The Versatility of Multi-Purpose Router Jigs

One of the things that you see happen in a lot of woodworking shops is we've got a device for this operation and device for this operation and each of those devices is very task specific. One of the things I wanna talk about today is the versatility that devices like this can bring to a shop. So this is a multi-purpose router jig and it's not a one trick pony, it's a many trick pony. It's kind of a stable full of ponies because on a machine like this, you can do dovetails, mortise and tenon, coping style doors, finger joins there's a huge variety of operations that can be done. So to start out with, let me give you an overview of kind of how everything works here and then you'll better understand the machine. Then we'll look at some actual cuttings so you can see how that works. So obviously the router itself is mounted on top of the machine remains in an upright position by using a plunge router for this, we'll be able to enter and exit the work so we can start and stop cuts. Now, one of the things that's unique about the machine is that the wood is traversed using the control of the machine. So what I mean by that is I've got a chunk of cherry already clamped in place here so as I turn this handle I can start the motion of that wood toward the machine. So it doesn't take much imagination to figure out that if I had a cutter in the router and I plunged in for a cut what would happen is we'd start to machine that piece. Now a good question would be, well how am I gonna locate the router for accuracy over that piece? Bunch of different options let's look at one here, which is a laser. So using the X on that laser we can locate the router over the material lock the router in position and continue our traverse depending on what cut we're trying to make here. Now here's another option that's pretty cool for locating everything that's a digital readout down here. So one of the things as woodworkers that we like to have in our back pocket is repeatability. If I make this cut today can I make it again tomorrow or a month from now? So with the digital readout, as I move the material you can see that in this case it's reading out to 1000s of an inch and that is telling me the position left or right of the sled, as it moves back and forth under the router. Now, if you like things a little more old fashioned kind of the analog version of knowing exactly where that carriage is positioned is to use a cursor down here that we can direct read off of a ruler that's mounted onto the jig itself. So lots of things, this machine is capable of I'm gonna walk you through just a small portion of what I to do is give you a feel for how the machine works so that you can see how a machine like this might fit into your woodworking needs. Let's take a look at one way to cut it through dovetail on this machine lots and lots of ways to skin the dovetail cat here but here's an approach that is pretty cool. First off, I'm gonna get my material in goes into the jig by being sandwiched between a fixed fence and a moveable clamp. Now remember that when we traverse the material the digital readout is telling us where we're at. So one of the things I've already done is found out where the ends of my board are and I recorded numbers for those positions right on the aluminum I can just erase that when I'm done but what I haven't done yet is found the middle. So let's have a look at doing that laser on and then traverse until the X is on my pencil line the pencil line indicating the center of the board and of course the laser indicating the center of the column and the bit that I'm gonna write that down. Okay, I've already set my depth of cut so now we're ready to make a cut. So I'll plug the router in turn the dust collection on the dust collection evacuates right through the back of the jig itself so cut-ins pretty darn clean and we're ready to go. That takes care of the tails for the joint which we'll look at in just a second and then we'll be ready to move on and look at some sockets. Like I said earlier, a lot of different ways to make a dovetail on this machine. I'm treating it like the way I would do a hand cut dovetails. So what I did is I traced the tails I just cut onto the end grain of what's gonna be my pin and socket board and I can cut right to the line on the machine here. Now you could alternatively use the cursor use the digital readout, lots of ways to make this happen. Lock my board in place now I'm gonna get the bit behind my work and I can eyeball my layout lines down through the machine here. One of the things I did to make a change was I changed my guides up here in order to allow me to cut at an angle. I'm cutting at the exact same angle eight degrees as the dovetail bit. So that gets everything to match up as far as the angle goes and we'll sneak up on those pencil lines using the traverse mechanism of the machine. Let's heck our work, a little bit of fuzzy from my maple and it's gonna take just a little there we go. So that takes care of one way that we could do through dovetails. Yes, you can also do half blind dovetails but I wanna move on to some other things that we can do on this machine to again, talk about is versatility. How about a raised panel for a raised panel door? That's what I'm set up to do next here. Now a couple of things are unique and pretty cool about this. One of the things you might've heard about as a woodworker is climb cutting. Many circumstances, climb cutting is dangerous to do 'cause it's easy for a router or the work or both to get away from you. In this case, the material is securely held in a sled I've got control of it by using the handle to reverse it across the bit. So here's, what's gonna happen I've got a vertical panel razor down below the router. I'm set up for my first pass on a cherry panel I'm gonna feed the material from my left to right which is effectively gonna do a climb cut with that cutter the benefit to it, excellent surface finish something that we can do here it's not something you wanna mess with under a lot of other circumstances. Now, one of the things I've done is added another form of dust collection out here on the front because we're cutting on the front. So that's gonna help grab a lot of that stuff that's come and fly and off of that panel razor here's how she's gonna go. Increase my depth to cut once the router bit winds down by advancing the sled in just a little bit and we're ready for a second pass and then we'll have a look at what we have in that cherry. Not to complete our rays panel we would continue making those passes typically your getting the back of the panel down to a thickness around a quarter inch that allows it to fit into a groove you've made in the rest of the frame and of course we wanna do all four sides but I wanted to show you just that part. So you could get a feel for how we could handle a raised panel on a multipurpose machine like this one. I've got a straight bit in the router now visualize a table leg mounted under here I could traverse back and forth and cut a mortis. Easy to visualize that here's something I think woodworkers have struggled with and that's, if you wanna do loose tenon joinery you need a mortis in the leg also need a mortis in the rail. Mortising and grain is tough I'm about to do it right here I use the laser in order to locate everything on the rail that I have in there and I'm ready to cut. Provides a very simple way to cut a mortising to end grain something that's difficult if not flat out impossible to do with most other machines in a woodworking shop. In each case, the way we've handled material here is by locking it into the machine and traversing it past the bit. Now you might very well say to yourself what if I've got something longer than I need to handle, longer than the traverse of the machine can take can do that too. So what I've done is I've mounted feather boards under the table. One to hold the material against the fence, one to hold the material up to the bottom. Then with my router bit and place depth and positioning set I can feed my material from one end to the other. Well, there's just the beginning of my edge forming profile coming out on my edge by increasing my cut laterally and or increasing my cut this way. I'll get more and more profile to show the point being there are methods by which we can feed long material past the cutter on these multipurpose machines. So what I've done here is given you really just a scratch the surface view of the kind of versatility that machines like this can bring to your shop. It's worth having a look to see if machines like this can help you be a faster, better, more efficient woodworker and see just what these can bring to the woodworking that you do.