Well I saw it mentioned somewhere that a favorite is the Rotozip, but is the rotozip practical to use for aluminum cutting and plastic shaping? I thought the rotozip was more of a wood/light plastic device. which router would be best for aluminum/plastic work?

No you really need a variable speed router, I use the hitachi 2.25hp, got it at lowes for 114.00, no other router in this class is this cheap in price. it is working very well for me.

joe

And your using it for aluminum work? If so, which bits do you suggest?

I had a rotozip.. it was barely used and something broke inside.. kind of cheap if you ask me

yea, that's why I wanted suggestions.

The roto-zip uses a plastic fan to push out the hot air. That is what probably broke on yours. They just glue it on the shaft. I had one go after about 10 minutes use. Really sucked because I was borrowing it.

Its farly simply to replair those shaft fan. Got my electric drill from my Dad. He was tonning it because the fan broke on it. I opened it up, and took some JP KWIK (Fast Setting JP WELD) and mixxed up a small batch. I removed the plastic from the shaft, and cleared the area, Then, using plastic toothpicks, i place a little JB Kwik on the shaft, and placed toothpicks over that (to expand the size of the shaft, and fill in for the removed plastic. Once i had gone all around, i put another layer of JB KWIK ontop of that one, and slid the fan into the correct position. I used dremel to carve off the excess toothpicks (but a knife worked for the hard to reach stuff)

I had it working in about an hour. Worked ever since. The truth of the matter is, There are very few things that can't be repaired at home. Repairing the Electric Drill was a sinch. And if that all thats keeping you from one, Get it and give it a try, What are you gonna do, Break it???

IF you need any more tips, feel free to contact me.

Being able to fix something isn't a reason to get something. Quality of build is a reason. I did fix the rotoxip fan issue but not before the brushes fryed.