Skill is no Subsitute for Fancy Gadgets
April 15th, 2009The Router is Going DOWN
I have seen the bacon AK-47 and the heavy girl on American Idol. Thanks for sending the links.
I think I have the router problem beat. Yesterday someone at Sawmill Creek suggested a fence made by Pinnacle. It’s mounted on a ram that sits on a platform you clamp to the table. The ram is moved by a screw. You can make an adjustment of 0.001″, and the depth adjusts by up to a foot.
Hard to top that.
Because I’m getting into both woodworking and machining, I have noticed that there are a lot of machining ideas that woodworkers ought to try. The gadget mentioned above is similar to the y-travel on a milling machine table. It seems very obvious when you’ve seen a mill. Day before yesterday, I put a DRO on my planer. I can’t even describe how great it is. I never even glance at the old tape-measure scale; I can’t, because it’s covered up now. The DRO gives me thousandths, and an adjustment of 0.002″-0.003″ is no problem. I was doing it without thinking, the first time I used the DRO.
It turns out Wixey makes a DRO for my router lift. Gee, do you think that might be better than making crappy “gauges” out of scrap and counting turns on the router lift crank? It just might.
Mike will be in town tonight. I must prepare to grapple with my appetite. He’s in the mood for Cuban food. This is very bad.
Board I made from garbage pile mahogany:
It is now dead flat.
April 15th, 2009 at 11:01 AM
What’s wrong with the saw fence?
You took a great deal of trouble to fit the router table inside the saw rails. Won’t the saw fence fit over that area, too? If it’s too hard to lift off, drop the saw blade down below the surface and move the fence over next to the router.
Regards,
Ric
April 15th, 2009 at 11:06 AM
A router fence has to have a cavity for the bit. My table saw fence has no such cavity, and cutting one would require a plasma cutter. I’m not up for that.
.
Still, maybe I could buy a second Biesemeyer fence and alter it.
April 15th, 2009 at 11:21 AM
I think your idea may save me a lot of money. I can’t find a router attachment, and I don’t want to spring for a new fence, but I should be able to make a wooden attachment that clamps to the existing fence and has a suitable cavity. Thanks.
April 15th, 2009 at 12:20 PM
What type of dust collection do you have on the saw, and can it be modified to work with your router using the saw fence idea above? One connection for both tools would be convenient.
April 15th, 2009 at 3:26 PM
I have a split router fence that I have “attached” to the table saw fence with a box. The box is made of MDF and is a friction fit over the TS fence. When I’m done with it, it just lifts off of the saw and I stow it away. This allows me to use the Wixey on the saw fence for the router fence, also. The router fence is made by Woodhaven, and comes with brackets for just such an application, but with a little thought, I imagine a similar arrangement could be cobbled together with just about any router fence.
April 15th, 2009 at 7:01 PM
That is a beautiful mahogany board now. Great job!