RogerS
Established Member
I needed to cut some neat rectangles in two sides of a longcase clock hood made from mahogany. While there are lots of different ways to achieve this I thought I'd use my Trend Vari-Jig that has remained unused for at least a couple of years!
For those not familiar with it, more details can be found here.
The video on the Trend website shows them cutting out a large rectangle and it all looks quite dandy. However, when you want to cut a smaller rectangle then things start to look decidedly more awkward!
That's nearly a 5 ft x 5 ft piece of bench space you are looking at there. All those long bits sticking out and guaranteed to get snagged and thus moved out of alignment!
We also have the question of securely holding down the workpiece and the Vari-Jig sufficiently well that neither will move while we do the routing. But if you have too large a router base then you run the risk of hitting any clamps as you rout round the cutout. True, you can buy these from Trend but when in use they are going to sit underneath the workpiece (at least they will in my case) and hence raise it up in the air making it potentially unstable.
I thought about using double-sided tape to keep the jig fixed to the workpiece but trying out a sample on a test piece of mahogany left a nasty sticky mess. Next idea was to use a glue gun but after trialling it, mahogany is just too soft and as you removed the glue afterwards, the mahogany tore out.
Two other considerations need to be borne in mind. The first is supporting the router as it goes round the edge. Trend do supply a block that is the same thickness as the jig and is designed to screw to the router base but it is so large that it gets in the way. I have a Trend Combination Jig that will do the job nicely but the extra depth of this jig then means that the spigot on the guide bush is not long enough to come out below the Combination Jig and engage with the Vari-Jig! I knew I could buy a guide bush with a deeper spigot from Trend but I needed something to work now.
So bit of head scratching and I came up with this to start with.
Sacrificial board underneath and one clamp firmly holding the jig to the workpiece and sacrificial piece. Second clamp holding that lot to the bench. So glad I made a good overhang on my assembly bench.
At the other end, a piece of scrap same thickness as the workpiece provided a good edge to stop the workpiece rotating and the clamp was just far enough away to let the router go round the profile OK.
Still need some way of supporting the router as it goes round and a flash of inspiration later I came up with this simple idea.
That bit in the middle is going to get cutout so I can use anything to stick that block to the workpiece.
Et voila
and that is when the Trend T5 packed up :evil:
For those not familiar with it, more details can be found here.
The video on the Trend website shows them cutting out a large rectangle and it all looks quite dandy. However, when you want to cut a smaller rectangle then things start to look decidedly more awkward!
That's nearly a 5 ft x 5 ft piece of bench space you are looking at there. All those long bits sticking out and guaranteed to get snagged and thus moved out of alignment!
We also have the question of securely holding down the workpiece and the Vari-Jig sufficiently well that neither will move while we do the routing. But if you have too large a router base then you run the risk of hitting any clamps as you rout round the cutout. True, you can buy these from Trend but when in use they are going to sit underneath the workpiece (at least they will in my case) and hence raise it up in the air making it potentially unstable.
I thought about using double-sided tape to keep the jig fixed to the workpiece but trying out a sample on a test piece of mahogany left a nasty sticky mess. Next idea was to use a glue gun but after trialling it, mahogany is just too soft and as you removed the glue afterwards, the mahogany tore out.
Two other considerations need to be borne in mind. The first is supporting the router as it goes round the edge. Trend do supply a block that is the same thickness as the jig and is designed to screw to the router base but it is so large that it gets in the way. I have a Trend Combination Jig that will do the job nicely but the extra depth of this jig then means that the spigot on the guide bush is not long enough to come out below the Combination Jig and engage with the Vari-Jig! I knew I could buy a guide bush with a deeper spigot from Trend but I needed something to work now.
So bit of head scratching and I came up with this to start with.
Sacrificial board underneath and one clamp firmly holding the jig to the workpiece and sacrificial piece. Second clamp holding that lot to the bench. So glad I made a good overhang on my assembly bench.
At the other end, a piece of scrap same thickness as the workpiece provided a good edge to stop the workpiece rotating and the clamp was just far enough away to let the router go round the profile OK.
Still need some way of supporting the router as it goes round and a flash of inspiration later I came up with this simple idea.
That bit in the middle is going to get cutout so I can use anything to stick that block to the workpiece.
Et voila
and that is when the Trend T5 packed up :evil:
