Thread: Routing advice

Gidday there,

If what you want is simply a groove on the underside of the shelf to fit the battens, then a rebate bit is probably the easiest. Followed closely by a straight bit with a guide and a few passes to get the desired depth/width of the groove.

If what you want is a groove in the middle of the piece, then perhaps a slot-cutter bit might work with a few passes up and down until the groove is the required depth.

However, I may not be picturing what you are after correctly.

sCORCH

Hi Shinobi

My old house had display shelves from 200x32mm huon pine with no visible means of support. Looked great, but used a different technique than you. They were in the pantry, kitchen and bedroom.

The house had plaster over red brick internal walls. The previous owner had simply drilled into the walls and glued (epoxy?) 8mm stainless rods into the wall. Matching holes were drilled into the shelves and the shelves were simply slipped over the rods. Simple, cheap and effective.

Cheers

Graeme

As I understand it the grooves would be in 3 edges of the timber shelving so it would slide onto the batons so they don't show when the shelves are in position. The front, long edge of the shelf would not need to have a groove obviously. If this is so, then to route the groove in the edges of the timber this would best be done on the router table or could be done on the table saw, making several passes. If the shelves are long then you may have to do the routing on the short edges with a hand held router seeing as they would be difficult to control otherwise on the TS or router table.
You could do this in the router using a half inch straight bit and a guide but would need to have the shelf held firmly by some means, clamping or whatever.
Good luck. I don't think it will be too difficult.

PS remember to stop the groove on the side edges, short the front edge face of the shelf so the batons don't show when the shelf is in position.

If you are going to rout along the narrow edge with a hand held router then clamp some battens either side of the edge to give more support for the router base.

Originally Posted by Sprog

If you are going to rout along the narrow edge with a hand held router then clamp some battens either side of the edge to give more support for the router base.

, and rout the cross-grain edge(s) first, so that tearout occurs in the waste for the long-grain edge.

Joe