Thread: coasters

When setting the tile into the wood have it sit about 1mm proud of the top of the timber .

That way if there is anything hot or wet on the tile it will not mark the timber surround.

How big are the coasters and tiles, large or small border between the tile and the coaster edge?

I would consider making up jigging system consisting of a base plate with a recess carved into it with a router, to hold the coaster blank, and an upper female template hinged to it confine the router travel accurately.

Then using a router with a template guide and bit, plunge into the blank through the opening in the template and clear the recess in the blank.

If the area to be cleared is substantial, you might find that it is worthwhile to use two routers, one with a small bit 3mm or so to cut square recesses in each corner, and one with bigger bit 12-18mm to clear the bulk of the recess. This might mean using two sets of templates, one for each cutter, in which case I would hinge them on opposite sides of the base plate. Put a cleat on the bottom of the base plate so you can clamp it in a vise, or make it big enough to be able to clamp it down without interfering with the router base as it is working.

With the base secure, flip both templates clear and place coaster blank in recess, flip corner squaring template into place and clear the corners, flip that template clear and bring in the bulk template and clear the bulk of the waste. Flip template back, extract blank, and repeat for the next one.

Welcome to the forum gimani hope you find what your answers'

Rumnut

Originally Posted by malb

How big are the coasters and tiles, large or small border between the tile and the coaster edge?

I would consider making up jigging system consisting of a base plate with a recess carved into it with a router, to hold the coaster blank, and an upper female template hinged to it confine the router travel accurately.

Then using a router with a template guide and bit, plunge into the blank through the opening in the template and clear the recess in the blank.

If the area to be cleared is substantial, you might find that it is worthwhile to use two routers, one with a small bit 3mm or so to cut square recesses in each corner, and one with bigger bit 12-18mm to clear the bulk of the recess. This might mean using two sets of templates, one for each cutter, in which case I would hinge them on opposite sides of the base plate. Put a cleat on the bottom of the base plate so you can clamp it in a vise, or make it big enough to be able to clamp it down without interfering with the router base as it is working.

With the base secure, flip both templates clear and place coaster blank in recess, flip corner squaring template into place and clear the corners, flip that template clear and bring in the bulk template and clear the bulk of the waste. Flip template back, extract blank, and repeat for the next one.

Excellent idea. But for substantial batch quantities, it might be simpler to use only one router, with each operation done in bulk, switching bits (and guide bushings if necessary), and templates between them.

Cheers,
Joe

Originally Posted by Jim Carroll

When setting the tile into the wood have it sit about 1mm proud of the top of the timber .

That way if there is anything hot or wet on the tile it will not mark the timber surround.

Thank you, Jim. I never thought of having the tile slightly higher.

Originally Posted by malb

How big are the coasters and tiles, large or small border between the tile and the coaster edge?

I would consider making up jigging system consisting of a base plate with a recess carved into it with a router, to hold the coaster blank, and an upper female template hinged to it confine the router travel accurately.

Then using a router with a template guide and bit, plunge into the blank through the opening in the template and clear the recess in the blank.

If the area to be cleared is substantial, you might find that it is worthwhile to use two routers, one with a small bit 3mm or so to cut square recesses in each corner, and one with bigger bit 12-18mm to clear the bulk of the recess. This might mean using two sets of templates, one for each cutter, in which case I would hinge them on opposite sides of the base plate. Put a cleat on the bottom of the base plate so you can clamp it in a vise, or make it big enough to be able to clamp it down without interfering with the router base as it is working.

With the base secure, flip both templates clear and place coaster blank in recess, flip corner squaring template into place and clear the corners, flip that template clear and bring in the bulk template and clear the bulk of the waste. Flip template back, extract blank, and repeat for the next one.

Thank you. The tiles are 3.75 inches and the wood edge will be .25 inches. I will work on the template and follow your instructions. Any idea if there if there is online instruction on how to make a jig?

Can you tell me what router(s) and straight, spiral, or planer style bits you have, and whether router(s) can take standard Porter Cable style template guides or something similar, and a list of the guides that you have available, if any. A suggestion of how much you might be willing/able to spend to set up for the job if you need extra stuff would be helpfull also.

Hope you understand the concept that a router clearing a recess for a job like this cannot produce a truly square internal corner, it will always have a minimum corner radius equal to that of the bit (i.e.half bit diameter). The corners would need to be trimmed by hand with a chisel to get truly square, but the two bit process I suggested would minimise the work involved in squaring the corners.

A 1/8th inch bit used to clear the corners would leave a 1/16th corner radius, but would take for ever (50 to 60 passes) to clear the bulk of the recess. Alternatively a 3/4inch bit leaves a 3/8 corner to trim, but could clear the recess in 6 or 7 passes of the bit. This is why I suggested using two templates and bit sizes. A second router would be handy as well as you can then set each bit in it's own router with it's own template guide and fixed depth etc, and complete each coaster in two operations with a single mounting in the jig, without changing bits and setups or mounting the coasters a second time for the second operation.

Making the jig is the easy part, once we can work out bits and guides etc.