Milwaukee M18FTR-0 Router Review – UK Tried & Tested

I used this to cut hinge recesses into a new pair of shed doors and a quick roundover along the edge of a cold frame lid, and it went through both without any fuss. What changed my mind about buying it, though, was what turned up in the box. Both a 6mm and a 6.35mm collet come fitted as standard, not one size with the other sold separately, so whichever shank size the bits already owned happen to be, metric or imperial, both are covered from the first job. The plunge base comes in the box too, along with a dust shroud, two sub-baseplates, a straight edge guide and both spanners needed for bit and collet changes. What looks on the listing like a bare tool is closer to a complete system.

I’ve reached for it constantly since, and it’s worth saying why. This isn’t the router that replaces a full-size plunge router for a long session cutting joints all afternoon. It’s the one that comes off the shelf for a kerf cut in the bottom of a door for a sweep, a hinge recess, a chamfer on something that needs one right now. Battery capacity stops being something to think about once the jobs are that short.

Overview and first impressions

The depth adjustment runs through a coarse setting for getting close fast and a fine adjustment that moves in 0.4mm increments with further adjustment possible within that range, more than adequate for cabinet-level work rather than just trim. A traditional locking lever keeps everything tight once a setting’s found, rather than relying on friction holding it in place.

The plunge base adds 50mm of smooth plunge capacity, with a depth adjustment on top of that offering six increments of 3.2mm from whatever preset depth’s already dialled in, useful for working down through repeat passes rather than committing to one deep plunge. There are also three stop pins on the plunge base itself, set up for multiple-pass mortising, a separate thing from the depth increments: the pins set repeatable plunge stages, the fine adjustment tunes within them. The removable dust shroud on the plunge base collects well without the loss of visibility I’ve had with shrouds on other tools before, and there’s a separate dust collection shroud accessory too if a tighter seal into a dedicated extractor setup matters more than the basic kit provides.

Specifications and scores

How it performed in our tests

Speed runs from 10,000 up to 31,000rpm across six marked settings, and the power translates properly into the cut rather than sitting as a number that doesn’t show up in use. Bit changes go through a single wrench and a collet lock, quick enough that swapping between the hinge recess bit and the roundover took less time than setting the depth each time did. There’s a brake in there too that stops the bit dead almost the moment the trigger’s let go, a genuinely noticeable change coming from a corded router that just spins down on its own over a second or two.

The two LEDs either side of the bit matter more than most people give them credit for. My eyes aren’t what they were, and the difference between guessing at a cut line and actually seeing it is real, not a token feature ticked off a list.

Battery system and runtime

Bare tool weight is 1.4kg without a battery, and fitting a 5.0Ah pack looks like it’ll tip the thing over before you’ve even switched it on. It doesn’t. Once it’s routing rather than just sitting in the hand, the balance holds up fine, including on edge cuts where you’d expect a top-heavy tool to fight you. It’ll take the full M18 range up to 12Ah if you own one, but nothing about the shape or the way it sits in the hand makes me want to try the biggest pack on it. Compatible isn’t the same as comfortable.

Runtime is rated up to 115 metres of cutting on one charge of a 5.0Ah battery, and I tried properly to run mine flat just to see. Gave up. It’s good for days worth of work in a shed this size before that becomes a real concern, and the harder test figure, 76 metres of 9.5mm roundover cut in red oak, a tougher ask than most trim work, still holds up as a serious distance.

Performance and limitations

Sound sits at 91.1dB(A) and vibration comes in at 0.88 metres per second squared, genuinely low for a router this size, and after a run of full days back to back that’s the kind of difference you actually feel in your hands and ears by the end of it.

The edge guide included is the expected stamped steel type most routers this size ship with, nothing special about it, and I’d rather say that plainly than pretend it’s a standout inclusion when it isn’t. The base and depth mechanism, though, has noticeably less play in it than an older corded palm router I’ve used for years, the kind of thing that used to need overtightening and remeasuring to stop it creeping. This one just holds.

The one thing that actually went wrong wasn’t the router at all. First bits I tried in it were cheap third-party ones, and inside five minutes the bearing came off a flush trim bit and chewed the workpiece before I’d worked out what had happened. Swapped to decent bits after that and never had the problem again. That’s worth knowing going in, this router will happily expose a bad bit, it just won’t be the router’s fault when it does.

Maximum cutter diameter it’s rated for is 38mm, the actual cutting width rather than the shank, worth checking a bit against before assuming it’ll fit and spin safely in the opening. Registering the tool online extends the cover to three years rather than leaving it on the shorter standard term, worth doing the same week it arrives while the receipt’s still easy to find.

It runs on the wider M18 battery range, so anyone already on that platform for other tools adds this without buying a battery or charger alongside it. That’s most of why this specific router, rather than a different brand doing the same job, is the one people end up buying. For anyone starting from nothing, that’s an extra cost on top rather than a saving, but the bare tool listing is clearly priced and packaged with the existing owner in mind.

Final verdict, is it worth it

Between the shed doors and the cold frame lid, it hasn’t asked for anything back beyond decent bits and a battery already sitting on the shelf. That’s about as straightforward as a tool gets.