Kelly Craig
06-11-2010, 3:40 PM
Recently, I purchased a Shop Fox W1736, Bench Overarm Router for around six hundred, including shipping. I purchased it with the idea of making letters, numbers, signs and anything else I can think of that could be made by following a pattern.
From the little I've played with it so far, and once I’ve built a collection of patterns, it appears it's going to be money well spent and will open some new production doors.
Net searches produce several hits on pin routers that range from simple posts to videos on the use and sale of stationary units requiring a plunge router, home made units that rely on a drill press stand to light duty and commercial quality units that raise and lower via foot pedal. The majority of videos show larger units. A few are of the Shop Fox being used by people for making musical instruments. A few more are for the sales of stationary arms (e.g., Daisy).
In reality, there is very little information on techniques, concerns and improvements with regard to these things. I suspect the use of pin routers would be akin to the table router experience. Until you try it, you never really fully understand their capabilities and ease of use.
For these reasons, I'd really appreciate and enjoy hearing from others regarding their uses, experiences and so forth in relation to over routers and, especially, pin use. Toward that end, I’ve posted some of my information and findings:
1) One of the luthier sites shows a guy using the Shop Fox and a template to shape the outer edge of a guitar, then to router out for electronics and such. Instead of adjusting the stop for successive depth cuts, he merely removes a shim. A much quicker process.
I drilled and tapped a hole for a threaded rod just a couple inches back from my stop. My shims drop down over it and slide forward and back in slots.
The next improvement will be to make thumb/finger protuberances and to alter the slot (more curved and going east and west, versus just north and south (so to speak)
2) The Shop Fox comes with several pins. I’ve found I can drop washers over the tops of various sizes of pins to, temporarily, alter their widths, for different effects when following patterns.
3) I’ve found I can, some times, make some patterns by merely following an item secured to my pattern holding board. This produces the pattern on top.
4) For circles that must be routered, I can save a lot of router work by, first, going to my band saw circle jig. The I mount the circle in a holding device and need not deal with the complication of cutting through a piece of wood and having it float free (and potentially getting damaged, or thrown, by the bit).
From the little I've played with it so far, and once I’ve built a collection of patterns, it appears it's going to be money well spent and will open some new production doors.
Net searches produce several hits on pin routers that range from simple posts to videos on the use and sale of stationary units requiring a plunge router, home made units that rely on a drill press stand to light duty and commercial quality units that raise and lower via foot pedal. The majority of videos show larger units. A few are of the Shop Fox being used by people for making musical instruments. A few more are for the sales of stationary arms (e.g., Daisy).
In reality, there is very little information on techniques, concerns and improvements with regard to these things. I suspect the use of pin routers would be akin to the table router experience. Until you try it, you never really fully understand their capabilities and ease of use.
For these reasons, I'd really appreciate and enjoy hearing from others regarding their uses, experiences and so forth in relation to over routers and, especially, pin use. Toward that end, I’ve posted some of my information and findings:
1) One of the luthier sites shows a guy using the Shop Fox and a template to shape the outer edge of a guitar, then to router out for electronics and such. Instead of adjusting the stop for successive depth cuts, he merely removes a shim. A much quicker process.
I drilled and tapped a hole for a threaded rod just a couple inches back from my stop. My shims drop down over it and slide forward and back in slots.
The next improvement will be to make thumb/finger protuberances and to alter the slot (more curved and going east and west, versus just north and south (so to speak)
2) The Shop Fox comes with several pins. I’ve found I can drop washers over the tops of various sizes of pins to, temporarily, alter their widths, for different effects when following patterns.
3) I’ve found I can, some times, make some patterns by merely following an item secured to my pattern holding board. This produces the pattern on top.
4) For circles that must be routered, I can save a lot of router work by, first, going to my band saw circle jig. The I mount the circle in a holding device and need not deal with the complication of cutting through a piece of wood and having it float free (and potentially getting damaged, or thrown, by the bit).