My own "take" on router weight is based upon my experience with hand operated routers going back to 1946. IIRC my first PC router had a 350 watt motor and weighed close to 18 pounds. It did not plunge, put the height adjustment was similar in concept to typical routers sold in the USA until Festool came along.
I am not sure when the standard was introduced, after which most popular non-trim routers had motor housings of identical diameter. I also cannot remember when I bought my first 1000 watt router, but I owned it for 20+ years and it weighed about 18 pounds. IIRC that was my first router with a 1/2" collet.
Not long after I opened my first custom cabinet shop in Pasadena in 1962, to supplement my pair of shapers, I bought a router table with a pioneer lifter. That accepted all the standard diameter router motor housings. As available routers became more powerful, I kept using those in my table. Over the years I increased the number of router tables and sold one of the shapers. I admit I do not remember when I purchased my first PC 7518, but I have bought a heck of a lot more of them over the years.
In late 2005, a couple of months before I bought my first Festool TS55 with a CT22, I still owned a total of 12 routers, 6 of then PC 7518. Like the majority of tools and machines I had not sold with that shop in 1998, all but one of the PC 7518 were in a storage unit, In my condo I had the PC 7518, an inexpensive 7 1/4" circular saw, a couple of electric drills, a dry wall screw driver and a bunch of hand tools.
Less than a month after I bought my TS55, I bought an OF1010, with the LR32 accessory kit and both a 1040mm and 2424mm "Holy Rails" Let me tell you that system was so much easier to use than typical 25 drill line boring machines. I could not believe the ease of handling the OF1010, so I bought a second one just for routing. I broke out cases of bits with 1/4" shanks and had as many as could be salvaged sharpened by my favorite vendor.
My only issue with the OF1010 as a router using a larger 1/4" shank bit is that I am used to more mass in the router. I kept on using conventional PC7518 on non plunge bases when I needed more power or mass than the OF1010. Eventually I tried an OF2200 at my dealer's show room. I am not clear how long the OF2200 had been on the market, and if the year was then 2007. I do know that the day I first tried an OF2200, I bought one. By then all my trusted 1/2" shank bits had been sharpened. After I had been using my OF2200 a few days, hardly needing most of its power, I started returning the non-Festool routers to storage. When the OF1400 came along and also the MFK700, I bought one of each, with accessories.
It is no secret that I hardly ever use my OF1400, but I will not sell it. When the bit will not fit in an OF1010, I use an OF2200. For trimming I use an MFK700, and by now I own several of them.
I like the handling of the MFK700 when it must hang off the work. They stay set a long time.
Sometimes a task requires a massive router to reduce vibration, and non are better than the OF2200. For drilling LR32 holes, even 35mm and 20mm hinge cup holes, I prefer my of1010s. For trimming edges, I use my MFK700s. This does not leave a lot of tasks I need to perform best done by the OF1400. However, if I could only have one router, probably it will be an OF1400.
Currently besides my Felder tilting arbor shaper with a power feed, my shop is equipped with 6 other router tables, 4 Woodpecker and 2 miscellaneous. All of my current router tables use PC 7518. The cabinet makers working for me all have years of experience with PC 7518s and are pleased with the results using the Woodpecker tables and lifts. None of us have a problem with the mass of the OF2200.
