Angled groove with a hand held router

[IanB]

Hi,
I'd like to use my hand held 1/4 inch router to cut an angled groove, and am thinking of doing so by making a wedge shaped base at the appropriate angle to screw to the router base. Is this safe or am I doing something stupid? (I don't have a router table and using a table saw isn't an option.) Any advice would be appreciated!
Ian

 

[Ollie78]

Should work fine. Depending on the angle and bit you might run out of projection.
Make the wedge or sub base nice and big for balance and control.
My old Makita 700 trim router actually came with an adustable angle base, maybe yours has an available accessory?

Ollie

 

[IanB]

Should work fine. Depending on the angle and bit you might run out of projection.
Make the wedge or sub base nice and big for balance and control.
My old Makita 700 trim router actually came with an adustable angle base, maybe yours has an available accessory?

Ollie

OK, that's good to know, thanks!

 

[marcros]

Either an angled base or a way to hold the workpiece at an angle.

You could make a router table- it doesn't need to be anything more than the router fixed to a piece of wood with a hole in and a fence screwed to it.

 

[IanB]

Either an angled base or a way to hold the workpiece at an angle.

You could make a router table- it doesn't need to be anything more than the router fixed to a piece of wood with a hole in and a fence screwed to it.

OK thanks!

 

[JobandKnock]

Go mad, buy one of these:

Which can do this:

Virutex FR317D. About £1200 these days

 

[JobandKnock]

That was a bit tongue in cheek, but some trim routers, such as the Makita RT0700 and DRT50 (cordless) as well as the low cost Katsu clones (from AIM Tools in London) offer a tilting base. They also cost a lot less than the Virutex:

These were originally designed for laminate trimming, but could easily take a modified sub base. There is at least on vendor on eBay offering a sub base for the tilt base which uses the Makita/Festool/Triton type guide rails as a straight line guide

 

[TRITON]

The small makita RTO700 has a base for angled cuts. To allow 45deg etc with a straight cutter, or any angle .
That said.
The makita base cannot be compared with the Virutex base, two entirely different bases in that the makita one is small and flimsy compared the virutex base which is specced for angles, the same was a bit 1/2er is specced on a plunge base. Big, heavy alloy construction.

Alternatively, just replacing the base with something wedge shaped would give you the angle/cut you require, and puts me in mind of a vid on YT, using a compass arm on the end of an angled base to create sweeping arcs across a board.
I'll see if i can find it.....nips off...

Nope, cant find it for now, ill look again but its pretty much as described above. Long batten as in a circle jig, but the end is an angled base the router sits on. You arent cutting a complete circle, just a segment. Complete cut, then shorted jig, make another sweep, then shorten again and so on and so forth till you have a line of curves

 

[Ollie78]

That's the makita one I had, pretty handy.

I could do with one of those virtuex things, is it for doing aquamac in existing door frames?

Ollie

 

[JobandKnock]

The Virutex router I posted on earlier is really for solid surface work, doing stuff like radiused internal cornerson upstands, etc. For window seals there is a different router. Virutex have the RA17VG but I believe there are others out there:

They are pricey, at around £500, but the other ones I've seen in use were by Striffler (a defunct firm)

BTW I don't work for Virutex, or Ney (UK distributor)

 

[TRITON]

These specialist machines only really have a home in a production workshop. Too expensive to live on a shelf for one time use a year. Unless you make the specific item they are designed for, they're a waste of money,no matter how accurate they are.

 

[JobandKnock]

Which Is precisely why I suggested the Makita RT0700 or the far cheaper clone of it by AIM Tools, the Katsu. I have both the Mak and the Katsu (in corded and cordless as I sometimes need two trim routers on a job), the Katsu is perfectly good for home use and mine have with withstood several years of light trade use.

I agree that the Virutex RA17 is a trade tool, but no apologies in showing it because someone out there could clearly make a similar nosing/sub base based on its' design to convert a Katsu with tilting base into a weatherseal groove router at low cost if they were doing, say, just one house

BTW the weatherstrip router is more of an post fit (i.e. site) tool. Weather seals on new windows goes into grooves machined on the spindle moulder or 4-sider as a rule