Router Trenching Jig to suit OF2200 and OF1400 - $100 inc Express Post anywhere in OZ

Hi all, for sale is my (just finished) own CNC'd version of the router trenching jig that Festool sells as I now have some new ideas for a version 2.0 that I am working on, plus I want to make it bigger still!

This is a very substantial and robust jig that has the large bolt holes to fit an OF1400 in two positions, and an OF2200 in 5 positions due to the bolt design of the routers. The centre hole perfectly fits the 30mm template guide rings from the OF2200 and the OF1400 to help get the router pretty much dead centre. I did machine holes for the smaller mounting screws on the routers base, but ended up finding these were just not needed as the large bolts were more than enough.

At a very substantial size of 350mm x 200mm x20mm I made it somewhat larger than Festools as I thought theirs was quite limiting at 300mm x 140mm x 12.7mm. It's probably overkill but I do like over engineering stuff. Attached pic shows the size relative to the OF1400.

As mine is also all made of 20mm thick perspex , it holds 90 degree angles beautifully, and will not flex under any normal use. You do lose a fraction over 7mm depth of cut compared to the Festool one, but as the OF1400 and the OF2200 both have very extended cutting depth I can't see this as an issue really. Mine will also comfortably fit 120mm inbetween the side supports, so it's perfect for fluting larger columns, and if needed the side support bolt holes can also easily be lengthened with a round file a bit to accommodate nominal 5" timber.

The 5/16-18 UNC t-bolts are captured by grubscrews so won't come loose, and the knobs have threaded inserts and will take a fair bit of force as they are designed for machining clamps and hold-downs. There is a dust shute groove for the rear dust collector, which fits the standard smaller Festool 32mm hose. I also vee routed an alignment grid for squaring up material under the base. Not shown but supplied are 4 x stainless steel hex screws for mounting the router to the base, only 2 are needed by why not have a spare set on hand I reckon.

Obviously it's far better to use on thicker material, but I did use it to groove some 19mm timber without issue as the side supports are extremely rigid. The dust shute really doesn't suit supporting very thin timber from the very outside edge though.

I will also supply a couple of strips of hard 1.5mm thick rubber sheet to be used on the tops of the side supports if wanted, as this will help the side supports grip against the plate much better when the knobs are tightened I reckon. I didn't have them move on me in use but I think it's a definite improvement well worth doing.

Link to Festool's one for comparison:
Trenching Template for OF 2200, OF 1400 & OF 1010

Note: As a possible design alteration the buyer may want to consider doing for easier setup time and a larger router bit opening, for the version 2.0 I'll be making for myself, I will be sacrificing a 30mm template guide by drilling through the outer flange of the template ring and the base to bolt screws to it, then I'll be cutting the centre of the template guide out to enlarge the opening but still use the template guide to click the router in place, so I'll be able to use a much larger diameter cutter, whilst still maintaining the dead centre alignment of the router. If you do this for the OF1400, you could simply re-use the holes in the perspex to do the same for the OF2200 template guide or vice versa.

Feel free to ask any questions, $100 including express post anywhere in OZ!

Hi Ian, would you consider making one for the DW 621? Peter

Nice work! It shows Festool's markup if you can make a better one for a fraction of the cost. It seems to me you could use this as a mortising jig a couple of clamps on the work piece would provide stops and you could just slide this back and forth or am I missing something?

Cheers

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Originally Posted by Repete

Hi Ian, would you consider making one for the DW 621? Peter

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Hi Peter, not really at this stage sorry with the amount of projects I have on the go. Doing this one was extremely time consuming as it was. If it doesn't sell and later on I did have time to do it, probably the best would be to mill out the centre after aligning it dead centre and getting it down to around 6-7mm thick to encompass the dewalt's footprint, and drill out the mounting holes and counter sink them.

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Originally Posted by D-Type

Nice work! It shows Festool's markup if you can make a better one for a fraction of the cost. It seems to me you could use this as a mortising jig a couple of clamps on the work piece would provide stops and you could just slide this back and forth or am I missing something?

Cheers

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Thanks, the material cost alone for this well exceeded what I'm selling it for, but having said that, with the material Festool use to make their one, and the very streamlined manufacturing processes they have in place, they most certainly are very over priced in my opinion. I do love Festool's stuff and have no qualms buying a lot of their gear, but I do think their jig really shouldn't be more than around $150-$175'ish at most which would still be a generous mark up.

The availability of 1/2" perspex comes at a fairly low cost comparatively, but going from 12.7mm to 20mm is a massive cost increase, especially when making the jig much wider and longer still. I also think the way their side supports are held is a flimsy and a very cheap solution for a high end priced product for my liking. That's why I went to a lot of trouble to get the sides dead nuts 90 degrees to the base, and recessed the t-bolts as I did, so it has max holding power but doesn't deform the base or side supports. I couldn't imagine using a router with the mass the OF2200 has on their one without the sides constantly being moved out of position every time pressure is exerted or a kickback occurs.

I'm really very happy with how it turned out, and while I think it's superior in many ways to the Festool one, after the first use I had some more ideas to improve it further to get the weight down while keeping the extreme rigidity, and to handle the dust extraction a bit better, as well as a better laid out grid, and making the side supports really grip in place even more when tightened. With the large amount of perspex costs, bolts, knobs, time, etc, it would probably bring the version 2 model to around $250 realistically if I was to sell it.

"I'll take it"

Sold to broom!

Will you be selling the mark 2 version on here?

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Originally Posted by micmcg

Will you be selling the mark 2 version on here?

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I guess it could be possible although part of the issue is the sheer cost of the perspex, and I would be loathe to do it using thinner perspex except perhaps if it was for a trimmer as Peter above indicated. Also getting good quality t-bolts and knobs are quite expensive. But it might be something I'll look at if I think I can get the cost down to something reasonable. I have a few design improvements in mind though that could mean I could go less than 20mm for the base part but keep the side supports as thick as possible, but I want to some testing first as I think any flex is simply unacceptable.