I'm going to be doing an inlay for the first time in a few

>>1113405
Depends on how much inlay work you have, OP. Are you looking for an excuse to buy a router, and need us to back you up for the wife? If so: Buy the router! It's 100% worth it! If not: no way man, save your money, take your wife out to eat and show her you care, use the knife and chisels!

Buy it, use it for what you need, then return it to the store and tell them it stopped working.

>>1113405
>I don't really want to drop $300 on something I'll only use a few times, so I was wondering what my best option is?

Buy one of the many ~50$ routers out there?
Buy a used one at a pawn shop for 20$?

You must not have looked around very hard if you could only find 300$ kits

Cant you just rent one? Its pretty cheap

>>1113405
harbor freight

>Is there an attachment I can get for a regular drill to use it as a router?
only if you have a modular drill

>Or would I be better off just using chisels and a dremel?
if there are any corners, you'll need chisels anyway

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If you already have a Dremel it isn't particularly difficult to fab up a router base attachment for it. That's what I use for my amatuer hobby inlay work. Mind you, the stuff I've done is usually pretty small scale. It works great though! You're limited to fairly small diameter bits with the Dremel, but you can find really small ones if you need to do precision stuff. And a small bit with patience can accomplish a large job, whereas a large router with a 1/4" collet may only be able to go down to about an 1/8" bit which may be too large for some work. Depends what you're planning on doing though. How big is your project? Guided or freehand? Picture is a couple of pendants I made for some friends. Abalone inlaid into ebony.

File: StewMac-Precision-Rotary-Tool-Router-Base.jpg (122KB, 590x590px) Image search: [Google]

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>>1113884
Also, this is the aftermarket base I stole the design for my setup from. Mine is considerably more crude, but it works. Just need a drill press and a tap and die set to make it. Lee valley also makes a quality router base attachment for dremels.

>>1113884
Can you walk me through the process to create this. I just got a dremel recently for wax carving to make rings and I'm trying to expand it to other mediums as well.

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>>1113884
>File: IMG_20161219_160653.jpg

>Mother-of-pearl 45 rpm record center adapeters

>>1113888
If we call the top piece of metal that the dremel fits into piece "A" and the plate on the bottom piece "B" then it goes something like this: Find a piece of aluminium about as thick as the dremels threads are deep. This'll be A. Drill out the center hole and tap it to fit the dremels threads. Can't remember off the top of my head which tap to use but just google what size threads the dremel has. Find some plate metal probably at least 1/8" thick and cut it into the shape for your plate. Be careful not to warp the plate when you cut it. It needs to stah flat. Decide how far apart you want your posts to be. Get some ready rod for posts. Drill out holes in B and tap them for the ready rod. Drill holes in A for the ready rod posts. These holes should be slightly larger than the posts. Do not tap them. You want A to slide up and down the ready rod posts. Hardware store yourself some nuts and wingnuts that fit your ready rod. And some springs. Assemble as per picture and have fun! I did all my drilling on a press which helps a ton. It's probably not a feasible project if you don't have access to a drill press.

>>1113895
Hey good call! My friend is an aspiring DJ and wanted a 45 adapter pendant. Not many people recognize those anymore.

>>1113899
Oh crap. Maybe you meant the pendants not the base for the Dremel. I can write up a small inlay tutorial if you'd prefer. There's probably better people to ask about inlays than me though.