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jbrooks544 · 08-17-2004, 06:13 AM

Norm probably uses some sort of collar on the router base plate that fits into the guide holes on his jig. I never bought one of these fancy collars, so I just take a piece of plywood and cut a decent size hole in the middle to allow the router bit to have room to travel. I then screw pieces of wood in parallel on to the piece of plywood to guide the router base plate. Have them be the same width apart as the max width of the plate. So, now you have a piece of plywood, about a foot wide by two feet long with a 4" X 1" slot in the middle for bit travel and two rails that allow the router to travel longitudinally. Next, you figure how long your cuts will be. Then, you screw pieces of wood across the jig, between the rails, to act as stops (router base plate would bump into them to stop travel). If your plunge is 2" long then the stops at each end allow the router to only travel a total of 2". Next, you have to screw some 2x4's - or similar type stock - on edge, to your workbench. These will create a channel for your finish piece to travel between and for your jig to be screwed to the top of. I would space them apart about the same distance as the width of the finish piece. If you are routing 1" thick stock on edge then the 2x's should be 1" apart (a tad more to allow the stock to slide between). 2x4's will work if the piece you are routing is 3.5" wide. If the pieces are 2.5" wide then you would need to rip the 2x4's to that width before mounting them. Have a couple other 2x's ripped to same width to mount to bench about 10" to either side, to help support the plywood jig piece that is attached above. Screw the jig made earlier on top of your 2x's at the angle that you want your cuts made. Practice on scrap to get adjustment correct. To space out each cut you can either just have them laid out in pencil and/or drill a hole through the plywood that you can push a dowel stop through. If cuts are 2" apart then the dowel stop hole would be two inches away from the router bit center and the dowel would be pushed down into the previous cut. You may need two holes, one for each end of the previous cut. After each plunge cut, you pull the dowel(s), slide the piece, and push the dowel(s) into the cut you just made. You could have this jig made in about 15 minutes and the job done within about 45 mins. max. Hope this helped, have fun!

08-17-2004, 06:13 AM	#7 (permalink)
jbrooks544 Addict	Norm probably uses some sort of collar on the router base plate that fits into the guide holes on his jig. I never bought one of these fancy collars, so I just take a piece of plywood and cut a decent size hole in the middle to allow the router bit to have room to travel. I then screw pieces of wood in parallel on to the piece of plywood to guide the router base plate. Have them be the same width apart as the max width of the plate. So, now you have a piece of plywood, about a foot wide by two feet long with a 4" X 1" slot in the middle for bit travel and two rails that allow the router to travel longitudinally. Next, you figure how long your cuts will be. Then, you screw pieces of wood across the jig, between the rails, to act as stops (router base plate would bump into them to stop travel). If your plunge is 2" long then the stops at each end allow the router to only travel a total of 2". Next, you have to screw some 2x4's - or similar type stock - on edge, to your workbench. These will create a channel for your finish piece to travel between and for your jig to be screwed to the top of. I would space them apart about the same distance as the width of the finish piece. If you are routing 1" thick stock on edge then the 2x's should be 1" apart (a tad more to allow the stock to slide between). 2x4's will work if the piece you are routing is 3.5" wide. If the pieces are 2.5" wide then you would need to rip the 2x4's to that width before mounting them. Have a couple other 2x's ripped to same width to mount to bench about 10" to either side, to help support the plywood jig piece that is attached above. Screw the jig made earlier on top of your 2x's at the angle that you want your cuts made. Practice on scrap to get adjustment correct. To space out each cut you can either just have them laid out in pencil and/or drill a hole through the plywood that you can push a dowel stop through. If cuts are 2" apart then the dowel stop hole would be two inches away from the router bit center and the dowel would be pushed down into the previous cut. You may need two holes, one for each end of the previous cut. After each plunge cut, you pull the dowel(s), slide the piece, and push the dowel(s) into the cut you just made. You could have this jig made in about 15 minutes and the job done within about 45 mins. max. Hope this helped, have fun!