Where to place the safety Guide Pin…

Well today’s question is about the position of the safety Guide Pin. There is really no correct answer to the position of the safety guide pin but it should be to the left and behind the router bit. See the position sketch.

Also remember to not shape pieces that are smaller than the distance from the edge of the safety pin and the pilot bearing on the router bit. You don’t want to get the piece trapped between the router bit and the safety guide pin. This will shoot the trapped piece towards you the operator at a very high speed. One other warning is that you can’t use the safety guide pin with router bits that don’t have a pilot bearing.

Anyways that’s it for today’s post…Rick

Today we are trying something new, it is computer generated voice over.

http://www.routerworkshop.net/freecontents/safety_guide_pin_position.flv

How to control width of the dado…

Question from Peter,

Hi Rick and Bob,

I just viewed episode 209 regarding the dado cuts in plywood.  You mentioned about the size being ~19mm instead of the typical 3/4″.  How do you compensate for that, particularly since the bits are 3/4?  I have been using a table saw with an adjustable dado just because of that.

Answer to the question:

In episode 401 we show how to compensate for the different size of material in relation to the size of the router bit. In this case we have material that is 1 – 1/4″ thick and we are using a 1″ router bit to create the dado joint. You will need an offset block 1/4″ thick X the length of your table fence.

Step one: Mark the dado positions on the piece that is going to get the dado cuts.

Step Two: Using the 1/4″ offset block on your fence set the first cut on the closest edge of the dado set up. See the sketch of the first cut.

Step Three: make the first cut, remove the offset block and make the next cut and there you have one cut 1″ wide and the second cut 1/4″ wide.

See the photo of sketch number two showing the final cut to match the width of the dado with the thickness of the material. In our case a 1-1/4″ dado. This makes the total width of the cut for the dado match the thickness of the shelves…For more detail on this operation watch Episode 401.

Question about a new wood…

Has anybody uses Robusta?

Here is the answer from the wood expert Keith Stephens…

John, I would be pleased to comment on the wood but we need to sort out what it is.  Robusta is species name associated with several trees.  Grevillea robusta, Australian Silky Oak, would be a likely candidate.  Here is our information page:

Here is John’s problem:

OK John, Maybe someone out there can shed some light on the characteristics of the wood you are using. In the mean time I have a few suggestions as shown below:

The feed rate and the width of the pieces,

The feed speed is one of the most important part of making cuts with the router. I would suggest two things 1) increase the width of your pieces to match 2 X 4 or 8 inches. Then when you have the joint on the ends you can cut the pieces apart to match the desired 4″ width.  To prevent the burning you need to experiment with the speed of the feed past the router bit. This is a practice thing

Next the spiral bit…

The problem with the router bit pulling the piece out of your hand is one of the evil trates of the spiral bit. This will always be there and can happen with about ever kind of wood. Once you realize the trates of the spiral bit you will know how to hold it into position.

More history with Dad’s router tools…

Well as I am cleaning up the shop we are finding more history. Today I found the two router bits he had in 1951 its the round over bit and the cove bit. Sorry I can’t find the straight bit but hey that has been over 59 years ago…Here are the two router bits. If you notice the round over bit has been modified into a Roman Ogee bit. All modifications were done on the grinder by hand. Not sure if they even had a Roman Ogee at that time. We will have to check with Dad on a later post…

I have also included a fixture that I think come with the router. Not sure because Dad’s not here to explain the fixture’s history. Can anyone tell what operations the fixture was designed to do?

Dad’s Router Table in 1951…

Well we have been doing some spring cleaning and I come across Dad’s first router table built in 1951. The only router at the time was a Stanley 1/3 hp and high speed router bits with a solid pilot that run at the speed of the router. He had a round over bit, a cove bit and a 1/2″ straight bit.

The reason he made the table was because on a job outside in a small town was to trim out the local post office. The whole town was upset with him because he got the job over the local talent. Hey. he couldn’t even get a cup of coffee.

He brought all that he needed to finish the job but was short a 4 foot piece of 1/4 round. The local lumber yard was like the rest of the town and wouldn’t supply the needed molding so he made this router table out of some scraps and made the needed molding. That was in 1951, just thought you might be interested in how far we have come with the uses of the router. This is where the relationship between the most versatile power tool and Dad started.

A Great Deal on the Router Workshop Video…

This post is not about a router tip as per say but is a great offer on the entire TRW video series. If you have been thinking about getting signed up to the video membership and getting involved by watching the videos online then this deal might be for you.

We are offering the High Res Video on a 32 Gig USB stick to learn more please click the following link.

Building a blanket chest without a detailed plan or drawing…

Welcome to our design and project construction processes. As an example we are going to use the Blanket Chest and go through our construction process. To start let’s look at the already created Blanket Chest.

Project Components:

Looking at the photo of this blanket chest we first want to break down the construction components. 1) the blanket chest top, 2) the blanket chest raised panel body and assembly joinery, 3) the blanket chest molded base and 4) the blanket chest top molding.

Construction Details:

From each of these components we want to create the construction detail napkin sketches. So what is a construction detail napkin sketch? It is a quick drawing showing the construction details of the important specific area(s) of the project. Below are the napkin sketches that create the detailed construction elements for the Blanket Chest on the TV show…These are also used to create and understand the mechanics of sizing the parts in the material list to your new project.

Please Note:

These detail sketches are built around the joinery that YOU know how to make, if you only know about the butt joint then the project will be built around the butt joint. In my opinion, the butt joint is the easiest to make but the hardest to assemble. It is very difficult to match all the exposed surfaces of the butt joint.

The importance of the rabbet joint:

With the rabbet joint as an example, it is easy to match the ajoining surfaces because you just need to be sure the matching pieces fit tightly into the rabbet. Anytime you need to add a molding or a base piece use the rabbet joint to position the placement.

Joinery Tip:

If you only know that one joint maybe you should try to add a few more wood joints to your list of how to build joinery before trying to build some of the bigger furniture. Some of the suggested wood joints that you should try to master are the following: a) the box joint, b) the rabbet dado joint, c) the miter joint, d) the rabbet joint, e) the dado and groove joint and f) the linear dovetail joint. Also remember that knowing how to make the joinery is just one component of knowing the wood joint. You also need to understand how to make the parts list built around the mechanics of the chosen wood joints.

Making Boxes Symmetrical:

Next we want to look at the symmetric elements of the project. This project has the front view, (which is the main view) top view and the right side view. You can quickly sketch each of these views used to help you through the look of the blanket chest.

We have the three overall measurements of the blanket chest: the width, the length and the height. The symmetric element of this project is based upon the overall length of the blanket chest. This is the main dimension is used to determine each of the other measurements. These measurements are based upon a percentage of the length.

We use a simple formula to keep our box construction projects symmetrical, the length, which is 100%, the height is 45% of the length and the width is 50% of the length. So this means you can create a blanket chest of any size as long as you follow the percentages concept shown above.

Here is an example: Length of my Blanket Chest is 36 inches so the width of the blanket chest is 18 inches and the height of the chest is 16.2 inches.

Using Pro-Door to Create the Parts List:

Simple way to determine the size of the blanket chest panels. The PRO-Door software can be used to produce the panels of the blanket chest easily. This software will create the materials list that you can use to make the raised panel sides.

To get your copy of our Pro-Door Software click on the Buy Now Button below.

A recap look at the assembly joinery:

Using the rabbet/dado joint to join these pieces together means you need to trim 3/8″ off the side styles. This is done to compensate for the added 3/4″ thickness of the styles for the front and back panels.

Plus Please Note:

The series of critical measurement when producing the rabbet dado joint: 1) Is the height of cutter that creates the depth of the joinery going into the front and back styles. 2) The thickness of the panel pieces must be twice the thickness of the spacer fence, we are using the 3/8″ spacer fence. In this case the thickness of the panel border pieces need to be 3/4″. That’s it the blanket Chest built without the measured drawing…

Here is an assignment:

Go to your local furniture shop with your digital camera and find a piece of furniture that you would like to build. Use your camera to take the photos of the construction details. Once you have these details create you own project plans using napkin drawings based upon your series of photos.

Remember to first ask the owners if they would mind you taking a few photos of the certain furniture. Explain that the photos are to be used as reference photos.