68 - Our All-New Router Jig, страница 18

ROUTER PLATE «

BACK

WIDTH OF CARRIAGE

Carriage

<D FRONT

OVERVIEW

(8) LEVER ARM

SIDE

NOTE: ALL

PIECES ARE PLYWOOD

LEVER ARM BLOCK

; i ⁵Ae" FENDER 5/16" LOCK : WASHER NUT \

LEVER ARM BLOCK

BOTTOM

12" FULL-EXTENSION DRAWER SLIDE

STEEL

BASE

⁵/ie" CARRIAGE BOLT, 2Vz" LONG

The sliding table and tapered bed work together to hold the work-piece that is being mortised. But to hold the router, you need to build a carriage. This carriage is really nothing more than an open box that travels back and forth on drawer slides. The carriage doesn't exactly hold the router. Instead, the router is mounted to a router plate which fits into the carriage. (See page 35 for more information on the router plate I used.)

To build the carriage, I started by cutting a front (I), back (J), and two sides (K) to size from ³A^U plywood. The side pieces start off as 12" square blanks. But when it comes to cutting the front and back, you'll need to size these pieces W wider

than the width of your router plate. (The plate I used is ll³/*" wide.)

The front and back are joined to the sides with tongue and groove joints. So the next step is to cut grooves near the edges of the sides and tongues on the ends of the front and back pieces to fit (Figures 11, 11a, and lib).

Next you'll need to cut a clearance slot in the front piece to allow

you to slide the router in and out of the mortising machine without having to remove the router bit.

The left side of the carriage also has a slot cut in it. This slot is for a steel rod that is part of the lever arm assembly that will be added later.

Finally, you'll need to drill a ⁵/W'-dia. hole and cut a V8"-wide kerf along the inside face of each side piece. These are for some clamp

Lever Arm. The

carriage travels on a pair of drawer slides. A lever arm is used to move the carriage forward or backward.

m

a.

TOP VIEW

I

si l l

3"

W - %"

BOTTOM

FIGURE

#& x 1¹/a" Fh WOODSCREW

18

ShopNotes

No. 68