Routing a groove without a fence

[Wend]

Hi all,

I've had a router table for a while now, but not got around to doing much with it, so I had a go at doing something with it yesterday. Unfortunately it was without much success, so I ended up using chisels and a hammer instead, but I'd like to understand what I should have done to increase my versatility in the future.

Imagine you have a piece of wood 5 x 5 x 50cm, and you want to cut a groove across the middle of one face of it (in the short direction, so the groove is 5cm long). My table isn't that deep, so there's no way to use the fence for it. I tried just using the mitre gauge, and holding the wood against it, but I think that as it made contact the bit pulled the wood towards the right - which I guess is exactly what you would expect would happen.

So what should I have done instead? I did wonder if I should have clamped the wood to the mitre fence, to stop it moving, but I wasn't sure if that would be wise - in particular, I didn't know what would happen in that scenario if there was kickback.

The only other thing I could imagine is some sort of jig, riding in the mitre slot, and providing a fence off the end of the table. To get something sturdy with only a single mitre slot seems like it would need a lot of engineering, though.

Any advice please?

Thanks!

 

[sunnybob]

clamp it to the sliding mitre fence, put a piece of scrap wood between the wood and the fence to stop tear out as the bit exits the wood.

Providing you are standing in front of the table and feeding the wood from right to left, its completely safe.
Router tables are brilliant, not much you cant do with one.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

A saw and a chisel - it isn't worth the time taken to machine it.

 

[YorkshireMartin]

How deep is the groove you're trying to cut? Making multiple passes may help. Clamp a piece of scrap wood to the mitre fence as a stop block to ensure you hit the same spot on your workpiece each time.

If you chisel it, hand pressure should be enough assuming your chisels are sharp. My mallet only comes out very rarely.

The best hand tool for this would be a router plane. They are extremely handy to have and if you only wanted to make one or two of these cuts, it would save you having to disassemble your router table. But you pays your money you takes your choice.

 

[sunnybob]

A saw and a chisel - it isn't worth the time taken to machine it.

It is when you see what a pigs ear I can make of chiseling wood.
Router tables RULE!

 

[MikeG.]

Wrong tool for that job, unless you are making dozens of them and can justify setting up fences, jigs etc. Frankly, by the time you've even got the router set to the correct depth, I've finished the job with a saw and a chisel.

Incidentally, using the router out of the table for this job can be very useful, particularly if the trench/ groove occurs in a gnarly/ knotty part of the timber. With a straight cutter, set the depth stop and simply plunge free-hand, repeatedly, carefully , at each edge, nibbling away across the width of the groove. This will give you a reference for really accurate chiseling without an awful lot of skill required.

 

[Wend]

A saw and a chisel - it isn't worth the time taken to machine it.

Absolutely, in this case, but the idea was to take the opportunity to get some experience using the router.

 

[Wend]

clamp it to the sliding mitre fence, put a piece of scrap wood between the wood and the fence to stop tear out as the bit exits the wood.

Providing you are standing in front of the table and feeding the wood from right to left, its completely safe.

Aha, great; thanks!

 

[RossJarvis]

Hiya Wend
I'm probably not going to be too helpful as I don't use a router table, I use the router by holding it by hand as I don't have a fixed workshop. As some of the other guys have said there are other ways of doing this, in fact there are often several different ways of doing the same thing. Some might be easier for some people, but it 's not really a case of wrong or right. If I understand what it is you're trying to do, it might be easier not do it on the router table. It sounds like you're trying to cut a "slot" across a long piece of square wood?

The first thing I'd do is draw it on the piece of wood, using a sharp pencil and a "square". I'd also measure it in mm not cm as that's how many of us have been taught. (5cm is 50mm etc).

For a one off I'd cut along the lines to the wanted depth and chisel out the "waste" (bits you don't want). If you're not happy with this another way would be to put the router on the workpiece (bit of wood) and measure from the edge of the base to the edge of the cutter. You could then clamp a spare bit of wood across the wood you want to cut, using it like a fence and cut out the slot.

Hope you find a way t

 

[dickm]

+1 for what Ross says about clamping a piece of straight wood across the board. And if you want to be "belt and braces", clamp another piece across the board spaced the width of the router base from the first. Then the beast can't wander.