Router Planing Fixtures

[RichterScale]

Bruce, you have one of the worst cases of builder's disease I've ever seen (not sure what the official medical term is, that's what I call it).
I have a milder case of it, but I've been able to manage it better as I get older and I even experience short stretches now when I don't feel any symptoms at all.
When it gets to the point of making your own drill bits, it's at stage 11 and nothing can be done.
I love it

 

[TerribleTim68]

I think it was this thread that someone said "I use a Black & Decker Workmate". Well, I paid attention! Thought I'd share this for those interested in what can be done with basic stuff. I needed to route a "handle" groove in the ends of what is essentially a cutting board. It's gonna be a burger serving platter once I'm done with it, but it's still a cutting board for all practical purposes. Anyways, I clamped it in the workmate and set up a straight edge and a couple stops -

Worked like a charm! I can totally see where this exact same method could be adapted to route a truss rod channel. That being said, if the prices of lumber ever return to earthly norms, I'll most likely build a jig. But yeah, this can and does work.

 

[Bruce Johnson]

I think it was this thread that someone said "I use a Black & Decker Workmate". Well, I paid attention! Thought I'd share this for those interested in what can be done with basic stuff. I needed to route a "handle" groove in the ends of what is essentially a cutting board. It's gonna be a burger serving platter once I'm done with it, but it's still a cutting board for all practical purposes. Anyways, I clamped it in the workmate and set up a straight edge and a couple stops -
View attachment 4305133

Worked like a charm! I can totally see where this exact same method could be adapted to route a truss rod channel. That being said, if the prices of lumber ever return to earthly norms, I'll most likely build a jig. But yeah, this can and does work.

Well, yeah! Recently, as I was clearing out Brian Hay's shop, I found an old battered Workmate behind some other stuff. I was debating whether to give it away or send it to the dump. And it occurred to me that, yeah, a Workmate could be easily made into a nice router planing fixture! Add some wood rails/jaws on the top and it could do long, narrow neck blanks. Reverse the rails and it could surface body blanks. Keith was asking me to build him a portable, small router planing fixture that he could use in his small home shop. So, I saved the Workmate, and that's what I'm going to do with it.

Lead the way! Show us how you modify it.

 

[TerribleTim68]

Well, yeah! Recently, as I was clearing out Brian Hay's shop, I found an old battered Workmate behind some other stuff. I was debating whether to give it away or send it to the dump. And it occurred to me that, yeah, a Workmate could be easily made into a nice router planing fixture! Add some wood rails/jaws on the top and it could do long, narrow neck blanks. Reverse the rails and it could surface body blanks. Keith was asking me to build him a portable, small router planing fixture that he could use in his small home shop. So, I saved the Workmate, and that's what I'm going to do with it.

Lead the way! Show us how you modify it.

Awesome Bruce! Like I said before, my wife worked for DeWalt/Black & Decker for something like 18 years and she hated those things. But I finally found a use for them! I guess I just hadn't looked at them the right "direction".

Sadly, I won't be modifying this one, it's my friend's and I gotta return it. But I do plan on getting one at some point for myself. I'll be watching your mods to Keith's.

But yeah, at the end of the day, once lumber isn't stupid, I'll be building some router sleds for surface planing and truss rod routing. I've got a current project that will need both actions and I currently don't own anything that can do it properly, some sleds/jigs would be nice. I just don't wanna mortgage my house again for the lumber right now.

 

[Freekmagnet]

I happened to be there for the maiden voyage of Bruce’s Super Planing Fixture. Here he is making pretty quick work of a slab of mahogany.

 

[MovinTarget]

I happened to be there for the maiden voyage of Bruce’s Super Planing Fixture. Here he is making pretty quick work of a slab of mahogany.

Its nice when the planed surface is noticeably different in color from unplanned so you can see if you missed a spot... happens all the time to me with my home-roasted maple... I need to chalk the surface or something.

 

[Bruce Johnson]

Thanks, Jeremy, for posting that! Yep, he was here working on some other parts while I was firing up the monster router planer.

Notice in the video how the router is slowing way down as I'm making the cuts. I haven't figured out what's going with that yet. I was only making a cut less than 1/16" deep. And that's a 3 1/4 HP router! In the video I was first running it at 10K rpm, and it was almost stalling out. It was acting like it had 1/2 HP. It's a five speed electronic speed control. I know you will lose some power at the lower speeds, but this didn't seem right. I then shifted it up to 16K rpm, which was a lot better. I'm a little afraid to go up to full 21K rpm with that big 2" bit.

Overall, the machine worked well. It definitely is much faster than the old fixture, in setup and operation. I'm seeing some slight ridges at the edges of the cutting paths. Not real bad, maybe 0.005". As if the router may be tilted slightly in the bridge frame. I may need to do some more test cuts and add some shims.

Here I am preparing for the first cut:

After the cut:

Yep, it makes a pretty good mess. The mahogany dust was flying out both ends. It's going to take some thinking to get a dust collector hooked up to it.

 

[coy garcia]

Thanks, Jeremy, for posting that! Yep, he was here working on some other parts while I was firing up the monster router planer.

Notice in the video how the router is slowing way down as I'm making the cuts. I haven't figured out what's going with that yet. I was only making a cut less than 1/16" deep. And that's a 3 1/4 HP router! In the video I was first running it at 10K rpm, and it was almost stalling out. It was acting like it had 1/2 HP. It's a five speed electronic speed control. I know you will lose some power at the lower speeds, but this didn't seem right. I then shifted it up to 16K rpm, which was a lot better. I'm a little afraid to go up to full 21K rpm with that big 2" bit.

Overall, the machine worked well. It definitely is much faster than the old fixture, in setup and operation. I'm seeing some slight ridges at the edges of the cutting paths. Not real bad, maybe 0.005". As if the router may be tilted slightly in the bridge frame. I may need to do some more test cuts and add some shims.

Here I am preparing for the first cut:

View attachment 4305852

After the cut:

View attachment 4305855

Yep, it makes a pretty good mess. The mahogany dust was flying out both ends. It's going to take some thinking to get a dust collector hooked up to it.

View attachment 4305863

Holy Super Planing Fixture!! is that the body blank for my 011?

 

[Bruce Johnson]

Holy Super Planing Fixture!! is that the body blank for my 011?

Yes, I successfully surfaced and thicknessed the mahogany top and back for your SSB #011. They were the test boards. All good, ready to move on to the next steps.

 

[coy garcia]

Yes, I successfully surfaced and thicknessed the mahogany top and back for your SSB #011. They were the test boards. All good, ready to move on to the next steps.

OH GOD YES!!!

 

[Bruce Johnson]

One more special tool for the Super Router Planer Fixture:

A setting gauge block. A simple block of 3/4" hard maple, with one end milled down to 0.700" thick in the milling machine.

I used this gauge block to quickly set up the depth stop on the router before I surfaced those mahogany boards. I set it on the machine's bed and slide it under the bridge. Looking down through the "window", I adjust the cutter down until it just touches the block. Set the depth stop collar at zero, and raise the cutter back up.

0.700" is the final thickness that I wanted these boards to be, and is the thickness I use for all my current model Scroll Bass body tops and backs. I'll keep this gauge block around with the machine. It'll get a lot of use.

Masters and Gauges like this are quick to make up, and they save so much time with every future setup.

 

[Bruce Johnson]

Here's the preparation that I did on those mahogany blanks for SSB #011:

I start by clamping that drill fixture (from the Pin Routers thread) onto the board....

And drill 3/16" holes down through the pattern of four drill bushings. In this case, it's the shorter pattern for the SSB size blanks. The important reason for the drill fixture is to put the four holes in accurate positions...so they match up with the T-nut locations in the bed of the Super Router Planer.

I drill the holes with a Makita. Note the 3/16" steel pins inserted in two of the holes while I drill the others. This makes sure that the drill fixture doesn't shift.

When the four holes are drilled, I swing the board over to the nearby drill press, where I have my new custom counterbore/countersink bit (see above) ready to go. A quick plunge on each hole, down to the shoulder, makes it the right shape and depth. Flip the board over, and do the same to the back side of the four holes too.

And here's the pair of mahogany body blanks, ready for the Super Router Planer Fixture!

That was a lot faster than it used to be. That drill fixture and custom counterbore/countersink saved me about a half hour per instrument. I spent maybe two hours total making them. They will pay off in about four instruments. I hope to use them to make about 400 basses over the next 20 years.

 

[Bruce Johnson]

After thinking about the results of the test run, I'm going to try a change. I'm bothered by the seeming lack of horsepower of this router, with that 2" diameter bit running at 16K rpm. There may be something wrong with the electronic speed control of the router that's really cutting down on its power. But it's too risky to run that 2" bit at full 21K rpm. I'm going to try using a smaller diameter bit, running at the full router speed.

In my stash of router bits, I found a nearly new Amama 1 1/2" router bit. I think it may have been in Mike's router bits to go with the big pin router. This bit is rated to run at 21K rpm. That's it on the right.

So, I swapped that bit into the big PC router. I also went ahead and made up another aluminum notch bar, with narrower spacing between the notches to fit the 1 1/2" bit.

More testing ahead! Next up, I may do those two guitar bodies that Keith left for me to cut down.

By the way, those lines on the black UHMW plastic are just trails of fine dust, held on by static electricity. There's no signs of wear or grooves in the plastic so far. I'll be watching it.

 

[Bruce Johnson]

Another little detail on the Super Router Planer:

I took off the left side aluminum bar rail and milled two rectangular notches in the top edge, one near each end. I carefully filed ramps on the edges, so the UHMW sheet wouldn't catch on them. Just on the left side rail.

The purpose? It's a pass-through notch for the notch bar. When I slide the bridge up to that position, I can now slide the bridge sideways, with the notch bar passing through this new rail notch. I don't have to lift up the front edge of the bridge, like I had been doing.

I'm about to move the whole thing over into Unit 2, which will probably be its permanent home. I'm going to do some more testing on it with the new smaller router bit, thinning down those two guitar bodies for Keith.

This fixture/machine is about done. A few more bits of testing and tweaking to go. Overall, it's working well and doing what I want. In another week or so I'll run that batch of walnut Scroll Bass body blanks through it.

 

[John_Nicholas]

Another little detail on the Super Router Planer:

I took off the left side aluminum bar rail and milled two rectangular notches in the top edge, one near each end. I carefully filed ramps on the edges, so the UHMW sheet wouldn't catch on them. Just on the left side rail.

View attachment 4308670

The purpose? It's a pass-through notch for the notch bar. When I slide the bridge up to that position, I can now slide the bridge sideways, with the notch bar passing through this new rail notch. I don't have to lift up the front edge of the bridge, like I had been doing.

View attachment 4308671

I'm about to move the whole thing over into Unit 2, which will probably be its permanent home. I'm going to do some more testing on it with the new smaller router bit, thinning down those two guitar bodies for Keith.

This fixture/machine is about done. A few more bits of testing and tweaking to go. Overall, it's working well and doing what I want. In another week or so I'll run that batch of walnut Scroll Bass body blanks through it.

What a fabulous purpose built jig! Love how you added details to make it even easier to use.

It's interesting watching the evolution of the initial design morph into a useful and precise tool. Excellent work.

Please let us know how or if this improves your workflow or how much time it saves you.

 

[Bruce Johnson]

One of my biggest rules when making machines and fixtures is: Always put it together with screws and bolts. During the build and testing, I always find things that need to be fixed and modified. I need to be able to take it apart, and carry pieces over to the drill press, bandsaw, or milling machine. And often, the problems and solutions don't appear until it's mostly built and in front of me.

I learned this from a long career in the corporate R & D engineering world. A team of smart engineers can spend months imagining and designing something in the computer. And then, when the parts start bolting together and moving, there's a whole lot of forehead-smacking. The more complex a machine is, the more difficult it is to mentally visualize all the possible problems with fit and movement and operation.

A sub-rule is to always make witness marks before disassembly. So you can make sure it goes back together the same way.

 

[Bruce Johnson]

Another busy Sunday, mostly spent fixing things around my shop and the building. I didn't get to do any more test runs with the Super Router Planer, but I did get it moved over into Unit 2. That's going to be its permanent home, for now.

Now, I've got to get back to a big pile of machining jobs; making parts for instruments. And finish up a couple of instruments that are at final assembly. And then back to building new Scroll Basses. And then a couple of other new upcoming machine projects......

 

[Bruce Johnson]

Well, I spent some quality time running the Super Router Planing Fixture today. A heavy job, giving it a good test of its capabilities. Keith Horne left two guitar body blanks with me to be thinned down. They were rough sawn to the perimeter shape, and 2" thick. Both needed to be thinned down to 1 1/8". Routing off 7/8" of wood from the back. That's a lot of routing! A good test for the 1 1/2" dia cutter, running at the full 21K rpm speed. How much depth could it cut in a pass?

Success, overall! But it was more physical work than I expected, and there are still a few problematic areas on this machine that need more work.

Some things I learned:

• The 1 1/2" cutter at 21K rpm is definitely an improvement in cutting power over the 2" bit at 16K. But it was still somewhat limited in how deep I could cut per pass, even with the big 3 1/4 HP router motor. 1/8" per pass worked well. 1/4" per pass would lug the router down way too low. So I cut these bodies down in about 7 passes, with the last one about 1/16". It took about 45 minutes per body.
• It cut the bodies accurately to 1 1/8", and the surface finish was good. There are still some slight steps between the passes, as if the router is slightly tilted in the bridge.
• It was a lot of physical work, forward and back rowing motion. Shoulder and back exercise. I'm sittin' here dreaming up ways to make it pneumatic or electric powered.
• I quickly found out that the best mode is to do the cutting passes all pulling toward me. That way, 95% of the chips and dust get blown straight out the back of the bed, against the wall. If I cut pushing away, the chips all get blown right at my chest! I think I can pull the machine away from the wall a bit and build a small hood with a chute leading down to a trash can. That will probably take care of most of the chips and sawdust. I don't think a dust collector hood over the bridge would do much good. Not much ends up inside the bridge. It almost all gets shot straight out the back, as long as I'm cutting pulling toward me.
• The aluminum notch bar is problematic. It wants to drag and catch on the sides of the aluminum rails. I think I'm going to make a new notch bar from a thicker bar of slippery plastic.
• The slide-in fixture to hold the bodies worked great. They are held down with two screws, up from the bottom. Very secure and quick to attach the bodies.

Some more development is needed, but overall it's working well. Doing a difficult job.

 

[MovinTarget]

Well, I spent some quality time running the Super Router Planing Fixture today. A heavy job, giving it a good test of its capabilities. Keith Horne left two guitar body blanks with me to be thinned down. They were rough sawn to the perimeter shape, and 2" thick. Both needed to be thinned down to 1 1/8". Routing off 7/8" of wood from the back. That's a lot of routing! A good test for the 1 1/2" dia cutter, running at the full 21K rpm speed. How much depth could it cut in a pass?

View attachment 4329625

View attachment 4329626

Success, overall! But it was more physical work than I expected, and there are still a few problematic areas on this machine that need more work.

Some things I learned:

• The 1 1/2" cutter at 21K rpm is definitely an improvement in cutting power over the 2" bit at 16K. But it was still somewhat limited in how deep I could cut per pass, even with the big 3 1/4 HP router motor. 1/8" per pass worked well. 1/4" per pass would lug the router down way too low. So I cut these bodies down in about 7 passes, with the last one about 1/16". It took about 45 minutes per body.
• It cut the bodies accurately to 1 1/8", and the surface finish was good. There are still some slight steps between the passes, as if the router is slightly tilted in the bridge.
• It was a lot of physical work, forward and back rowing motion. Shoulder and back exercise. I'm sittin' here dreaming up ways to make it pneumatic or electric powered.
• I quickly found out that the best mode is to do the cutting passes all pulling toward me. That way, 95% of the chips and dust get blown straight out the back of the bed, against the wall. If I cut pushing away, the chips all get blown right at my chest! I think I can pull the machine away from the wall a bit and build a small hood with a chute leading down to a trash can. That will probably take care of most of the chips and sawdust. I don't think a dust collector hood over the bridge would do much good. Not much ends up inside the bridge. It almost all gets shot straight out the back, as long as I'm cutting pulling toward me.
• The aluminum notch bar is problematic. It wants to drag and catch on the sides of the aluminum rails. I think I'm going to make a new notch bar from a thicker bar of slippery plastic.
• The slide-in fixture to hold the bodies worked great. They are held down with two screws, up from the bottom. Very secure and quick to attach the bodies.

Some more development is needed, but overall it's working well. Doing a difficult job.

Simple.

Vacuum board at 90 degree angle. Then attach a rope/pulley system to ease it down with gravity and pull it back up with the pulleys doing the literal heavy lifting!

Bottom line, its not nearly over-engineered enough!

 

[RichterScale]

The aluminum notch bar is problematic. It wants to drag and catch on the sides of the aluminum rails.

Could you round and smooth over just the sharp edges so they don't bite?
Also, I like graphite dry lube for stuff like that. That way dust won't stick and gunk up like with grease.