Trend Sub Base System with 2 Line Up Pins and Bush, Compatible with Multiple Routers for Routing Accuracy, GB/5

I purchased this in order to mount the guide bush supplied with my excellent new  Trend Professional Hinge Jig Kit  to the base of an old 1/4 inch spindle Bosch router. Trend guide bushes are designed to mount directly to their own branded routers, but I felt that spending a couple of hundred pounds was silly if I could buy this and convert my existing machine/s.This is a good quality solid phenolic base, and I like this material because it's very tough and hard wearing, with low friction for easy movement over the work piece. Trend also sell a pre-drilled  Universal Subbase  which looks like a Swiss Cheese. I debated which to choose but decided on this (mostly) blank base that I could drill myself, rather than take a chance of not finding a pair of matching holes. There's a list of routers that the two existing holes match to, but most people I've encountered buy this product and treat it as a blank, for custom mounting their machines.The Gb5 used to be shipped with a metal guide and spindle, but that changed shortly into the new millennium, when it was substituted for plastic. These plastic guides are perfectly fine for matching your router base to pre-existing holes in either this Gb/5 or the universal sub base, but if you are one of those folks wanting to drill holes and custom mount a machine then the plastic parts are sub-optimal I'm afraid. It was important to me to get the base accurately aligned, which means correctly centering the axis of your router with the centre point of the guide bush. Despite careful handling I found the plastic parts supplied had rather too much flex in them to achieve perfect accuracy when marking out ready for drilling. I've deducted one star because of this, and it led to me having to elongate the holes I drilled in order to correct a slight misalignment.If you do want to custom mount your router Trend recommend taking a tracing of your router base and overlaying it on the sub-base for alignment and subsequent drilling. I personally hold that such an intermediate step increases the risk of inaccuracy, especially if the router spindle axis isn't fully concentric with the hole in your router base. Light duty routers that can be detached from their bases - such as my Bosch - have a good chance of this being the case, as it is with mine. So I would contend that where possible alignment and marking out of machine parts is best done directly. This is the scenario in which metal guide parts would help. However, if your router is already compatible with the two holes and you won't be drilling the sub-base then all this is academic and the plastic guides will be perfectly adequate for you.Phenolic can flake when machined so be careful when drilling it. Your biggest problem is achieving recessed parallel shoulders for the machine screws. A countersink is one way to go, drilled in the centre to 6mm . If you own a pedestal drill the  Trend counterbore - CB58  would work well. You should also be aware that trend very kindly offer a free drilling service by post if you're having difficulty mounting your machine.Eventually I got my little Bosch POF 500 mounted well, and once achieved the result is excellent. It's a small and light duty router, which is what Trend recommend for using with their hinge jig (a larger router would get in the way and risk moving the jig)As I say, this sub-base is actually very good. It now allows me to use any of the twelve Trend metal guide bushes, which run from 10mm up to 32mm in even sizes, in 2mm increments. The results I've achieved with my hinge jig have been excellent and I haven't had to stump up for a new router. So this sub-base has been a very good purchase for me. Trend Professional Hinge Jig KitUniversal SubbaseTrend counterbore - CB58

Bought this thinking it would fit my Triton router, well it didn't, not even close, my fault, must have had another page open with the correct one and clicked buy on this. As I was desperate to get the job done I had to modify it (basically drill two new holes and counterbore to enable it to fit my TRB001). I aslo have a Makita 3162 which this does fit so nothing lost really. The base appears to be made from phenolic which is a wonderful material for this application as it doesn't warp and is very hard wearing. Less hard wearing is the setup guidebush and pins. The picture clearly showed them all being made from metal but they were plastic so if you are buying this thinking to use the setup guidebush for work, I would order a metal one as well, I've never had good experiences with plastic guidebushes.Other than the above niggles, I am delighted with the actual sub base, usual good Trend quality, just let down slightly with the plasticy bits.

Seems like a good strong product but it does not fit the triton routers

Works fine and as expected but overpriced for what it is.