, and the 4200 with the 4200 attachment adapter, but it probably works with other tools, as long as it has the same threads as the above Dremel tools (3/4-12).
The Dremel 335-01 plunge router attachment comes with an edge guide for routing parallel to the edge, a circle cutting guide for making arcs and circles, and a mounting wrench. You can buy it at Amazon for $20 with Prime Shipping.
Buy Now (Dremel Base via Amazon)
Milescraft 1000 Plunger
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Thread the front collar of your rotary tool into the Milescraft 1000 Plunger, and you’ll turn it into a small plunge router with integrated dust collection.
The plunging mechanism is designed with three steel posts for sturdier construction, rather than the normal two, and the clear base is also compatible with Milescraft’s TurnLock inserts.
If you look at the instructions, the plunge mechanism works a little strangely. You zero the bit like normal and set the depth gauge to the desired depth. But then instead of puling a release lever, you just push down on the handles to plunge the bit into the workpiece and the height will lock at the last position. When you want to release the plunge mechanism and raise the bit, you press the lock tab on the right handle.
According to the Amazon page, the Plunger base can be used with Dremel models 275, 285, 395, 398, and 8000-01; ToolShop; Mastercraft; Craftsman; and Black & Decker RTX, but other rotary tools should work as long as they have standard Dremel threads.
The Milescraft 1000 Plunger base comes with a steel edge guide and a circle cutting guide. Home Depot says this base has been discontinued and I can’t find it on the Milescraft website, but it continues to be sold at Amazon for about $25 shipped with Prime
Buy Now (Milescraft Base via Amazon)
Stewart MacDonald Base
As Chris Parker pointed out in the post where Stuart discussed his ordering of this plunge base set, StewMac also makes a precision router base. It’s much simpler design, but maybe that’s what you’re looking for.
Stewart MacDonald says their compact base, is the best way to hold a Dremel for freehand routing, inlaying, widening fret slots, and more. This base was designed especially for working on stringed instruments. They tout their base as having easy installation, excellent control, accurate freehand routing, all while being sturdy, compact and adjustable.
They machine the base from steel, brass and aluminum. The depth is adjusted with large thumb wheels and each complete revolution adjusts the depth by 0.035″. The plunging mechanism also doubles as handles to give you more control of the base.
The base has a built-in nozzle which can be attached to a mini-air pump, allowing you to blow dust away from the base for better visibility.
Installation for this base is the same as the others, the threaded plastic nose of your rotary tool screws right into the 3/4-12 threads of the base.
You can buy just the router base on the Stewart MacDonald site for $55 or you can buy a set including the rotary tool base, an edge guide, a 5/16″ router bit, and an air pump with hose for $110. The edge guide and router bit selection are intended for guitar-making applications, so they might not be suitable for other types of work.
Buy Now (Router Base Only via Stuart MacDonald)
Buy Now (Complete Router Base Set via Stuart MacDonald)
A very similar looking tool is also available on Amazon. It’s unclear as to whether it’s the same model or a clone.
Compare(via Amazon)
Micro Fence Base
On the high end of the price scale, Micro Fence sells a very expensive plunge base and edge guide for rotary tools. But for your $500, you’ll get adjustable precision to 0.001″ in both the horizontal and vertical axes.
Lets step back a moment, before fixating on the high price. The micro plunge base alone has some interesting features. This 4″ diameter base has “silky smooth” plunge action, it has a very open design that allows for high visibility when making cuts, and there’s a micrometer dial for adjusting the cutting depth with high precision.
This base doesn’t attach to the threads on the nose of the rotary tool like the other bases, instead it uses a acrylic insert that is custom cut to each different motor. These include most Dremel rotary tools, the Milwaukee M12 rotary tool, and select Foredom, PowerCrafter, and Proxxon handpieces and rotary tools.
Made to precise standards from aluminum and hard chrome plated stainless steel, this base alone costs $300. When you buy the base, you get the acrylic motor insert for your particular tool and an LED light source.
Buy Now (Micro Plunge Base)
If you want the 0.001″ precision on two axes, you’ll need to plunk down a total of $500 to get the micro plunge base with edge guide. I can’t find anywhere on the website where they mention it, but it looks like the edge guide sports another micrometer dial to get the 0.001″ precision on the horizontal axis.
At 3.5 pounds, this base with the edge guide practically weighs as much as a small router.
Buy Now (Micro Plunge Base w/Edge Guide)
Veritas Rotary Tool Plunge Base
There is also of course the Veritas rotary tool plunge base that we previously wrote about. It’s $85 for just the base, and $169 for the complete set with all of the shown accessories.
You can read more about this base in our preview post.
Buy Now(via Lee Valley)
fred
I use something similar from William NG with my Foredom
For those interested in the Lee Valley variant – LV started one of their free shipping (orders over $40) deals today – running through 2/22
Milwaukee tool Steve
It looks as if the MilesCraft would be my favorite one, due to sturdier design and the plunge is interesting, I think the price is my favor, cheap enough to buy while still getting a quality tool.
James C
In the pictures for that one, are they using a sanding drum on the tool? I get that these are marketing pics, but if that’s a sanding drum, I’m a little concerned about their credibility.
Benjamen
I was trying to come up with a way to justify why they would use a sanding drum, maybe they were going back over the stopped groove and cleaning up the edge, but after a closer look I think they are using using a sanding drum in the circle cutting pictures.
Then I noticed an even dumber mistake: there is no center for the circle cutting jig in that picture, just the two rails sticking out.
I can totally understand staging shots, sometimes the shot you want doesn’t turn out, you just didn’t take the shot you needed in the first place, or it would have been too intrusive to take the shot while performing the operation, but this is hilarious.
fred
Buying the Milescraft might be the right move for you – but I’ve found the few of their products that I’ve tried to be clever in design and reasonably priced but lacking in robustness and quality. I’ve never tried this one out – but the Amazon reviews are about equally spread between 5”s and 1’s. The nice thing about buying it from Amazon is their liberal return policy and at $25 – it’s certainly way less expensive than the $169 I spent on the one (fits a Foredom handpiece) from William Ng
Bob the Builder
The Stewart-McDonald lookalike you see on Amazon is a clone. The Q&A section says it’s made in China. By appearance, it looks like the quality is much lower. That will likely have an impact on performance as well, given that these tools are meant for high precision works.
Matt
What’s the point of these when you can get a Bosch or DeWalt micro-router with plunge base for about the same price as many of these? Is there a compelling use-case for Dremel routing?
Also, would these work with Rotozips?
Benjamen
Let’s ask a similar question: why would you use a Colt or Dewalt micro router when you could use a full sized router?
I would answer control and weight. I have much more control over my Colt than my full size Porter Cable. Also when it spins up there’s a lot of momentum built up in the armature, and you need both hands to hold onto it. Of course there are always jobs the colt can’t do: bigger cuts with bigger 1/2″ bits.
I have never used a rotary tool for routing, but I can see the same logic above applying. Sometimes you may want even finer control, and all except the Micro Fence are going to be lighter. (that may be a good thing because the ratio of the spinning mass to the mass of the entire router is smaller) You also aren’t fighting as much momentum because the motor is smaller still. Plus you can use the wide variety of 1/8″ bits directly in the rotary tool, although some micro routers have 1/8″ chucks available or you could always use reducing bushings.
Robert
I’m looking at these to use as a mini drill press for drilling tiny holes square to the surface in the center of large pieces of stock. When you are doing very fine work with a scroll saw the really tiny bits will not fit in your typical drill press and the post on the press prevents using it for larger pieces. For very fine detail it is critical that the hole be square to the surface. Using a rotary tool in a router base is good solution for this. The fact that it can rout as well as do all the other things that rotary tools do make it a better solution than the dedicate tools sold for this purpose.
JoeM
I actually own the Dremel 335 attachment. I haven’t had the chance to use it in the…..I think 3 years I’ve owned it. But, I can say that I own it for a reason. It is very light, very portable, and very easy to attach to my Dremel 4000 and 8200.
Just… brain-spewing here… but… I believe the answer to the question of “Why would anyone want to turn a Rotary Tool into a Router?” is actually “Because a Rotary Tool performs very differently than a Router of any size does.” No, I don’t mean it WORKS differently, I mean it PERFORMS differently. At high speeds, but very low torque, you can achieve some smoother cuts with the bits, leading to less sanding. But that is very, very conditional. For softwood, and the material the bits are made of. But, either way, a Rotary Tool is… well… the more “Gentle” of the methods for routing details.
Also, brain spewing still, I WANT to buy the Lee Valley Veritas kit, for the OPPOSITE reasons I own the Dremel 335. It’s heavier, it’s sturdier, and it’s more solid, for doing things on my Bench, rather than in-situ, as they say. IF I was to buy that MicroFence set, I would sit it on a shelf, give it exclusive lighting, and display it as a beautiful piece of art. Because, frankly, I know it would be a waste of money to do so, but that is, truly, beautiful. I can definitely see major woodworking companies owning several of those for the same reason I want the Veritas kit. It’s sturdy, and would be perfect for a workstation where one of their carpenters does their finest detailed work. Again, I am aware a Micro-Router may do a similar job, but a Rotary Tool would do a much, much finer one. For those situations when a gentle touch is required.
Michael
I can’t see spending more on a base than an entire rotary tool kit.
JoeM
Depends. Do you mean just the Rotary Tool, or the Rotary Tool plus all the attachments and accessories you own?
If I was to add up both my Rotary Tools, plus all the attachments I’ve bought, other than my 335 Router Base, it would actually be more than the Veritas, and would come pretty damn close to the Micro Fence. If I was to add all my Accessories and Bits to that, it would DEFINITELY be more than the Micro Fence.
More than the Rotary Tool itself? I can see that point, but disagree. In the grand scheme of things, if you really need it, the price of a high-end rotary tool like a Dremel 4000, or Cordless 8200/8220 doesn’t put that bar very high.
If we’re talking more than EVERYTHING? I’m totally with you. I can’t see myself, or anyone, buying any single attachment that is worth more than everything else you own for that tool. Comes close is okay, but much more? That’s not very sensible. You have a very good point there. VERY good point.
John
Matt hit the nail on the head!
Mike
One problem with using rotary tools for routing is power/torque. I think 2.5A is about as high as they go, even for the Foredom and Proxxon. Probably closer to 1A in most cases. Colt routers and other laminate trimmers/palm routers usually in the 4-6A range.
REALLY a shame Dremel discontinued the Advantage rotary tool. The kit was really awesome, covered ground from light router to die grinder duty, as well as typical hobbiest rotary tool stuff. Just a few advantages of the Dremel Advantage:
1) 4.5A, closer in power to a good Rotozip model or DeWALT drywall tool(or Colt router)
2) included 1/4″ collet as well as standard 1/8″, allowing use of the endless number of standard 1/4″ router bits widely available from many sources.
3) included a plunge base which was similar to current Dremel router base, but was all metal and generally of a much higher quality.
4) had a superior flex attachment that could fill in for a Foredom for all but the most serious/demanding flex shaft rotary tool users.
5) included a “L” handle which allowed it to be used just like a D-handle router(awesome) or, more precisely, a Rotozip or DeWALT drywall cutout tool.
I have both an Advantage and a 4000 Dremel, and they do not compare. 12v Hackzall vs A/C Sawzall basically.
fred
I agree that you should try to match the tool to the job. A router – even a big one in a router table is not 100% equivalent to a shaper. A hand held router – even with guides and jigs does not match a CNC machine. I’ve used routers over a lot of years, starting with an old Stanley-Carter, some Stanley behemoth High frequency routers – with the freq-converter humming away in the corner of the shop, big PC and Bosch routers, laminate trimmers from Bosch and Betterley, a D-Handle PC router, a Dewalt compact router and a few others from PC, Hitachi, and Elu. I liked many of these for what they were good at – and I still own some of these. But I still like using a Foredom 44T handpiece in the William NG base that I bought – but only for inlay work. It’s not my go-to tool for anything else.
Mattaconda
Personally, there’s really only a few rotary tools that can do a decent job for routing.
The Dremels I have are horrible. They lack any level of torque and when trying to route a softer wood, like pine for instance, it will slow the motor down greatly when using as a router. It also burns up the bits like they were made of tin foil.
Now, I’ve used the Dewalt, and Milwaukee cut-out tools, and they’re great for small 1/8″ shank routing, but limited in function, and costly.
The one tool I have fallen in love with, and is wayyyyy less costly than other rotary tools, has been the Black & Decker RTX. Wow! The ONLY downfall is it is corded (and isnt a dewalt lol) . But this think is a torque beast for a router. Lightyears better than the Dremel 4300, or any of the corded Dremel line. (The cordless Dremels have broken my heart too often, and I can not even acknowledge that they exist anymore.)
So for value. .. get the Black and Decker RTX. They’re $40ish and they fit any other Dremel accessory bit. They also claim it is 3-speed, but it is not. It has a variable wheel speed adjuster. (The 3 speed label prevented me from trying one for years.)
Now… show me some decent 1/8in router bits. I’ve spent years trying to find some, and they are ALL junk other than a basic straight spiral cutting bit… and even those are not great.
David Minkanic
Hi,
I have an older Ryobi rotary tool – MODEL HT20VSK that I bought some years ago. It has much more torque than anything Dremel ever made. I still use it today as I’ve gone through three Dremels.
The only downside of this tool is the threaded nose is larger than Dremel, and I can’t find any attachments for it such as a router base. Aside from that it’s a great tool and can still be found on eBay.