Robert Reece
09-27-2009, 7:52 PM
I have an older Porter Cable omnijig, though I suspect some of the modern jigs have this same issue I ran into.
When doing the pin board in 1/2" stock, you need a bearing guided router bit with a 5/8" bearing and 9/16" cutting diameter (kind of an odd bit). However, the depth of cut on the bit is 1/2" for the jig fingers + thickness of the tail board stock, which in my case is 1/2". So I set the depth of cut for 1" but the bearing on my bit barely protrudes below the base plate. My cutter length is 3/4", but there is about a 1/8"+ gap between the cutters and the bearing. The bearing is as low as it can go.
So what I suspected would happen, happened. The bearing hopped up on top of one of the fingers and the cutters sank into the aluminum jig finger.
My current solution is to set the depth of cut such that I get enough bearing to make me comfortable and just flush trim the pins after I glue the drawer up. Not ideal, but it will work.
I'd really like to grind about 1/8" off the end the router bit, that would solve all the problems. But I don't have such facilities, I guess I could ask a sharpening outfit if they could do it.
Has anybody seen this issue and come up with a better solution?
When doing the pin board in 1/2" stock, you need a bearing guided router bit with a 5/8" bearing and 9/16" cutting diameter (kind of an odd bit). However, the depth of cut on the bit is 1/2" for the jig fingers + thickness of the tail board stock, which in my case is 1/2". So I set the depth of cut for 1" but the bearing on my bit barely protrudes below the base plate. My cutter length is 3/4", but there is about a 1/8"+ gap between the cutters and the bearing. The bearing is as low as it can go.
So what I suspected would happen, happened. The bearing hopped up on top of one of the fingers and the cutters sank into the aluminum jig finger.
My current solution is to set the depth of cut such that I get enough bearing to make me comfortable and just flush trim the pins after I glue the drawer up. Not ideal, but it will work.
I'd really like to grind about 1/8" off the end the router bit, that would solve all the problems. But I don't have such facilities, I guess I could ask a sharpening outfit if they could do it.
Has anybody seen this issue and come up with a better solution?