How to measure the router base

[sometimewoodworker]

I am looking to buy or make a router table but I have no idea what I am supposed to be measuring.
Please, Please can anyone help.

Thanks

Hi Anaria

There are a few places for information that haven't been mentioned yet.

For more router information than you can shake a stick at there is http://www.routerforums.com/ they are a bit US centric but nice people and helpful

A link that is even more specific is http://www.routerforums.com/table-mounted-routing/17212-wanted-pictures-your-table.html that thread has 171 posts and a wide selection of tables.

A favoured design is the Bob and Rick version from http://www.routerworkshop.com They are sponsers of the Routerforums but the forums are independent. You can't buy the Bob and Rick table as they sell only in North America bit it is very simple to build yourself.

A superb place to see some of the RouterWorkshop videos is http://www.woodworkingchannel.com/dolphin/vidego_video_library.php

You will see that a table with lots of bells and whistles is not essential and a fence that is a simple length of wood with 2 G clamps will work for many jobs you want to do on a router table.

 

[Smudger]

Oi! Some of us DO give a monkey's!

But mostly about soft fruit, expensive planes and inexplicable cookery posts...

 

[Benchwayze]

Welcome to the Forum Anaria.

I take it you are routing a housing/groove for the truss rod.

I'd be tempted to do this before any shaping or tapering of the stock.
Also I wouldn't use a router table.

Use double-sided carpet tape and stick the timber down to a piece of 25mm MDF. Have the squared edge of the neck-piece overhanging enough to use as the reference and rout using the standard guide-fence that came with your router. Obviously you need the right sized cutter and that's the way that a router was intended to be used. Overhead.

It's safer than grooving over an inverted router, plus it doesn't allow dust to drop inside the router!
Much simpler and cheaper.

I know it will demand careful work afterwards to keep the groove central to the neck, but that's what building a guitar is all about. Careful work! :wink:

You might be interested in this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhkPU9zslQk

There are about half-dozen vids in this series. Nice guitars.

Regards
John

 

[Racers]

Hi, Anaria

Check these out on the woodwhisperer http://thewoodwhisperer.com/category/video/

And welcome to you, got any pictures of finished projects?

Pete

 

[sometimewoodworker]

Sounds like your suggestion with the workmate might work, at least for the time being.

for a workmate router table you should look at the Niki wild router table
https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/wild-router-table-t10671.html?highlight=router table

 

[Digit]

Hi Anaria. We don't do gender on here, we're just wood workers! :lol:
Welcome.

Roy.

 

[xy mosian]

Hi Anaria. We don't do gender on here, we're just wood workers! :lol:
Welcome.

Roy.

Just so!

Now then workmates as router table support structures. There will be a time when you will be happily routing away and the whole lot will tip.

Fasten the whole thing to the floor somehow. Shelf and heavy weights just about works, better if you can bolt it to the floor. Rawplug type fixing into the garage floor, for me, with the 6mm. bolt replaced with a length of 6mm. studding which passes through a ledge across the leg frame and has a suitable nut to tighten down.

For ease of use perhaps some clamping to your existing oak workbench.

Take care have fun.

xy

 

[Anaria]

Thanks guys ... all of this is giving me lots to think about. I appreciate the time you are taking.

 

[big soft moose]

FYI there are several females here.

and its not always easy to tell from the username - for example "Alf" is a laydeee and i'm not really a moose , nor am i particularly soft

to my knowledge no one here has ever suggested to alf that she'd be better off changing nappies - if they did chances are good they'd shortly be extracting a plane from their posterior orrifice.

This is an equal oportunity forum, i cant guarantee that you'll never be insulted - but then we insult tom (wizer - the slap headed back whinger) most days, but its all in good fun and people will also help with the woodwork - which puts us ahead of the B&Q staff who will insult your inteligence whilst also sharing a stagering array of duff info.

Back on topic your router is a half inch model which also has a collet insert for quarter inch bits - which is why its not fitting on a 155 table.

and whoever said it (lurker ?) is right that that table is worse than useless anyway.

Building your own table is easy - all you need is a bit of old worktop and a router plate ( Dibs is organising a group buy of steel or ali plate linky )

you then draw round the plate - hog out most of the material with a jigsaw, or by hand if you need the exercise, and rout a rim secure the router to the plate - which you'll need to have drilled for your router - unless you have the capacity to drill and tap it yourself, then drop it in - et voila one router table.

oh yeah - you also need to build some sort of frame to support the worktop, but thats obvious and i dont want to seem patronising (though you really shouldnt worry your pretty little head about that )

 

[Shadowfax]

Well, that started in an interesting fashion!
Welcome, Anaria.

A router table is a really useful thing to build yourself but if you really do not need it - keep the space for something else.
You can certainly do your guitar necks without a table and, possibly, with next to no fuss but it is your choice.
I don't think it is worth buying a router table because if you build your own you have every chance to give it whatever bells and whistles YOU want. No other method will do that for you.
Just bang a few bits of wood together as the guys have said and if the result is not entirely what you wanted just do it again but a bit differently!

If it does not work out quite the way you expected - just ask here.

Cheers,

SF

 

[sometimewoodworker]

There is YAHMRT (Yet Another Home Made Router Table)over on the FOG by jonny round boy he is a little north of you in West Yorkshire.
He said his took about 4 Hours and was free using bits from his scrap bin

I think you can make his for about 10 quid

http://festoolownersgroup.com/festo...ome-made-router-table/msg90504/?topicseen#new

 

[Anaria]

Well, there are lots of options for me to explore. I need to come up with something to hold the router so that I can run the neck blank over the cutter.

I prefer it that way instead of securing the material and running the router over the work. My preferred way allows me to adjust the angle of cut to give a slightly deeper channel at the body end than at the head end by simply packing the head end with shims.

Running the router over the material would necessitate making different angled guides to suit different angles.

You have all been very helpful. Thank you. I am sure I can come up with something now. I wonder if anyone would notice a whole appearing in the kitchen top? Nah, don't think the boys know where the kitchen is yet! LOL

 

[Steve Maskery]

Anaria
I think you are making this more difficult than it needs to be. If this is all you are going to use your router for, I can think of a much easier way to do it that will give you the ramp effect you need, will cost very little money and not take up very much space - certainly less than a router table.
I do a sketch for you later on.

Can you tell me please the dimensions of a guitar neck blank and what variation in dimensions you will have to accommodate?

S

 

[Anaria]

Hi Steve,

I am essentially trying to route a channel 10mm wide by around 10mm deep for around 360mm along the centre of the blank.

10mm wide is pretty fixed but the length and depth will vary slightly depending on the model and size of guitar I will be making. The 'ramp' will generally be between 2 and 3mm and this may need to be adjusted slightly for each guitar. This is just to provide clearance for the truss rod assembly and neck relief.

thanks

 

[Steve Maskery]

I meant, what size is the piece of wood you start with, and how much does that vary?

 

[lurker]

Nah, don't think the boys know where the kitchen is yet! LOL

I'll have you know most of us boys BUILT the bluddy kitchen :twisted:

And if you look at general chat you will find lots of us are cooking too.

I doubt my wife has ever scrubbed a pan in her life. My nappy changing days are well behind me though.

 

[would not]

I think you'll find making a jig to hold the wood and guide the router will be cheaper, better and take up less room than a router table. You could make a jig so the wood can be angled so you can vary the slot depth from one end to the other.

 

[Steve Maskery]

How about this?

Two pieces of good stiff 25mm birch ply. One has 8mm clearance holes in it, the other a pair of embedded nuts. Each is faced with sandpaper to prevent slippage.

Two long M8 Bristol levers join the two together.

To set your workpiece, lay the neck on your bench finger-side down and shim one end up by 2-3mm. Drop the jig over it and tighten up. When you turn it over, one end will be flush with the top, the other will be 2-3mm lower.

Clamp the whole lot in your vice.

Run your router along the top using the normal guide fence. Use two, one each side, if you can.

Make sure that the Bristol levers are low enough not to foul the travel of your fence.

Truss rod groove cut Right, First Time Every Time. (Provide your own sound effects).
S

 

[Anaria]

Nah, don't think the boys know where the kitchen is yet! LOL

I'll have you know most of us boys BUILT the bluddy kitchen :twisted:

And if you look at general chat you will find lots of us are cooking too.

I doubt my wife has ever scrubbed a pan in her life. My nappy changing days are well behind me though.

LOL ... not my boys Lurker. This is specific to MY BOYS

 

[Anaria]

How about this?

Truss rod groove cut Right, First Time Every Time. (Provide your own sound effects).
S

Ta-daaa!

Looks damned good to me Steve.

You're a star ... blood orange for xmas. Sh** I'm giving away my age now. My older kids are all grown with kids of their own and they don't know what a blood orange is!

I think you'll find making a jig to hold the wood and guide the router will be cheaper, better and take up less room

I think you might be right there would not. A gig it is ... make one that is not do one.