Woodworker's Journal 2004-28-6, страница 52

With the inner bed lowered — here it's tilted — and covered with an MDF, the mill can be used to plane stock, cut profiles or rout flutes.

The distance the router moves per spindle rotation is controlled by the drive gear. Use the sizing diagram on the headstock to select from the seven drive gears supplied with the basic mill package.

Shaped turnings, such as this double-bobbin chair leg, are formed with the help of a template (on the far left) and the mill's template follower (mounted under the red plate over the template). Use a straight bit set to cut along the side of the blank.

headstock is higher or lower than the tailstock. To turn a fat column or post, you drop the bed. To taper a blank, you tilt the bed. Pretty basic, pretty simple.

It's all those gears and rods and cranks that make the Legacy look complex. Their main collective function is to move the carrier (in a controlled way) as the spindle rotates.

Individual parts do other jobs. Some examples: You can mount a crank directly on the headstock lo rotate the spindle. You am tighten stops on a threaded rod to lock the carrier in a specific position. You can use the index gear and the headstock's indexing pin to cut evenly spaced flutes.

To make a simple turning, mount the blank between the headstock and tailstock. Install a bottom cleaning bit in the router. Mount a crank on the spindle shaft. As you crank the spindle, push the carrier along the spindle axis. Chips fly. After a few passes, with the bit cutting progressively deeper, you'll have a round, smooth cylinder.

Rest assured that it's a lot easier to do than it is to describe.

To cut a profile around the spindle, you lock the carrier in position. Set up the router with the appropriate bit, plunge it to the desired depth, and back the carrier off-center, so the bit is clear of the spindle. Turn on the router, start cranking the spindle, and bring the spinning bit into the

workpiece. Keep crankin' that spindle. Then back off the carrier lo move the bit out of the cut.

There's no freehand. There's no fluid, lel's-just-see-what-develops kind of creativity involved, as there is with spindle-turning on a lathe. Thai's both a blessing and a curse, I think. Your turnings must be mapped out on paper, so you can select the bits, locate the centers of cuts, and so on. If the spindle is to have curvature (other than balls and rings formed by a pass with a router bit), a template must be laid out and cut.

One benefit is that you can reproduce a complex turning exactly.

Oh, and did 1 mention that you can do spiral turnings? Turned spirals, also known as rope, twist, screw and barley-sugar turnings, traditionally are hand-carved. A master carver can invest hours and hours into these flamboyant works. 'Hie Ixgacy literally can turn them out in minutes.

To do them, you select and install the appropriate drive gear. Set up the router, and position and lock the router carrier onto the X-axis shaft. Bring the bit inlo the cut and start cranking. As the spindle rotates, the carrier moves along the bed, and the cut winds around the spindle.

You can mount any router on the Legacy, though a plunge router is the obvious choice. The Legacy folks favor the biggest Porter-Cable plunger, not least because il accommodates the RC Eliminator

chuck. This replacement collet assembly allows you to open and close the collet with an Allen wrench.

Surrender or Fight?

Is the FMT worth the big (about 800) bucks? How about the WoodRat? Or a Legacy mill?

That dei:>ends upon how deep your pockets are, and how badly you want to do the sorts of work these machines are designed for. All are well designed, and well-made. Supix>rt from the manufacturers is good; when you call for help, you get an experienced user of the contraption to help you solve your problem.

'Hie Legacy is the only one of these rout-a-zillas that does unique work — those spiral turnings. But il is versatile and stretches your imagination.

The FMT does only one job, and it does it extremely well. But there are other ways to do that job. You have to decide whether you'll use mortises and tenons enough to make the FMT a good buy.

The WoodRat does few things that can't be done in other ways. Initially, the approaches seem contrary. Bui with practice, you can master the WoodRat, and il grows on you. It's actually the least costly of these rout-a-zillas.

Bill Hylton is a regular contributor to the Journal and author of Woodworking with the Rouler/raw Readers Digest.

Woodworker's Journal Decernber 2004

89