Bosch Router POF 1400 ACE (1400 watts, in case)

Background: Having used the same DIY (Green Bosch) for the last 20 years professionally, I decided to retire my old POF1100AE, (it's in my loft I kept it as it just needs a service). And purchased a Popular brand that ar3 Red in colour (not Mi...ie) that unit was more expensive than this POF1400ace and was new but no better than my old Bosch 1000AE, worse actually as both bush caps are broken, the spindle lock is broken, and its is completely dead! How long did the Red router last? About 20 hours use over 13 months, yes just out of warrantee, so I have a new looking router that is not worth repairing. So I went back to Bosch getting the new powerful model. Review: Once in hand it felt solid and well constructed. Works beautifully, smooth, sturdy, quiet and powerful. Joy to use, first use being cutting out a body for a guitar as per photo. I packed it away and as usual can't work out how it goes back in the case! is it base down or base up? Front up or front down. Then I noticed pressed into the case bottom an image of how the router fits back in the case. OMG so simple but will save me 5 minuets every time I put it away and a lot of stress. I almost forgot, whilst using it I 'could actually see the blade and cutting edge because there a two LED lights either side of the collet! Amazing! The faster you cut the brighter the light l, bright and very white. Making my work more accurate, easier and a lot safer. A few other tools have lights but nowhere near as brigjtas these. Overall its 10/10, Bosch has never let me down but I have been disappointed with some of the other brands, including the expensive Yellow units 😕 my table saw is in the repairer shop today as its broken in 2 ways and only 1.5 years into a 3 year extended warranty. Update: after use for 4 hours day one and w hours day two, I've found something that is a negative. The start trigger moves in 90 before the blade starts up, that's fine probably a safety feature. The problem I'm experiencing is this, with 90% of the trigger doing nothing the last 10% of trigger travel turns it on and off, meaning that not only do I need to hold the handle as expected I also have to squeeze and hold very tightly. Often my squeeze pressure relaxes slightly and the unit turns off. The trigger requires a lot of force to keep the motor running. After a few hours my hand is killing me! (I have a very strong hands) inorder for me to be able to use this unit I'm going to have to put a rubber band, jubilee club or cable tie around the on button (yes potentially dangerous) and use the plug switch to turn on and off, buy passing the power trigger (I don't recommend anything to do this!). For the first 2 hours use it is fine, so most will not even notice the issue.

I bought this router at B&Q as it was a Bosch, and was on offer at £20.00 reduction. I suppose the first thing to say is that if I was considering this product for professional trade I'd spend the extra and go for a 'professional' router with fine adjustment capabilities and proven longevity etc. Having said that, if I was starting out with little cash, I'd be confident in its abilities, and use it as a second router when I could afford the 'proper' stuff. It is extremely comfortable and stable in use, and despite being confined to quarter inch, 6mm and 8mm router bits, ploughs through anything you throw at it with nice results. I used it straight away on renovating an old wooden sailing boat, tackling some meaty lengths of wood, and it didn't flinch..............especially impressed with its deep and long rebating ability. I've also used it to build speaker cabinets of various complexity and have found that the guide plate (provided with attachable pin) allows you to rout perfect circular, rebated speaker apertures extremely easily and accurately, despite it not having fine tuning capabilities. It will also rout down to a very tight radius. The template guide provided, in conjunction with home-made and appropriately shaped and sized jig, facilitates the cutting of weird and irregular shapes, quickly and accurately. I noticed in a previous review that reviewer said you couldn't use the 1200 AE in a router table because of the safety trigger mechanism (excellent feature). It is possible however, by clamping it with a large clip/peg, or some other method. You can also rig up a car jack or simple lever system to raise and lower the router to the desired depth, locking it off in the normal way on the router itself. The plunge action wasn't that smooth initially, as other reviews have mentioned, but a quick squirt of WD40 rendered it as smooth as butter. Apparently routers in all price ranges can be a bit sticky initially. So, to sum up, the Bosch POF 1200 AE in my experience, is an incredibly versatile and capable router, possessing a high degree of comfort and usability for such a reasonable price. It's maybe not a 'pro' tool, but it achieves professional results and gets a hearty 5 stars from me.

I bought this to replace a basic old Black & Decker router that really wasn't up to the job. The POF 1400 is clearly built to a much better standard, and good value at the Amazon price, so I'm not complaining about value for money. I'm also not going to dwell on the positive points, but make no mistake - I reckon this is a good router and I am overall pleased with my purchase. I have been using it for a while on oak, and the results are good. However, I have noticed a few drawbacks which make me give it only 4 stars instead of 5: (a) The "quick release" mechanism doesn't seem to work that well. Although it is easy enough to unscrew the collets, the bits seem to have a tendency to jam in the shaft, as some other reviewers have also noticed, and I have already managed to damage one TCT bit while trying to remove it. (b) The one feature that the Bosch doesn't have, and my old B&D router did, was a HORIZONTAL micro-fine adjustment for the parallel guide. This is a pity, as I reckon it would only have needed quite a minor addition to the guide, and it would have been very useful at times. (c) I have discovered that 8mm router bits are harder to find compared with 1/4" or 1/2" ones, and the ones that you can find are significantly more expensive. I can make do with 1/4" bits, but I would prefer to use 8mm ones if they were more readily available.

It's a good tool to have

I should start this off by saying this was my first router, so I dont have anything to compare it to. I did spend quite some time looking at reviews first both on amazon and on google, and within the price range I wanted to go with this came out as the best option for a happy home hobby hero. I also bought the bosch 15 bit router set to go with it so I could make different shapes. Probably other sets would work as well, but I wanted to make sure the weak link was likely to be me, so any necessary problem solving would have a simple starting point! Initially I didnt bother with instructions ( I am man) just put it on a piece of wood and pressed go. After I threw that piece of wood away I had a look at the instructions and how to set it all up and it was really simple and straightforward. It comes with a guide, as in the picture, which is nice and stable and allows you to quite easily line the bit up. The plunger is very easy to use, just a convenient button click while youre holding the handles. There is a sort of depth block, so once you set it up you dont have to worry about going too deep, not deep enough or just being inconsistent.(Again, had no experience with routers so all this was important) The instructions are really very clear, both for these sort of usage set up bits, and for changing the router bits safely. Obviously if you're genuinely manly, you won't want anyone to see you reading them, but they're there in case you need to let someone else use the router at some stage ... So far Ive used this to make skirting board from some planks I had lying around, to put some professional looking finishes to cabinet/box things I was making, to make some nice grooves in some supports for a kitchen unit, and ( freehand) to put some grooves in a shelf which I then filled with luminous(luminescent?) resin to make a really cool glow in the dark type shelf. I'm a pretty bog standard DIYer but this does let you really add a bit of class to your stuff and is easy, fun and straightforward to use

Fabulous if you want a large, heavy duty router. I got it to work on heavy pieces of English oak and that was great but would consider a smaller router for many joinery jobs. More power than you are likely to need and I have never used it at more than 60% speed or it burns hard woods. Good depth control.

I bought this router for several reasons, the first being that I finally managed to kill my existing Bosch router after 20yrs of abuse. Every Bosch tool I've ever owned has been a quality tool that lasts, they might be more expensive than the cheaper tools on the market, but you get what you pay for. Another deciding factor was the 22 previous 5 star reviews, and my review is no different. If like me it's been 20yrs since you last bought a router, things have improved in that time and mostly for the better. The one thing I don't like is the fact you have to press and hold a button to change bits, this can be hard on the fingers and I much prefer the old method of placing a pin through a hole in the shaft to keep it in place, however I believe this is now the standard way of changing bits on all routers. The depth lock is now a lever rather than built into one of the handles and is by default always locked and has to be pressed to release which is big improvement on the old router. This model comes with a built in led that illuminates the work area and also a very handy case in which to keep it when not in use. The router is well built and solid and has a real quality feel to it. This model is definitely worth the £80 I paid for it. And once again Amazon's customer service and delivery were what one has come to expect, excellent.

Nice bit of kit