Recommendations for routing resessed areas e.g. joystick and trackball plates

[griffindodd]

As much as I love my 2.5HP Bosch Router, it's a beast and, given the opportunity, would eat it's way clean through my garage wall and proceed to decimate the neighborhood if I let it.

With that in mind guides are essential when using it and continue to be the bane of my life, it just seems that...

a. There's a flexible guide/template system I don't know about
b. I'm doing it wrong.

Two of the most common recessed areas I cut are joystick and trackball mounting plate areas. In order to do one of these in one cut, I am assuming people are making jigs that they keep specifically for this job, one for joystick, one for trackball etc. Sometimes the working areas requiring these cuts can be quite small so I was wondering how you are attacking these jobs, are you using a smaller router or a full size one?

I was thinking I may be best making 'router board' templates with a baseplate with my shape already cut into it and guides along the edges of the baseplate, this way it doesn't matter on the size of the material I am cutting as the baseplate of the jig is enough to support the router and can be simply clamped over the piece to cut.

Thoughts?

[DrChek]

I've used a Dremel with a router bit and collar.

This is the collar I'm talking about:

[griffindodd]

I've used a Dremel with a router bit and collar.

This is the collar I'm talking about:

yeah i have that same collar for my Dremel 4000, I bought some Dremel router bits but they were some odd 3/16" shaft size and I can't find a chuck to convert the tool to use them

[two40]

Cut out the pattern you want to route on a piece of ply/MDF/acrylic etc. Clamp this piece over your control piece. Get yourself a router bit with a guide and plunge it in to your set depth. The pre cut template will guide your router.

That's the basics of it. I would post pics but I'm writing this on my phone.

[selfie]

Use your big router. As you mentioned a dedicated jig/board is the way to go. A strip of 3/4 or 5/8 MDF wide enough to form a stable base for you router with the trackball and joystick recesses as holes cut into it. The board needs to be long enough that you can securely clamp it on the edges of your CP. Then rout your recess using a flush trim bit with the bearing on the router side of the cut.
Like this


just a quick and nasty 3d of the jig

[griffindodd]

When you say a guide do you mean a top bearing, or is there something else? The reason I ask is that if you are only cutting an 1/8" deep area, then you would need an extremely short bit to use a top bearing flush trim.

Something like this with a 3/4 inch jig?

http://www.amazon.com/Freud-50-103-8-Inch-Diameter-Bearing/dp/B00004T7IZ/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1354139525&sr=8-4&keywords=freud+top+bearing+flush+trim

[dextercf]

This thread is going to teach me stuff i need to know. Thats why i write this..

[EvilNuff]

Selfie is right, use the big router.  A larger, more powerful router is still very controllable just use a template and a flush trim bit or bushings.

[griffindodd]

Thanks for the tip on bushings I have never seen them before, that answers my question for using the jig

[tightwad]

When you say a guide do you mean a top bearing, or is there something else? The reason I ask is that if you are only cutting an 1/8" deep area, then you would need an extremely short bit to use a top bearing flush trim.

Something like this with a 3/4 inch jig?

http://www.amazon.com/Freud-50-103-8-Inch-Diameter-Bearing/dp/B00004T7IZ/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1354139525&sr=8-4&keywords=freud+top+bearing+flush+trim

If you only need a shallow cut but your router bit is pretty tall you could add a spacer under the jig as well

[floriske.nl]

Here's the method I use for this type of work:



http://www.templatesbynumbers.com/?q=howtomakeroutertemplate

With a guide bush you can easily make templates. All you need to know oid the mm difference between the router bit and the guide ring. If you know that you know how much bigger your template has to be.

A template can be a hole in a piece of (ply)wood in case of complicated or repetitive work or simply some pieces of scrap material screwed together in case of simple one time work.

With this method you can also determine the depth at you own liking.

I've used the latter method for routing my Bartop's screen, some pics can be found here: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,123039.msg1321415.html#msg1321415