Thread: Advice for Router beginner

I use this jig to rout lengths of timber when not using the table.
First picture shows top surface that is recessed to hold the router.

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Next picture shows the adjustable slides so you can position the router bit anywhere across the timber and accurately follow the length

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I use the edge guide. Make sure your timber is clamped and be prepared to do it in multiple sections.

I tend not to plunge my router as I find that successive plunges are not always to the same depth, rather I set the depth and lock it, start the router and plunge the bit in.

Practice on a short piece first to a/ make sure your settings are OK and b/ the result is what you want.

Lappa, thanks for that, simple but effective. It's the opposite approach of what I was trying to imagine, in that the jig goes onto the router, rather than the table.

Handyjack, I put some scrap lengths of old pallet onto the table and clamped them next to another piece as a fence and did some practice like you say. I firstly did the plunge over the wood, and sure enough the "join" between plunges (where I had to move the wood and reclamp it before continuing) was visibly different, though by less than a mil. Plunging the bit and engaging the lock makes sense, especially as I am doing the cut along the entire length of the piece so can enter from the end anyway.

just be wary of taking too much of a bite in one pass, especially with 1/4" shank bits

Originally Posted by ian

just be wary of taking too much of a bite in one pass, especially with 1/4" shank bits

Thanks. I've actually been reading up some of the router-related horror stories that have been helpfully relayed on the forum, such as fletty's "Ouch" from 2014, and have rapidly developed a cautious attitude towards the whole process. I like the jig because it will keep my hands away from the bit. I have 1/2" shanks, and am routing into pine. My first cut will be 5mm deep, so I am thinking of maybe 2 or 3 speed 2mm deep on the first pass, and 5mm on the second.

Hi MrSunny,
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fletty

A second guide fence (set in opposition to the 1st) can help to keep things on the straight & narrow on narrower pieces.

Likewise a right angled sub-fence (on edge routed workpieces) also helps to keep things at the appropriate 90 degrees.