Makita DRT50ZJX2 Brushless Laminate Trimmer Kit

An excellent useful cordless router that is gaining ever increasing jobs in my workshop – I have had a little Ozito trim router for a very long time and saw no need to update it, then it fell out of my hands to the concrete floor and shattered the plastic support sleeve. It may have been sort of repairable but it had done its bit. Online searches for a replacement sleeve found nothing. I took the opportunity to go cordless. I… Read more

already own a bit of Makita cordless kit and didn't want to go to another brand with new chargers and batteries so went looking for a Makita model. I found the DRT50 in kit form, skin only, at Sydney tools for $359. So I bought it in November 2019.

The DRT50 has proved to be so useful as it came with a systainer box and three bases; a trimmer base, tilt base and a plunge base. It also came with some accessories such as collet rings, template guides, a trimmer guide and a straight fence guide, It has a locking collet so only one spanner is needed to tighten or loosen bits. I have used it in cutting trenches, rebates, and fine work and it is very simple to set up accurately. Being cordless makes life more easy than I would have thought and when I am done it all packs away neatly into its systainer. It is my go to for using 1/8 router bits in my workshop.

I have one complaint, the plastic dust collection shroud clicks into the plunge base and is then secured with one little screw. I am concerned that the weight of the vacuum hose will eventually break off the locking tab as it all feels very fragile. If it had a screw on both sides of the shroud I doubt this would be an issue.