Any suggestions? My current setup is a 500w spindle from aliexpress. For what I do it seems okay but I take tiny bites with it and its chuck is an er-16 which doesn't do 1/2" collets. From what I can tell it looks like the Hitachi M12VC is the way to go. Light enough, powerful enough and supports 1/4" and 1/2" collets. And it runs on 110v.
What are you doing with it? No machine on these boards can effectively use a 1/2" without underloading/overheating it. Anything spindle big enough to turn it will also more than likely be too heavy. 3/8" is pushing the hobby end. 1/2" starts venturing into machine shops.
A recent example using the Hitachi router can be found here: 1000 x 1000 Workbee powered by X controller. Apparently it works fine but you might check with the author to see how it's going.
Mostly working with hard woods. There are a handful of bits that I can only find in 1/2" shanks I'd like to use for leveling. Slow going and very shallow cuts.
