New Guy, Retired Sparkie

[piddlefimp]

G'day from Brisbane, I retired from sparkie world in 04 bought a caravan went up north in 05 went around Australia 06 did Tassie 08 and all points in between.

I play the fiddle ( not very well ) I'm a member of a couple of fillde groups around Brisbane, it's fun.

I saw a Bob McNally ' Strumstick' on youtube and decided to have a go at making one.

My woodworking tools consisted a hammer some wood chisels ( sparkies use wood chisels to knock cement out from between bricks and other such jobs ) a hacksaw and a few other odds and sods.

The finshed product is as rough as guts, but my daughter loves in and is a dab hand at playing it.

I have since bought a Triton mk3 from the Weekend Shopper, a router, a bandsaw from Hare and Forbes, 3 hand planes, a spokeshave, a jig saw electric planer, disc belt sander and a fret wire saw etc etc, I don't want to count the cost of all this.

My project at the moment is making a router table and have come to a bit of a standstill regards cutting the hole for the insert plate, all the blurb on the net just says to cut a hole for the plate and drop it in, but I think there might be a bit more to it than that.

Sorry for the long winded intro.

Cheer

Piddlefimp ( Bill )

[artme]

G'day Piddlefimp and welcome to the madness!! :2tsup::2tsup::2tsup:
Another old sparkie with plenty of spark.!

Google the Gifkins Doovetail Jig and see how to make a simple and effective router table.

[ian]

Welcome Bill

can you post pictures of the design of router table you're building and the plate you need to fit

[Christos]

Welcome to the forum. I have not made one myself but yes it is a little different then just cutting a hole and dropping in. Might have to be recess in the hole. Basically lipped so the plate does not fall through.

[piddlefimp]

Thanks for the welcome and responding to the thread.

The plate is a Carbatec bakelite $45 insert kit. My router came with a template guide/bush and a half inch bit, I did a test cut on some scrap mdf and have ended up wiht a 2mm space from the cut to the straight edge, I have made a jig around the insert plate with a 4mm space so when I go around with the router I should end up with a neat fit, thats the plan.

I'll do a test cut before I get too excited.

I'm using a sheet of melamine 600mm x 450mm x 16 and some mdf the same size to give a bit of strength. I will make 2 legs and clamp the other side to the Triton table just to see how it works.

I need to learn how to post photos.

Cheers

Bill

[munruben]

Welcome to the forum. good to have you aboard:2tsup: