Thread: Bosch template bush

Carbatec in Perth keep router bushes for both the 400 and 500. I saw some 12 mm in stock and they can get whatever you want.From recollection, they were about $29 each.
They also keep a Vermont adaptor set, which is a nylon type base that you fit to the base of the 500 with 2 screws and that has 4 different metal bushes. It makes the 500 more stable as it increases the base size and is circular. Price was about $29-00 for the whole set I think.
Give Geoff a call, and tell him that it is what I got from him.
You are welcome to email me and I'll go and dig out the info as well as describe how I fitted it to the 500

Cya
Joe

PS The Bosh copy inserts ( bushess) are nylon and the ones for the 500 and 400 are identical.

Joe

Thanks - will follow-up on the info later today and make relevant phone calls. (I have a Carbatech catalogue somewhere here).

With luck the bush will help and I will start to get increased precision for my inlays and holes. Maybe even get hair-line joints.

Ric
Gunner of the North

The toll free number for CT Perth is 1800 886 657, if you ask to speak to Geoff, he'll remember the Vermont kit I got from him. It is not in the catalogue. The Vermont instructions, typical american, wants you to remove the base of your router, doesn't work like that with the 500 nor the 400. There are 2 holes that line up with 2 holes in the 500 base. So you slip the right size bush into the vermont base and screw it to the 500 base...........solid as a rock. You will need 2 x 6 mm screws, I used cap screws which I machined the heads down a bit. But slotted head 6 mm machine screws about 12 mm long max will be the way to go.
Enjoy
Joe

Joe

Have been chewing over your advice, and reviewing what I want to achieve with the bushes.

Seems to me that in due course, I will be looking to upgrade the router, but not right away. So, at this stage, I will go for the minimum I need to get what I want. At the same time, there is a tyranny of distance, and if I can't see, touch and check something out before I purchase it, there might be a chance it isn't what I want, or that I might not be able to fit it to what I want.

Keeping the afore-written comments in mind, I might opt for the stock-standard Bosch part rather than consider the Vermont kit. When the local suppliers looked in their catalogues, my recollection of events suggests there were 500 inserts listed, we just didn't know they would fit the 400 as well.

It will probably be faster to deal direct with Perth anyway (its only a phone call away), so I will give them a call, and see what they have to say.

Ric
Gunner of the North

Joe

I contacted Carba-tec in Perth with some success and some failure. Seems there is only one size of insert in the Bosch range - 12 mm - which would be OK for most of what I want to do, but not all (I would like to plunge some 16 mm holes). I assume the size given is the internal diameter of the bush.

Anyway, it was cheap ($12.35) so I ordered one. The mail to Darwin is a little unpredictable, so it may arrive Wed, or it may arrive just before Xmas.

I asked about the Vermont adaptor. They don''t have one in stock, and couldn't give me a price, but they did say they would get back to me. So I wait.

Ric
Gunner of the North

Ric,

Another option for you is if you have a mate with a small metal working lathe, you can turn up a bush out of aluminium quite easlily. I have made a few for my makita. I used a piece of 4mm to 6mm plate for the disk, and turned the guide out of 19mm rod to whatever size you need, with a small step down in od and bore the disk to take the guide then you make them a press fit and rivet the guide over on the back of the disk. This is another idea considering your isolation . I have been using mine for years without any problems.


My 2C worth

kind regards
Mike

Micky

Thanks for comment. At this time, I don't know anybody with a metal lathe (but I would be very friendly to such a person should I encounter one).

I wonder if there is a reason why the stock standard bush is the size it is? Maybe it is just the best size for a one-size-fits-all, but perhaps something much larger (eg the 16 mm cut I have been contemplating) would put too much strain on the little Bosch? I cut the holes in jarrah, and when I am not using jarrah, I am still cutting a hardwood (eg the local Iron wood we get here in the NT). The total depth of the wood is 40 mm and that implies a plunge of 20 mm. Currently, I cut the holes with a spade drill in a drill press, first drilling a pilot hole to centre the spade drill, then drilling from one side then the other. I finish them with the sanding drum on my Dremel. Not metal-grade-engineering-perfect, but acceptable for the use they get.

Ric
Gunner of the North

Ric

The Bosch insert is 12 mm outside diameter.
My dovetailer uses 11mm and the plastic of the Bosch is too thin to allow turning it down to 11 mm, thats why I opted for the Vermont kit cause it has a short and a long spout 11mm and the inserts are metal.

Personally I wouldn't do what you want to do in the hard woods with a 1/4" router. How about getting a 16 mm HSS Fostner type bit, use in a drill press and clamp some scrap timber to the back of your workpiece to get a clean cut thru the hardwood. I see they have a 16 mm HSS Fostner Style listed at $22-00 in their catalogue. Guess we just don't know how good we have it in the big smoke, although Perth is really a small big smoke........

Hope you get it sorted out successfully
Regards
Joe

MickyG any chance of you posting a pic of your home made template guide?


TIA
Joe

Originally posted by Ric Fallu
Joe

I contacted Carba-tec in Perth with some success and some failure. Seems there is only one size of insert in the Bosch range - 12 mm - which would be OK for most of what I want to do, but not all (I would like to plunge some 16 mm holes). I assume the size given is the internal diameter of the bush.

:
"Just to put you in the right direction the external size of the bush is what is required"

Anyway, it was cheap ($12.35) so I ordered one. The mail to Darwin is a little unpredictable, so it may arrive Wed, or it may arrive just before Xmas.

I asked about the Vermont adaptor. They don''t have one in stock, and couldn't give me a price, but they did say they would get back to me. So I wait.

Ric
Gunner of the North

Thanks for info on the copy insert. I await the arrival of the one I have ordered.

I suppose that I can use the smaller diameter bits to make a larger slot anyway, and I can shape the ends in a circle or whatever shape the radius of the insert will allow.

To explain: I make wooden spear guns. So far, I have been using technology as taught to me in the early 60s at school. I rip laminates for the main stock, glue them (with epoxy I admit - but I am sure there was epoxy available in the early 60s - there certainly was araldite). Then I form the stocks by planing. This gives a nice shape that reminds me of the gun furniture on the WW2 bolt action rifles the army cadets used when I was at school, and this shape doesn't come when using a router. Anyway, problem is, the laminated stocks rarely end up exactly square (and I don't have a thicknesser) so drilling holes straight through them with a drill press usually results in the outside of the hole not being in the right place in the stock - I normally scribe a center on either side, and come in from there, hoping the holes will meet. Surprisingly, they generally do. What also compounds the problem is that the stocks taper, in several dimensions, and the taper varies along the stock - its all subtle, but makes it very difficult to take a "metal engineering" approach.

What has driven me to the router is the inlays. I dress up the spear guns with inlays of wood and pearl shell. I can handle most of the holes (for rubbers, handle dowels, spearlines and so forth) and slots (for trigger mechanisms, spear guides and so on) with a drill and a chisel. But for the inlays, I want hairline joints, square sides to holes and flat bottoms. The spearguns are "hand made" and slight irregularities are acceptable, and most probably add to the charm. Slightly thicker glue lines are probably stronger (important in something that gets rough usage and is in and out of water). But I want those inlays as neat as possible.

Now that I have decided to try a router, I have decided to go the whole way (or at least try it properly before rejecting the tool) so I thought I would see what I could do with it for the slots and holes as well as for inlay. So back to my comment at the start of this message - I can probably rout bigger holes with smaller bits, if I use a template guide, and I might even be able to make holes that (on purpose) not circular.

Ric
Gunner of the North.