Routed
December 17th, 2008I Had a Cunning Plan to Solve the Problem
I tried my clever idea for using a router to plane a board to use as a router fence. The results were…interesting.
I know this works, but you have to have some stuff I don’t have. You have to have clamps that are way lighter and shorter than mine, to hold the whole mess together while you run it over the router bit. And you really need some means of making a true edge on a board. I hate to say the “J” word, but I think you know what I mean.
I can make a true edge on a board, using a table saw. IF I already have a straight board equipped with toggle clamps, to attach the first board to while I run it through the saw. I can make a true edge with a router, IF I can clamp a straightedge to the work and use a bearing. I can make a true edge on a board using a circular saw, IF I have something to guide it and I can get the saw set up at a perfect 90 degrees to the wood.
Then I still have to plane it.
The only jig I know of that allows you to plane (“thickness,” really) a board with a router requires you to have some pretty precisely cut wood to begin with. The upshot of all this is, if I already had a lot of this stuff, I could probably make some of this stuff.
Perhaps the time has come to buy a piece of straight hardwood.
December 17th, 2008 at 4:12 PM
dude, do you not have a six foot long level or the like? that is a straight edge.
also, most high school shops have a planer/jointer – failing that find the local amateur theater group and “volunteer” to construct some sets – they always have good stuff.
-XC
December 17th, 2008 at 4:23 PM
The only straightedge I have that is long enough is way too thin. I need something around 5/8″ thick, to reach the bearing.
.
Some guy on Craigslist has a 6″ Powermatic jointer for sale for $200. Wish I had the room for it.
December 17th, 2008 at 4:39 PM
“Wish I had the room for it.”
Manliness credit revoked. Build an expansion onto your garage.
December 17th, 2008 at 5:24 PM
Ahem… use the factory edge of a piece of particle board (say, 3/4″ x 12″ x whatever length you need) to run against your table saw’s fence. Really, that’s all you need to do. That’s your jig. And if you’re only going to use it for a board or two, you don’t need toggle clamps. Just screw the board you’re truing to the particle board in a place where the holes won’t matter later. Slightly countersink a couple of holes in the bottom side of your jig and screw up (heh) through it and into your workpiece. That will make it nice and solid. (the edge to be trued should be hanging over the blade side of your jig by about 1/4″ – 1/2″ or so, depending on how crooked it is). Don’t poke yourself on the screw tips. Now just flip it over and run the whole thing through your table saw. Voila!* Perfect edge every time.
.
I have straight-edged literally miles of birch/cherry/oak/whatever this way and believe me, it works great. Of course for high production work, you’ll want to have the toggle clamps instead of screwing and unscrewing every board.
.
P.S. Use the money I just saved you to donate to a good cause. Wayne Cochran’s church would be good. Did you know he wrote ‘The Last Date’ back in the 60’s? Yep.
.
*(sorry about the french)
December 17th, 2008 at 5:41 PM
Waitaminnit.
All this time, we’ve been talking about 5/8 of a inch?
Get thee to Home Depot and buy a shelf. MDF, melamine coating, made in a machine. Straight perpendicular edges and a smooth guiding surface. 5/8″ to 3/4″ thick.
Jeez.
Regards,
Ric
December 17th, 2008 at 8:12 PM
RIC” S RIGHT!!! Those are so sharp and straight you could cut yourself on them.
December 17th, 2008 at 11:55 PM
Ric is of course, correct.
Although his premise is useless for ship’s carpentry, where the concept of a right angle was last seen sailing West with the Titanic.
Still though, the MDF shelf is useful even to carpenters of capricious curvaciousness, as the one, true edge matters in the alingment of every other randomly radiused roundel.
You’re worried about precise, straight edges. Come talk with me later, when you’re trying to match a the plane of a new bulkhead into the concave curvature of an inner hull.
Imprecision then, is your friend, my friend. Ponder that over a bowl of Purina Parrot Chow?
Jim
Sloop New Dawn*
Galveston, TX
*sunk by Ike
December 18th, 2008 at 7:40 AM
Ya’ll leave Steve alone, now. He’s determined to do this the hard way. If his time was worth anything at all he’d have spent enough to have purchased a jointer AND a table planer.
Actually, if I was setting up a shop to work in wood, I’d have the table saw, planer and jointer well before I’d put any effort into a router table. Oh yeah, a drill press and a lathe would be right there on my list as well.
Steve, you really need a lathe- the number of accessories you will “need” to have boggles the mind.
My $0.02, YMMV.
December 18th, 2008 at 11:23 AM
Further to my last:
Buy a shelf.
On the table saw, rip a piece a little over 3″ wide from the shelf. Then turn it end for end and rip a piece a little over 3-1/4″ wide.
Using the remaining, middle piece for a guide, and a 1/2″ or 5/8″ cylindrical bit, rout the cut edges of the two pieces down to exactly 3″ and 3-1/4″, respectively.
Again using the middle piece for a guide, and the same cylindrical bit, rout a 1/4″ deep rabbet, as wide as the board is thick, on the flat side of the cut edge of the 3″ piece.
Using the thinnest, runniest 2-hour epoxy you can find, glue the cut edge of the 3-1/4″ piece into the rabbet. Clamp it carefully, making sure not to let it depart from a 90 degree angle. Use the table saw table (which is almost certainly the flattest surface you own) and a try-square to align it and make sure. After the two hour setup time, turn it over and CAREFULLY use a razor blade to remove the squeezed-out epoxy along the joint. The glue will still be a little rubbery, so handle the piece carefully to avoid yanking it apart.
Let it set overnight. You may prefer to reinforce the joint with countersunk 1″ #8 deck screws, but since you don’t have a drill press, do that last — you can’t drill the pilot holes accurately enough. If it’s already assembled that doesn’t matter.
Presto: a 3×3″ angled fence, straight and perpendicular in all dimensions. The remaining, middle piece can be used as a sacrificial auxiliary fence — cut a pocket in it so that only the part of the router bit that’s cutting is exposed, and c-clamp it to the actual fence when routing in that mode.
Regards,
Ric