Thread: Anyone seriously using the template guides

Originally Posted by Template Tom

Members are Still not using template guides.

After reading Tom's post I have looked all through my shed and I cannot find Tom's hidden camera anywhere. Has anyone else checked in their sheds? How does Tom know this stuff?


PSSST! Tom - if you go in through the roller door and look on the left-hand end of the second top shelf in the back corner you will find my

stash of perspex templates. They are transparent, which is probably why you didn't see them, but perspex is very durable which is why I use
it. Oh, and the template guides are in the middle drawer on the second row from the top in the mobile tool trolley.


Cheers

Doug

Originally Posted by doug3030

After reading Tom's post I have looked all through my shed and I cannot find Tom's hidden camera anywhere. Has anyone else checked in their sheds? How does Tom know this stuff?


PSSST! Tom - if you go in through the roller door and look on the left-hand end of the second top shelf in the back corner you will find my

stash of perspex templates. They are transparent, which is probably why you didn't see them, but perspex is very durable which is why I use
it. Oh, and the template guides are in the middle drawer on the second row from the top in the mobile tool trolley.


Cheers

Doug

Doug don't be a smart .... just show me the projects you have produced with the use of the guides that is all I ask you show me the templates you have produced or do you simply buy them. What I am trying to get people interested in the use of the guides. Produced with the aid of the guides is a big challenge maybe you would like to produce a project from start to finish with the template guides used and no other tools e.g an elliptical trinket or heart shaped boxes just for a strartFree offer until Sept 5th.jpg

Originally Posted by Template Tom

Doug don't be a smart .... just show me the projects you have produced with the use of the guides that is all I ask you show me the templates you have produced or do you simply buy them. What I am trying to get people interested in the use of the guides. Produced with the aid of the guides is a big challenge maybe you would like to produce a project from start to finish with the template guides used and no other tools e.g an elliptical trinket or heart shaped boxes just for a strart

Hi Tom,

Before I say anything else, I am going to make it clear that I am not going to get into a protracted argument over a nine-year-old thread you chose to resurrect for whatever reason. This response is it! no more. Life is too short for anything else. And just for the record I AM a smart asre, and proud of it!

Even though your post is phrased as a demand and not a request, with not so much as a single utterance of the word "please" or a "do you mind" or any of their synonyms, I will actually be kind enough to answer some of your "questions".

"Do I simply buy the templates?" you ask. Years ago, I bought a Milescraft signwriting template kit and an inlay kit by the same manufacturer. I used the signwriting kit a few times and the inlay kit is still brand new. I have not used either of them for a long time and probably never will again. However they were not a waste. After learning more about how they worked and more importantly how they didn't, I made quite a few templates of my own.

I have always used perspex for templates because they are durable and will last forever and because they are transparent, you can see what the wood grain looks like under the template so that you can optimize positioning on the workpiece.

Having said that, it is rare these days for me to use any of my old templates or to make a new one because I have found better ways to achieve better results far quicker and with less effort. Template routing as you know it, Tom, has run its race. No I am not talking about CNC, although it is contributing to the demise of templates, but even in the small shop with short production runs there are better, more versatile ways of working than traditional template following.

Without hardly scratching the surface of what people are doing now, have a look at these three links from Woodgears.ca. These concepts still have a long way to go to reach their full potential.

3-D router pantograph

Router copy carver

Pantorouter XL


All three machines work completely differently. Look at the Router Pantograph for example. Instead of having to have a circle template in all sizes you need, you just need to drill a new hole in a trammel arm for every new circle size you need to rout, be it a circular groove or a through cut for an inside or outside circle. Similarly you can guide the pattern follwing tip with an ellipse generator, nail fences in position for stars, octogons, irregular shapes or whatever. You can produce any shape you want without having to learn how to drive a CAD program. In the worst case scenario you can make a model of the object you want to produce 2 or 3 times the size and all the faults are minimised when the project is scaled down by the pantograph.

But even better is that you can easily create in 3D. Lots of options just by adjusting the height of the following stylus. Then there are the possibilities offered by changing the shape or size of the pattern follower. There is about a million percent more possibilities than adjusting the diameter of a brass tube by a couple of millimeters.

Tom, if you want to promote template routing, that's great, more power to you. But there are better ways of doing it in 99.9% of cases in my opnion.

Cheers

Doug

Tom,
I was composing a reply to your posts re. templates when I saw doug3030's reply so all I can say is;

Originally Posted by doug3030

... a nine-year-old thread you chose to resurrect for whatever reason.

Sales have probably dropped off, Doug.

Ray

3-D router pantograph

Router copy carver

Pantorouter XL


All three machines work completely differently. Look at the Router Pantograph for example. Instead of having to have a circle template in all sizes you need, you just need to drill a new hole in a trammel arm for every new circle size you need to rout, be it a circular groove or a through cut for an inside or outside circle. Similarly you can guide the pattern follwing tip with an ellipse generator, nail fences in position for stars, octogons, irregular shapes or whatever. You can produce any shape you want without having to learn how to drive a CAD program. In the worst case scenario you can make a model of the object you want to produce 2 or 3 times the size and all the faults are minimised when the project is scaled down by the pantograph.

But even better is that you can easily create in 3D. Lots of options just by adjusting the height of the following stylus. Then there are the possibilities offered by changing the shape or size of the pattern follower. There is about a million percent more possibilities than adjusting the diameter of a brass tube by a couple of millimeters.

Tom, if you want to promote template routing, that's great, more power to you. But there are better ways of doing it in 99.9% of cases in my opnion.

Cheers


My post was to inform members that there alternative methods of using the router that will bring greater satisfaction because of the number of different projects that can be produced. I am well aware of the three jigs you referred me to and I am well aware of each jigs potential. I am sure that very few members of the forum would have made made all three. They are wonderful jigs built for a limited number of projects.

Working with Template Guides is not just about producing {a}Tenons {b }copying shapes and lettering {c} producing 3d projects something I have never done. I have done a simple carving design for small boxes and tables. Regards to routing tenons and producing mortices I use an alternative which can produce a great variety of joints including finger joints and dovetail joints. Copying shapes I do on a regular bases without the need for the Pantograph.

All I ask is that members take up the challenge and see for yourself the many advantages by producing a great number of projects that can be achieved with the us of the guides