Popular Woodworking 2008-11 № 172, страница 21

Improve your router

l'm a power-tool woodworker. Sure 1 use hand tools for some parts of furniture building, specifically when cutting dovetails. But I doubt you'll evercaich me with a Bridge City Tool Works VP-60, Veritas router plane or a Lie-Nielsen shoulder plane if I'm trying to complete a project quickly. It's just not my thing. The jobs completed with those tools. I accomplish with my router and a router jig.

The next time you venture into yourshop to work on a project, take a survey of what's stacked around your shop. I'll bet you have the material to create a boatload of simple, useful jigs that, when combined with your rouier, will increase your woodworking abilities. The routingtechniquesshown in ihisariicle are a combination of the correct router bitsalong with dirt-simple jigs made from leftover pieces from other projects, such as scraps and plywood.

A Square-platform Jig

We all know you can guide your router by placing the router's base against an edge to make a straight cut, bui who wants to calculate the offset of the base each t ime you go to use it or st ruggle wit h clamping requirements? If you use my favorite router jig along with a pattern bit, you have a setup that isa mult i-tasker and is as easy as can be to position for accuracy.

That jig 1 call a square -platform jig. To make the jig, start with two pieces of plywood cut to the same size. Attach the two with glue and a few brads (keep the brads away from the edges), then add a third piece to ihe front edge toacl as a lip-similar to a bench hook-and the jig is ready for work. The key is to keep the edges of the jigstraight and square with that third piece, which I call a catch rail.

This jig is best when used for cutting dados for shelves or for crcat i ng a dovetailed socket for drawer dividers. Due 10 its usefulness, 1 have more than a few of these jigs in my shop made in different sizes and thicknesses for different techniques and for use with different router bits, but my favorite setup isa 1"-thick jig (two pieces of plywood). This thickness is perfect for working with a % "-diameter, top-mount bearing rouier bit with a 1" cutting length.

The greatest thingabout thisjigis the ease ofclamping. No longer is it necessary to use more than a single clamp. One clamp holds the jig to the workpiece and does not allow any movement of the jig. When a clamp is positioned at the lower left-hand corner of the jig as shown in ihe photo below, the jig cannot move away from the workpiece due to the clamp. And the jig cannot slip to the left because the front piece acts asa catch. As long as the clamp is secure, no amount

techniques with simple, shop-made jigs that are easy to use and just as simple to build.

Keep it square. The key to this jig is to keep the edges perfectly square with the catch rail that is attached to the bottom face of the jig. Clue and brads are the joining force.

Quick and secure. I he design of the platform jig allows a single clamp to hold the jig in place. This allows the jig to move to the next layout line quickly. Once the clamp is tight, it's all but impossible to slide the jig in either direction.

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