Can anyone tell me about this?

[Knot Competent]

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I know this is made with a router, using a particular bit, but can anyone tell me what it's called please?

 

[philip]

It looks like the joints have been done with a bird mouth router bit

 

[Steve Maskery]

I don't think so. The end of one piece looks square, so I think the workpiece was simply presented 30 deg in the air to a straight bit

 

[Knot Competent]

The maker said he used a special router bit, Steve. But that's all he said, unfortunately.

 

[pcb1962]

The maker said he used a special router bit, Steve. But that's all he said, unfortunately.

No reason it couldn't be made with a simple straight bit by presenting the workpiece at an appropriate angle, but as others have said I think the maker was talking about one of these: http://www.leevalley.com/us/wood/page.a ... 6168,46174

 

[Knot Competent]

Yes, that looks like fun, but the bits are expensive, so I'd better think of a real benefit before I bought one of them!

 

[mseries]

as often the case with routing it's possible to get special bits that make it easier to get it right sooner and it's possible to make jigs to employ more commonly available bits to do the same job. For a one off, I'd enjoy the challenge of making the right jigs and using what I already have. Once the jig is done reproducing the joints will be straightforward.

 

[pcb1962]

And in this case, the advantage of doing-it-yourself is that by changing the angle of the workpiece you can change the number of sides of the finished object, whereas the expensive purpose made cutters are restricted to a fixed angle

 

[mseries]

And in this case, the advantage of doing-it-yourself is that by changing the angle of the workpiece you can change the number of sides of the finished object, whereas the expensive purpose made cutters are restricted to a fixed angle

Indeed, I'd probably make the jig adjustable for fine tuning anyway, so the same one could be used for pentagons, hexagons etc.