Router Planing Fixtures

[Bruce Johnson]

I think you should start a new thread about your journey building this machine. It's not really a Router Planing Fixture, although that may be one of the jobs you eventually do with it. You are building a 3-Axis CNC router.

As you get into building machines, you'll soon realize that you must have a small lathe and milling machine. Those are the machines that make the parts to build other machines. You don't need giant expensive machines. A benchtop lathe and a Mill/Drill machine will do everything you need. But that's where the pallet jacks and gantry cranes come in handy. The gantry crane lifts it off the trailer when you bring it home, and the pallet jack wheels it easily around your shop.

Sure, you can motorize the leadscrews without going full CNC. Get the motors mechanically mounted and running, then wire them up to a power supply through a reversing switch and variable speed control. Or wire the X and Y up through a joystick. You can drive the router around, just with the controls. That would be a useful machine, and a good way to work out the mechanical side. Test out the power and rigidity. Then work in stages, adding scales and simple digital readouts. And finally the full jump to CNC control.

 

[John_Nicholas]

I think you should start a new thread about your journey building this machine. It's not really a Router Planing Fixture, although that may be one of the jobs you eventually do with it. You are building a 3-Axis CNC router.

As you get into building machines, you'll soon realize that you must have a small lathe and milling machine. Those are the machines that make the parts to build other machines. You don't need giant expensive machines. A benchtop lathe and a Mill/Drill machine will do everything you need. But that's where the pallet jacks and gantry cranes come in handy. The gantry crane lifts it off the trailer when you bring it home, and the pallet jack wheels it easily around your shop.

Sure, you can motorize the leadscrews without going full CNC. Get the motors mechanically mounted and running, then wire them up to a power supply through a reversing switch and variable speed control. Or wire the X and Y up through a joystick. You can drive the router around, just with the controls. That would be a useful machine, and a good way to work out the mechanical side. Test out the power and rigidity. Then work in stages, adding scales and simple digital readouts. And finally the full jump to CNC control.

So sorry, didn't mean to post this in the wrong place.

Would you prefer I delete these posts and just copy them over to a new thread?

Thank you so much for all your thoughtful ideas and suggestions! They are greatly appreciated!

 

[Bruce Johnson]

There are lots of ways to do that bench wheels trick. There are other designs and pre-made units that you can buy.

But here's an example of where a pallet jack comes in very handy. Build that bench so the lower shelf beams are 3 1/2" to 4" off the floor. Then buy a used pallet jack on CraigsList for about $100. Make all your workbenches and shelving units so the pallet jack will slip underneath them. Stack up boxes of stuff on actual pallets. Now, in minutes, you can completely rearrange the shop space.

 

[Bruce Johnson]

So sorry, didn't mean to post this in the wrong place.

Would you prefer I delete these posts and just copy them over to a new thread?

Thank you so much for all your thoughtful ideas and suggestions! They are greatly appreciated!

You don't need to delete these posts. Start a new thread copying these posts. Then put a note here linking to the new thread. So anyone interested can jump on over and see the whole story.

 

[Beej]

So sorry, didn't mean to post this in the wrong place.

Would you prefer I delete these posts and just copy them over to a new thread?

Thank you so much for all your thoughtful ideas and suggestions! They are greatly appreciated!

I think it's more about this thing deserving it's own thread and topic. These posts would be good to preserve and then have a link to it. I'm already brewing stuff up in mind thanks to them.

This thread can continue as the repository for the fixtures of us simpler folk.

 

[jamro217]

Wow! Thanks, Bruce! I was about to build some sort of router table, planing rack for the same purpose and was trying to avoid any pitfalls in the design. Yours is similar to what I envisioned and if you use it it must work! Take care.

 

[Gilmourisgod]

The term "mission creep" comes to mind, but this is too cool to discourage you now. "Honey, the Dog ate my spreadsheet, I have no idea what this cost". I ran a running total on my first build and scrapped it when the total.cost,.including tools, exceeded what I would have spent on a used Ric. Sometimes its best not to know.

 

[MovinTarget]

The term "mission creep" comes to mind, but this is too cool to discourage you now. "Honey, the Dog ate my spreadsheet, I have no idea what this cost". I ran a running total on my first build and scrapped it when the total.cost,.including tools, exceeded what I would have spent on a used Ric. Sometimes its best not to know.

But the experience has no price tag!

 

[Bruce Johnson]

This thread can continue as the repository for the fixtures of us simpler folk.

Yes, I'm personally dedicated to pushing the state of the art of pre-CNC woodworking methods. Planer fixtures for hand routers, collar routing, bearing template routing, pin routers, and router-based pattern-following carving machines. I'm working on all those things right now. The most efficient and accurate ways to build basses in small quantities, without no stinkin' CNC! That's my personal quest. I don't have anything against CNC. I just like working with older technology.

I'm working on two new Super Router Planing Fixtures, which will be big improvements over my earlier ones. One specifically for necks and one for body blanks. I'll show them off here when they are done.

I'm also working heavily on the tooling and fixtures for my big green pin router. All the body chamber and cavity routing on my Scroll Basses will be switching over to that machine.

And, I'm about to start construction on my neck shaping machine. A router-based 3D pattern follower, that will hopefully shape the backs of necks in minutes...with no stinkin' computers.

 

[MovinTarget]

Yes, I'm personally dedicated to pushing the state of the art of pre-CNC woodworking methods. Planer fixtures for hand routers, collar routing, bearing template routing, pin routers, and router-based pattern-following carving machines. I'm working on all those things right now. The most efficient and accurate ways to build basses in small quantities, without no stinkin' CNC! That's my personal quest. I don't have anything against CNC. I just like working with older technology.

I'm working on two new Super Router Planing Fixtures, which will be big improvements over my earlier ones. One specifically for necks and one for body blanks. I'll show them off here when they are done.

I'm also working heavily on the tooling and fixtures for my big green pin router. All the body chamber and cavity routing on my Scroll Basses will be switching over to that machine.

And, I'm about to start construction on my neck shaping machine. A router-based 3D pattern follower, that will hopefully shape the backs of necks in minutes...with no stinkin' computers.

You'll be ready when they EMMP bomb drops and everything that runs on memory-n-microchips gets toasted!

 

[ardgedee]

So sorry, didn't mean to post this in the wrong place.

Would you prefer I delete these posts and just copy them over to a new thread?

Thank you so much for all your thoughtful ideas and suggestions! They are greatly appreciated!

Hit the "Report" button on your post and ask a mod to move it to a new thread. Or click the "Contact Us" button at the bottom of the page and ask them.

 

[RichterScale]

neck shaping, router-based 3D pattern follower

Sign me up for that one.
Will you be posting progress for that in this thread?

 

[John_Nicholas]

For anyone that is interested in following along with my crazy mission creep strange build, it now has it's own thread.

Please ask questions, make suggestions offer condolences over there!
How a simple Router sled turned into a manual CNC / Mill hybrid & maybe more?

 

[wraub]

Really interesting thread as I prepare to build a rig to thin a guitar body, using the router I have that I haven't used since it was purchased.
Should be fun... hopefully.

 

[MovinTarget]

Really interesting thread as I prepare to build a rig to thin a guitar body, using the router I have that I haven't used since it was purchased.
Should be fun... hopefully.

There are some smart guys posting on this thread... and so am I!

 

[Bruce Johnson]

There are some smart guys posting on this thread... and so am I!

We're not necessarily that smart....We just have experience. We've charged in there, fumbled around, and figured out something that sorta works. That's R & D!

 

[MPU]

We're not necessarily that smart....We just have experience. We've charged in there, fumbled around, and figured out something that sorta works. That's R & D!

And for sure something we thought works but in the end didn't.

 

[rudy4444]

I am totally aligned with Bruce's entire philosophy of working within "older" technology as he relates in post #329, to produce a quality instrument within an acceptable amount of time as well as minimizing the amount of physical labor necessary to do it.

I do it only as a hobby, so I take things a step backward by limiting my tooling to machines that I can pick up by myself.

When I first started making various instruments and furniture for our home I was always drawn to the latest and greatest thing, and figured my early forays into computers, CAD, and programming might make a good gateway into early adoption of a CNC machine.

When discussing the benefit of doing this another craftsman that I highly regarded offered my some sage advice. He basically said that until I came up with a new and unique design that there was little purpose to my desire to build things at any faster rate than what I could make using my small shop. He then used an old saying that I remember to this day, "Don't be so heavenly bound that you're no earthly good". It's a bit extreme, but I drives home the point.

I followed along on a blog by Jason Romero when he documented his 200th banjo. Jason related that he had considered some other ways of making a neck, but he actually found the 20 minutes he needed to produce a neck by hand was actually a process that he got a lot of enjoyment from. Once you develop a process for doing the roughing cuts with a band saw or other tool it doesn't take that long to rasp and sand the final shape.

That's a single example of what you loose when you automate, but I understand anyone being attracted to the process. You just have to examine the cost / benefit of your individual needs.

 

[TerribleTim68]

.... He then used an old saying that I remember to this day, "Don't be so heavenly bound that you're no earthly good". It's a bit extreme, but I drives home the point...

When I first started in the Architecture industry, one of my coworkers (an older Architect, close to retiring) told me "Don't let the perfect get in the way of the good". Similar statement, but not as extreme. The point being that we could literally pick our drawings apart forever and never get them issued if we wanted to. You can always find something that needs fixed. At some point you have to just let go. I've stuck with that ideal for a long time now, not just in my work life but in all of my life. Don't let the perfect get in the way of the good.

 

[dwizum]

one of my coworkers (an older Architect, close to retiring) told me "Don't let the perfect get in the way of the good". Similar statement, but not as extreme. The point being that we could literally pick our drawings apart forever and never get them issued if we wanted to.

I think the corollary to that is, "the contractor's just going to do whatever they want anyways"