Router Planing Fixtures

[Flamingo21]

In order to ease my way into router planing fixture building, I decided to start by copying the fixture that opens this thread.

I built this from MDF. Thickness is 18mm, so I'm guessing it's nominally 3/4". The parts are held together with wood glue and screws.

The base is two halves whose long feet slide together, so each foot supports both halves. The feet lift the base up by 60mm, so clamps can lie under it and hold it together. (I can't show that in a photo because I don't yet have long clamps that can do this.)

The width of the base can be varied from 317mm to 388mm. If I want to plane a piece narrower than 317mm I can lay a sacrificial piece next to it. If I want wider than 388mm I would need a longer bridge than the one I built, so that's out for now.
The length, front to back, is just over 600mm. I think I can plane pieces of up to about 500mm length.

For planing duties I bought the widest bit I could find. It is 25mm wide, so I'll call it the Near Inch Bit. The Nib.

The bridge has two handles near the ends, so I can shove it back and forth without accidentally pushing the router down onto the piece. This is a view from the back:

The Nib can peek a maximum of 12mm through the hole in the floor of the bridge. Since the bridge travels at 36mm above the base, this means I can plane pieces to a minimum of 24mm. If I want thinner, I'll lay something under the piece.

On the lower front of the bridge there's is a strip of maple with nails. The nails are spaced 22mm apart and slide on both sides of the left side rail. The planing is a straight rowing motion front to back and back to front. After each row, the bridge is lifted and moved one nail (22mm) to the right. Since the Nib is 25mm, this gives overlapping paths so the whole surface gets routed.

The story is not complete without the following anecdote, which has to do with being a beginner. When I started building this fixture I knew that cutting MDF perfectly straight would be a challenge for me. I don't have a table saw, and I haven't yet learnt to make straight cuts on my band saw. Luckily, on page 4 of this thread there's this post by @Beej which taught me to be very smart about exactly which edges need to be perfectly straight, and which ones can be wobbly-straight-ish. Thanks, Beej.
Router Planing Fixtures

With that in mind, I cut my 2x4 sheets of MDF to make the best use of the straight outer edges. I call those edges "factory straights". (And yes, I checked all factory straights against known straights.)

For some parts I felt this procedure wasn't sufficient, so I used the big store's Saw Service. They make perfect cuts for you on a sophisticated fast machine, and charge you half a euro per cut.

As it happened, I tried a new big store, and they immediately tried to make me a Club Member and give me a Club Card. You know the drill. At first, my thought was "No! Not another Card in my wallet! Not another stream of promotional emails!" But when I looked into it, I found that (a) membership is free, and (b) members get free Saw Service! Er... yes, I'll be a member!

Of course, I want to improve my saw skills so I eventually won't need the Saw Service. But in the meantime, I intend to make good use of this for the next router planing fixture, which should be for neck stringers.

Thanks @Bruce Johnson for showing and explaining yours!

 

[ardgedee]

For some parts I felt this procedure wasn't sufficient, so I used the big store's Saw Service. They make perfect cuts for you on a sophisticated fast machine, and charge you half a euro per cut.

As it happened, I tried a new big store, and they immediately tried to make me a Club Member and give me a Club Card. You know the drill. At first, my thought was "No! Not another Card in my wallet! Not another stream of promotional emails!" But when I looked into it, I found that (a) membership is free, and (b) members get free Saw Service! Er... yes, I'll be a member!

Of course, I want to improve my saw skills so I eventually won't need the Saw Service. But in the meantime, I intend to make good use of this for the next fixture, which should be for neck stringers.

Thanks, @Bruce Johnson for showing and explaining yours!

Your setup looks nice! I don't have a tablesaw either and I'll be using your post as guidance when I plan a fixture.

 

[Bruce Johnson]

In order to ease my way into router planing fixture building, I decided to start by copying the fixture that opens this thread.

I built this from MDF. Thickness is 18mm, so I'm guessing it's nominally 3/4". The parts are held together with wood glue and screws.

The base is two halves whose long feet slide together, so each foot supports both halves. The feet lift the base up by 60mm, so clamps can lie under it and hold it together. (I can't show that in a photo because I don't yet have long clamps that can do this.)

View attachment 5035914

The width of the base can be varied from 317mm to 388mm. If I want to plane a piece narrower than 317mm I can lay a sacrificial piece next to it. If I want wider than 388mm I would need a longer bridge than the one I built, so that's out for now.
The length, front to back, is just over 600mm. I think I can plane pieces of up to about 500mm length.

For planing duties I bought the widest bit I could find. It is 25mm wide, so I'll call it the Near Inch Bit. The Nib.

View attachment 5035921

The bridge has two handles near the ends, so I can shove it back and forth without accidentally pushing the router down onto the piece. This is a view from the back:

View attachment 5035922

The Nib can peek a maximum of 12mm through the hole in the floor of the bridge. Since the bridge travels at 36mm above the base, this means I can plane pieces to a minimum of 24mm. If I want thinner, I'll lay something under the piece.

View attachment 5035939
View attachment 5035940

On the lower front of the bridge there's is a strip of maple with nails. The nails are spaced 22mm apart and slide on both sides of the left side rail. The planing is a straight rowing motion front to back and back to front. After each row, the bridge is lifted and moved one nail (22mm) to the right. Since the Nib is 25mm, this gives overlapping paths so the whole surface gets routed.

View attachment 5035925

The story is not complete without the following anecdote, which has to do with being a beginner. When I started building this fixture I knew that cutting MDF perfectly straight would be a challenge for me. I don't have a table saw, and I haven't yet learnt to make straight cuts on my band saw. Luckily, on page 4 of this thread there's this post by @Beej which taught me to be very smart about exactly which edges need to be perfectly straight, and which ones can be wobbly-straight-ish. Thanks, Beej.
Router Planing Fixtures

With that in mind, I cut my 2x4 sheets of MDF to make the best use of the straight outer edges. I call those edges "factory straights". (And yes, I checked all factory straights against known straights.)

For some parts I felt this procedure wasn't sufficient, so I used the big store's Saw Service. They make perfect cuts for you on a sophisticated fast machine, and charge you half a euro per cut.

As it happened, I tried a new big store, and they immediately tried to make me a Club Member and give me a Club Card. You know the drill. At first, my thought was "No! Not another Card in my wallet! Not another stream of promotional emails!" But when I looked into it, I found that (a) membership is free, and (b) members get free Saw Service! Er... yes, I'll be a member!

Of course, I want to improve my saw skills so I eventually won't need the Saw Service. But in the meantime, I intend to make good use of this for the next router planing fixture, which should be for neck stringers.

Thanks @Bruce Johnson for showing and explaining yours!

Looks good! You picked up all the important design features. It should work well for you. Tell us if you have any problems.

I had a shop for many years before I got my first tablesaw. Back in those days, I cut up sheets with a Skilsaw on sawhorses, cut boards to length with a radial arm saw, and did all my ripping with the bandsaw. These days I have a nice tablesaw, but I still do a lot of ripping on the bandsaw. Particularly thick hard maple. It's scary cutting long strips on the tablesaw, even when it's all tricked out and set up. Ripping on the bandsaw is slower but safer and less stressful. I bandsaw to a pencil line, steering by eye, no fence. About 1/8" oversize. Then, I straighten the edges with the jointer or a hand plane.

Before I had the tablesaw, that's how I made the MDF parts for fixtures. Such as the matching side rails of a router planing fixture. I would use a Skilsaw or bandsaw to get them close. Then screw the pair together side by side and straighten the top and bottom edges with a long hand plane. A reasonably sharp hand plane does a beautiful job straightening the edge of an MDF board. Plane them while they are screwed together and they are exactly the same size.

These days, I usually cut my MDF fixture parts on the tablesaw, but I often touch up the "rail" edges with a long plane. I actually use my hand planes more on MDF than on hardwoods.

It's really cool to have a long #7 size plane, but a #5 size works fine for fixtures too.

 

[Flying B]

I would recommend getting a rail saw, they are so cheap nowadays and are by far the easiest way to break down large sheets into smaller components. Actually much easier than a table saw, unless you have a large sliding panel saw or build huge outfeed and side tables on your table saw. And they will give you a perfectly straight 90° edge.

 

[MovinTarget]

I would recommend getting a rail saw, they are so cheap nowadays and are by far the easiest way to break down large sheets into smaller components. Actually much easier than a table saw, unless you have a large sliding panel saw or build huge outfeed and side tables on your table saw. And they will give you a perfectly straight 90° edge.

*googling Rail Saw Intensifies*

 

[TerribleTim68]

Otherwise known as "track saw".

 

[Flying B]

Or plunge saw!

 

[rudy4444]

As a alternative to an actual track saw I used my DeWalt circular saw for years to break down large sheet goods and also make "close to precision" cuts. I used good quality 1/4" or 3/8" plywood and added a second offset layer (glued / screwed) that functioned as the saw base plate guide. That layer was added just a bit farther than the base plate width to the inside of the blade. The first pass cuts the bottom plywood to the exact width you would normally add when making a guided cut. The huge advantage to this is once your guide is made you never need to measure again. The guide is clamped to the work so the guide edge is exactly where the cut needs to be. All you have to do is make sure you hold the saw against the guide.

I've used this sort of guide for literally decades and seeing "track saws" come on the market (at shocking to me prices...) made me wonder why there was such a big deal made over these saws.

Yes, the store-bought track saws are "better" than my homebrew guides, but not THAT much better!

This system works so well that I use a variant of it to make precision edges with my router and a good long shank spiral carbide cutter.

 

[BishopJP]

As a alternative to an actual track saw I used my DeWalt circular saw for years to break down large sheet goods and also make "close to precision" cuts. I used good quality 1/4" or 3/8" plywood and added a second offset layer (glued / screwed) that functioned as the saw base plate guide. That layer was added just a bit farther than the base plate width to the inside of the blade. The first pass cuts the bottom plywood to the exact width you would normally add when making a guided cut. The huge advantage to this is once your guide is made you never need to measure again. The guide is clamped to the work so the guide edge is exactly where the cut needs to be. All you have to do is make sure you hold the saw against the guide.

I've used this sort of guide for literally decades and seeing "track saws" come on the market (at shocking to me prices...) made me wonder why there was such a big deal made over these saws.

Yes, the store-bought track saws are "better" than my homebrew guides, but not THAT much better!

This system works so well that I use a variant of it to make precision edges with my router and a good long shank spiral carbide cutter.

This!^^^
I've been using that exact type of homemade saw guide for forever and a day...
Way easier and safer than trying to feed sheet goods through a table saw, by yourself.

 

[ardgedee]

As a alternative to an actual track saw I used my DeWalt circular saw for years to break down large sheet goods and also make "close to precision" cuts. I used good quality 1/4" or 3/8" plywood and added a second offset layer (glued / screwed) that functioned as the saw base plate guide. That layer was added just a bit farther than the base plate width to the inside of the blade. The first pass cuts the bottom plywood to the exact width you would normally add when making a guided cut. The huge advantage to this is once your guide is made you never need to measure again. The guide is clamped to the work so the guide edge is exactly where the cut needs to be. All you have to do is make sure you hold the saw against the guide.

Can you post a photo? I'm having difficulty visualizing this but it sounds interesting.

 

[Bruce Johnson]

Hey guys;

I just started up a new thread about sawing up panels in a small shop. Let's consolidate our ideas over there, and make it easier for everyone else to find them.

Sawing Up Sheets Of MDF & Plywood In A Small Shop

 

[rudy4444]

Can you post a photo? I'm having difficulty visualizing this but it sounds interesting.

I'll try and post a photo in Bruce's "Sawing Up Sheets Of MDF & Plywood In A Small Shop" dedicated topic.

 

[ardgedee]

Hey guys;

I just started up a new thread about sawing up panels in a small shop. Let's consolidate our ideas over there, and make it easier for everyone else to find them.

Sawing Up Sheets Of MDF & Plywood In A Small Shop

I've flagged some posts so hopefully the mods will move the digression to your new thread. Thanks!

 

[rudy4444]

I'll try and post a photo in Bruce's "Sawing Up Sheets Of MDF & Plywood In A Small Shop" dedicated topic.

Even better than ME posting, the same setup has already been posted in the new topic:

Sawing Up Sheets Of MDF & Plywood In A Small Shop

I make my guides about 6" longer than 8 feet and also have one about 54" to cut 4' widths. The extra length is so the saw starts its cut straight at the edges.

 

[Reedt2000]

I'm looking for examples of fixtures made to carve a contoured body like a Spector. I know I've read threads where this was done, and I have a general idea of how to make one, but I want to read multiple examples and finalize what I'll build. Of course, I can't find any of those threads when I search

So I figured I'd ask if anyone here would post links for me (I even searched this thread for "contoured body", "contour", "Spector", and came up empty). I know @MPU did a thumb style bass using such a fixture. There was a past build off like that too, it was a Warwick inspired build... Thumbinvette or something like that.

I want to not only finalize a router fixture design, but also read about the steps of the build. I'm thinking I need to do everything but the contouring (neck pocket, pickup routes, flat spot for the bridge route, control cavity route) then route the contours in. The only tricky thing I forsee in that build order is contouring the top (or back depending on which is done first), with the other side contoured already. I think I'd just need to shim it level in a very secure way, then route, but I'm doing my due diligence as I formulate a plan.

Any insights are greatly appreciated

 

[ardgedee]

I'm looking for examples of fixtures made to carve a contoured body like a Spector. I know I've read threads where this was done, and I have a general idea of how to make one, but I want to read multiple examples and finalize what I'll build. Of course, I can't find any of those threads when I search

Dwizum's Thumfinizenvette?

iirc some radiused bodies are made with the wings joined at an angle of 5° or 10°. There's less wood to carve away like that.

 

[Reedt2000]

Dwizum's Thumfinizenvette?

iirc some radiused bodies are made with the wings joined at an angle of 5° or 10°. There's less wood to carve away like that.

Yup, that's the one, thank you!

I'll be working from an already glued blank. I could cut it, but my tools are pretty basic, I don’t have a planer or joiner, so I think router is the way to go. What @dwizum built is exactly what I'm looking to do, though I'll be making a bolt-on.

 

[Bruce Johnson]

For those of you following along on this thread, the Super Router Planer is now undergoing a conversion into the.....Super Pin Router Planer!

I've moved it over to the Pin Routers thread, if you are curious. It's transforming into a much cooler machine. I hope.

 

[rwkeating]

Old thread, but I finally got around to building one of these jigs. Thanks for all the ideas!

I made this out of 3/4" MDF and 1 1/2" aluminum angle. I bought the aluminum so that I'd have perfectly flat and straight rails. Unfortunately, the aluminum wasn't straight and I had to fix that by putting them side to side and sanding them. If I would have known this would have happened, I would have just made my own rails out of MDF or wood. I bought the aluminum from McMaster-Carr and I picked them up in person. This was not shipping damage but an actual high spot in the aluminum from the manufacturing process.

By laying another piece of 3/4" MDF in the channel, I can make boards even thinner. I used some scrap wood (1/4" thick) to hold down the wood I'd be working on. A rough curve cut into those scraps, then held down by a clamp, will grab most size pieces I'll be working on. This wont hold the wood flat, but it will hold it from moving around.

The sled is way wider than it needs to be. Originally I was going to make the base wider, but I needed to "steal" some MDF to lay in the channel as I didn't have enough. I'm leaving the sled that wide as I may be able to use it that way with another base I might make in the future.

It is only a trim router, but I just bought it before even thinking of this application so that's what I had to work with. Go slow and take small bites and it seams to work just fine.

I am using a Freud 1 1/4" dia Mortising bit with a 1/4" shaft (shaft size dictated by the router.) The two blocks of wood on the bottom keep the bit from running into the aluminum. To use this sled for another application, I would just remove those blocks and most likely install them at another location as needed.

 

[Matt Liebenau]

Old thread, but I finally got around to building one of these jigs. Thanks for all the ideas!

I made this out of 3/4" MDF and 1 1/2" aluminum angle. I bought the aluminum so that I'd have perfectly flat and straight rails. Unfortunately, the aluminum wasn't straight and I had to fix that by putting them side to side and sanding them. If I would have known this would have happened, I would have just made my own rails out of MDF or wood. I bought the aluminum from McMaster-Carr and I picked them up in person. This was not shipping damage but an actual high spot in the aluminum from the manufacturing process.
View attachment 5466524
By laying another piece of 3/4" MDF in the channel, I can make boards even thinner. I used some scrap wood (1/4" thick) to hold down the wood I'd be working on. A rough curve cut into those scraps, then held down by a clamp, will grab most size pieces I'll be working on. This wont hold the wood flat, but it will hold it from moving around.
View attachment 5466525

The sled is way wider than it needs to be. Originally I was going to make the base wider, but I needed to "steal" some MDF to lay in the channel as I didn't have enough. I'm leaving the sled that wide as I may be able to use it that way with another base I might make in the future.

It is only a trim router, but I just bought it before even thinking of this application so that's what I had to work with. Go slow and take small bites and it seams to work just fine. View attachment 5466529

I am using a Freud 1 1/4" dia Mortising bit with a 1/4" shaft (shaft size dictated by the router.) The two blocks of wood on the bottom keep the bit from running into the aluminum. To use this sled for another application, I would just remove those blocks and most likely install them at another location as needed.
View attachment 5466540

Cool! I hope the new jig works well for many years. I ran into that problem with some HD angle aluminium I was using for a jig. I had to use my fret leveling beam and sand, for a while, to get it flat. I was mildly surprised.