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| My first router experience! |
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| tritonarcade:
;DI'm a happy man, folks. Today I used a router for the first time and I didn't kill myself. I did F* up though. Everything worked as expected, I was using a template straight bit and tried to cut a piece of wood to the shape of another (square) piece. My problem was the wood slipped during the job and I ended up with an angled cut. Obviously I could use more clamps - this time I had used 3 and I didn't try to clamp them down with all of my God-given power (not to be trifled with BTW :P). Any other tips for keeping the template board and the board to be cut together? Also, in order to make the cut I had to pull my bit out somewhat out of the chuck, maybe 1/4". The manual does not say anything about this practice. Am I inviting severe harm upon myself by doing this? And yes, the whole "God given power" thing is a joke.. |
| tritonarcade:
Oh, and the best part is I am doing this in my apartment complex on our front porch.. wonder how many people enjoyed those two minutes of ear-bleeding 120 dB insanity? |
| shmokes:
My router actually instructs me to push the bit in all the way and then pull it out about 1/16". There are many different systems, though, and router bits should be pretty exact in their fit since they spin so bloody fast. Here's is a tip for your template that I have used, but it won't work in every situation...it'll work great if you're planning to laminate. Nail your template to your wood with some little wire brads or something (like those nails you attach the cardboard backing on entertainment centers with). I like to use masonite (that's actually a brand name, but your lumber yard people generally refer to all brands as Masonite) as a template (I got that idea here...maybe from Frosty) as it is super easy to shape and sand, etc. It comes in different thicknesses. A 4'x8' sheet of 1/4" thick masonite will only run about $10-15. Once you're finished cutting just push a flat-head screw driver between the template and the newly cut wood to pry the template back off. Those little nails will come out easy...or they'll just pop through the masonite at which point you can just grab them with a claw hammer and pull. |
| JODY:
My first experience was a couple of months ago. Was routing out some of the plywood to recess the joysticks. Was using plywood as it is just a prototype panel. Tightened the bit in the Sears router tight. Was doing the routing freehand and noticed that on the third joystick the router got to the point where it wasn't cutting very well. Come to find out the bit had come loose and was spinning in the collet. It had also slipped down and was cutting too deep. It cut all the way through the 3/4" plywood in one spot. I wound up using Elmer's wood glue and a bunch of the sawdust to glue back into the spot that was messed up. Looks like particle board. Anyway, I know now to make the bit extremely tight. Luckily the bit didn't fly out! |
| tritonarcade:
Does that really work? Just filling in a hole with wood glue and sawdust? I've never heard of that method before, but it will probably come in handy as I am almost guaranteeing a screw up from me in the next few days. |
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