Makita DRT50 with Trend CDJ300

[James P]

Hi all,

I would appreciate some advice. I have a Makita DRT50 with all bases (including plunge base). I have just bought a Trend CDJ300 Dovetail jig. What is the best adapter to fit to the router to make it work with the guide that comes with the jig? I have seen the Trend Unibase but it looks plasticky and large - is this the best way to go or is there a better option/path to make the two work together.

Thanks so much,

James.

[Job and Knock]

I looked it up and found that the Trend CDJ jigs use a 15.8mm (circa 5/8in) guide bush. The problem, as you are aware is that the Trend guide bushes (or Elu MOF96/deWalt DW613/615) are not directly compatible with the little Makita and AFAIK there is nobody making a guide bush adaptor any longer (there used to be a chap on eBay, but I last saw him advertising more than a year ago). In the absence of a set of guide bushes from Makita, that leaves the conventional approach of buying a Trend Unijig, or making your own sub base from something like 6mm acrylic, polycarbonate or Tufnol (to use the Trend guide bush), or possibly buying an adaptor for the Makita router which will take Porter-Cable guide bushes (whichbhave a threaded ring retainer) and getting a 5/8in guide bush. These can be had in sets and aren't too expensive. In fact Silverline do a sets with about 7 Imperial guide bushes (including a 5/8in one) and a Makita adaptor. It should run to under £20, but I would check with Trend that a 5/8in guide Bush will be OK on the jig to be absolutely certain (their technical helpline are normally very good). The one downside i can see to using a DRT50 (and for that matter the RT0700 corded sister product) for this task is that there is no readily available fine depth adjuster, something of a must when cutting dovetails with a jig. I think it would be possible to build one, or modify an existing one, with a bit of ingenuity although for the work I do with mine I haven't found it necessary to date (but then I don't do dovetails on site)

[James P]

Thank you very much Job and Knock - kind of you to take the time to reply so fully. I will check on the PC style adaptor to see if it will work. The DRT50 plunge base has a fine depth adaptor on it (if I understand that to be the same thing you do), it’s just the trimmer base that doesn’t. Much appreciated.

[Job and Knock]

I have both a DRT50 and the corded RT0700 trim routers with a full set of bases. What the plunge base has is a 3 position turret with axhex headed bolt in each position and a threaded depth rod which is held in the main body casting of the tool. It is possible to make reasonable depth adjustments with this, but I have found it tobe quite fiddly. A better solution would be one where you removed the threaded rod and replace it with another one which has a knob at the top and which screws onto one of the three depth screws on the turret, allowing a sort of micro depth adjustment. To allow this one of the bolts on the turret would need to be replaced by a piece of threaded rod. That type of fine adjuster makes it somewhat easier to do the sort of fine depth adjustment you often need in template/jig work. Take a look at the Trend-UK web site for "Depth Stop, Scale & Fine Height Adjuster" in the knowledge base to get a better idea about what I mean and maybe take a look at the Trend T5 router's depth stop turret. Again, Trend technical may be able to advise you if they have a suitable depth adjuster available or in the pipeline