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Hercules 20v Cordless Trim Router

Vaughn McMillan

Vaughn McMillan

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I bought this a couple of weeks ago but finally had a chance to use it today. I needed something small and easy to use with a flush trim bit on some overhead work. (Making the edge of a 3/8" thick oak board match a somewhat uneven plaster wall). I was very happy with how it performed today.
Trim Router 1.jpg
It's the Hercules 20v cordless trim router from Harbor Freight. It just came out this year. Over the past few years HF has really stepped up their game in several areas. They still sell cheap low-end stuff, but several of their "upper tier" brands are meant to compete with the big boys, and IMO they're nailing it. In power tools, they have three main brands:
  • Chicago Electric (the original, cheap "semi-disposable" tools)
  • Bauer (comparable or better than Black & Decker and similar brands...suitable for the average weekend warrior), and
  • Hercules (trying to give Milwaukee and DeWalt a run for their money and doing a pretty dang good job if you ask me)
This is my third Hercules 20v cordless tool, so I've already bought into their battery ecosystem. My 1/2" impact wrench and handheld shop vac have worked flawlessly, and although they were pretty high-priced compared to other HF tools, they were still quite a bit less expensive than the comparable "name brand" tools. This trim router sells for $69.99 (tool only), and I'd put it up any day against the $199 Milwaukee or the $219 DeWalt 18v trim routers. And it comes with a 5 year warranty. :thumb:

It has the features you see in similar cordless trim routers...soft start, variable speed, fast and micro height adjustments, and a clear dust chute that attaches to a vacuum. It does not have a built-in LED light, but that would have been no use to me today. My only critique so far is that the dust chute seems a bit loose when attached. I don't know if that would be a problem in normal use because I didn't use it today. (Working overhead with the tool upside down, I didn't want to also have to deal with a vacuum hose while I was using the tool.) All in all, I'm very happy with the purchase, and based on my experience with three different tools, I have no problem recommending the Hercules products to anyone.

Two other HF brands that have caught the attention of the pros are the Icon mechanic's tools and the Badlands Apex winches. Pretty much all of the off-road recovery guys I watch on YouTube are using Badlands winches now. These are guys that do more hard work with their winches in a month than most guys do in their lifetimes, and I've yet to see one fail. A 12,000 pound capacity Warn winch is about $750. The equivalent Badlands winch is $570. Another $30 gets you the Badlands model than comes with the synthetic winch line.
 
So far I've only used this with a 1/2" flush trim bit, but it ate 3/8" thick red oak like nobody's business. Due to how uneven the plaster wall I was matching was, in some places I had the bit buried on both sides. It showed no signs of slowing down.
 
Brent Dowell said:
I've got a milwaukee M18 that looks an awful lot like that! It really is handy. I've used it a lot to run a little 1/4" roundover bit and it works great.
Click to expand...
I've got the Milwaukee, too. It's become my 'go to' router for small jobs. There's a plunge base available for it, too.
Yeah, it looks almost like a direct copy of the Milwaukee.
 
Thanks for the write up Vaughn. It's always good to hear about tools that aren't the usual suspects. I have a few routers and have various dust collection ports for them. Some that are made by the manufacturer and some that just fit their tools. Some collect from above and some from the side / bottom depending on the operation at hand. Except for the ones that attach via a PC collar arrangement or screw directly to the router body or plate they all have a bit of wiggle in them. Many years and hundreds of uses later they all still work like they did on day one. My point is that the wiggle has been a non-issue for me.
 
It's kind of interesting because back in the 80's / early 90's Harbor Freight actually imported a bunch of fairly heavy duty tools. I have a friend who was a machinist and had outfitted his shop with some fairly decent milling machines, metal lathes, bandsaws, etc.. from them. They were at the time mostly Taiwanese imports that were clones of some of the older american iron. They did lack some of the spit and polish (and some of the older american stuff .. did as well if you get back far enough hah) but were pretty dang solid and decent machines for all that.

I always kind of wished they'd go back to that some .. or someone else would take up the slack (I guess that's sort of grizzly...). Interesting to see they've picked up on it. The younger fellow who took it over seems like he might have been heading this way for a while.
 
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