modest priced router guide clamps or home made

[micks]

hi all been looking to purchase a router guide clamp to make things a bit easier when routing.

these seem to come in various varities trend/axminster/ and prices is there a modest clamp guide that works ok .

or do people just use a home made tee square or guide battern.

if i just wish to rout a slot in a piece of stock say 6" wide for example.

thank you

 

[mailee]

I have a few of them and find them very handy. I have the Dakota ones from Rutlands and the el cheapo ones from E-bay and both work well. My personal preference are the Dakota ones as the clamping is better being more like the Trend ones where the handle pushes down. on the cheapo ones the handle pushes to the side and can move it off line if you are not careful. Hope this helps. :wink:

 

[SketchUp Guru]

I have used various guide clamps in the past. My grandfather had a collection of alu bar stock he used as guides for his router and circular saw. He also had a bunch of little set up blocks for aligning the bars.

I prefer the home made jig made of a piece of thin ply or hardboard with a straight batten screwed to it. After assembly, you run the router along the batten and trim the edge of the ply. That edge now gives you the alignment guide. Just push it up to your marks and clamp it down.

It also gives the router something to slide on instead of the face of the work. Less likely to mar the work.

If you start with a wide enough piece of ply, you can cut one side with a circular saw and the other with your router to make a double duty guide.

A few years ago a neighbor was putting an addition on the back of his house. He needed to cut a straight edge on the floor through the vinyl flooring and subfloor plywood--there'd been water damage and rot and he needed to get back to good wood. He didn't want to screw a guide to the floor and asked if I had any ideas. I made a jig as I described above but left the off side wide enough for three of his buddies to stand on while the neighbor made the cut. I made it 8' long which was enough in this case. We didn't tell his buddies they'd been demoted to hold-downs.

 

[wizer]

hmm i've been struggling with a cheap screwfix guide clamp (which isn't long enough) when sheeting my workshop, didn't dawn on me I could make one myself. Cheers Dave, All I have to do now is get a sheet of 8x4 hard board. :-k

 

[Paul Chapman]

I used to faff about with various home-made straight edges but found them unsatisfactory and not always easy to clamp. I now use three Trend guide clamps of different lengths. They are a bit expensive but have saved me so much time they were worth it. They work even better if you make a large square sub-base for your router or circular saw so that it gives a nice, firm bearing against the clamp as the tool starts and leaves the work. If you use MDF, Tufnol or other suitable material for this it also avoids the metal base of the tool rubbing against the metal guide clamp :wink:

Paul

 

[micks]

thanks all have ordered dakota clamp from rutlands 36" is 16.95 +the dreaded postage comes in at £22.95 which is cheaper than the trend vertion.

dave r i must be a bit thick today, trying to visualise battern +plywood guide,

i am assuming plywood sits on workpiece (face down) with battern ,uppermost , clamp plywood, router runs along the battern??

which is certainly a nice cheap alternative,

thank you

 

[SketchUp Guru]

Micks, here's a quickie sketch of what I mean. You make the dimension X slightly wider than the space between the edge of the saw base and the blade. Then, after assembling, you run the saw along the edge to cut it to dimension. You can do the same for your router on the opposite side. The side that's not being used to guide the tool is used to clamp the guide in place.

Set up is a snap because you lay the edge of the ply along the line of the cut.

My circular saw has something like 4 13/32" between the edge of the shoe and the blade. It's a PIA to set up a guide 4 13/32" to the side of the cut line! With the jig I describe you don't need to even know how far it is from the cutter/blade to the edge of the tool.

 

[wizer]

lol you beat me to it dave, i'll post my pic anyway, but Dave does it better

 

[George_N]

When using my circular saw guide, like the ones described by Dave R and WiZeR, I use a 1 m steel rule and one of these rule stops for making repeat measurements when laying out cuts. If you try and work from the factory edge (should be straight and square) it makes cutting straight, square components quick and easy.

 

[Niki]

What Dave R and WiZeR said but I made it with Floor panels.

niki

 

[woodman]

Silverline do a good quality range from about £7 often available at places like Poundstechers and of course Ebay.
Be sure to place clamp to far end so it does not foul router plate if cutting whole length.

 

[micks]

thanks all for pics get the idea now.