NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #27/NN_1992_27.iso/spool/rec/woodwork/7827

Internet Message Format | 1992-11-16 | 3.4 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!caen!rphroy!albert!rhaar
From: [e-mail] (Bob Haar)
Newsgroups: rec.woodworking
Subject: Re: Router Table Inquiries
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 16 Nov 92 19:16:13 GMT
References: <[e-mail]>
Sender: [e-mail]
Reply-To: [e-mail]
Organization: G.M. Research and Environmental Staff
Lines: 67
Nntp-Posting-Host: albert.cs.gmr.com

In article [e-mail], [e-mail] (Jim Morgan) writes:
|>>Posted on 16 Nov 1992 at 08:20:30 by Bob Haar
|>>
|>>Re: Router Table Inquiries
|>>
|>>Date:         Mon, 16 Nov 1992 13:12:14 GMT
|>>Reply-To:     [e-mail]
|>>From:         Bob Haar <[e-mail]>
|>>
|>>In article [e-mail], [e-mail] (Bennett Leeds) writes:
|>>|>Stan Armstrong writes
|>>|>> If it is ease of cutting mortises you are after, consider one of the
|>>|>> horizontal router mounting jigs that allow you to mount your router
|>>|>> at the back of the table with the bit parallel to the top. The
|>>|>> height of the bit above the table is regulated by swingine the router
|>>|>> about a pivot. This would let you use your plunge capability and
|>>|>> thus eliminate the need to pivot the workpiece.
|>>|>
|>>|>So, we clamp the wood to the table, plunge the router horizontally,
|>>|>then unclamp the wood so we can slide it along the vertical fence,
|>>|>then clamp the wood back down, and then unplunge the router?
|>>|>
|>>|>Sounds awkward to me.
|>>|>
|>>|>And, if you don't clamp the wood down, you've got to have a hand holding
|>>|>it while you use the other to plunge the router in.
|>>|>
|>>|>Sounds dangerous to me.
|>>|>
|>>
|>>I am not sure about the mortising table design Stan was discussing,
|>>but I built one from the WoodSMith plans. In this one, you
|>>don't plunge the router, you move the wood.
|>>
|>>The big advantage of this setup is that the work piece is resting flat
|>>on a table surface. This makes it much easier to control. And you can
|>>clamp temporary guides pieces to the table to act as stops.
|>>
|>
|>Well, I'll weigh in on Bennett's side here - the horizontal mortising jig
|>(BTW, Spielman describes one in 'Router Jigs & Techniques') seems dangerous
|>to me, given that the bit is completely exposed.  Also, in feeding the wood
|>into the bit, you still have the arcing problem I was concerned with in my
|>earlier post - you need to hold the board against a fence at one end and
|>pivot it into the bit in order to have any control.
|>

On my moritising table, the bit is not "completely exposed" - there
is a transparent safety shield mounted to the vertical back "wall"
that can be moved up /down to just allow the work piece to enter.
It is still possible to contact the bit, but you have to work harder.

I don't have any problem with cutting an arc because I don't
find it necessary to rotate the work piece.  I line up the bit with
the aprroxiamte middle of the mortise and slide the work piece
straight back against the bit. I then move it left and right to
cut the full length mortise. If I am mortising the end of a narrow
piece, I clamp a guid strip to the table and slide the work
along it.

---
    Robert Haar               InterNet : [e-mail]
    Computer Science Dept., G.M. Research and Environmental Staff
DISCLAIMER: Unless indicated otherwise, everything in this note is
personal opinion, not an official statement of General Motors Corp.