A special attachment for a router I made

[george wilson]

I know this is the hand tool section,but I sort of live here. Many of us also use power tools anyway. And I promised David Weaver some entertainment while his wife is away. Been too busy with Chris Vesper to do much,plus my knee trouble.

Anyway,this is a nice little 1/4 h.p. Stanley router from the 50's I picked up some years ago. It is quite small and light weight,being about 2" in diameter. I decided to make a special housing for it to rout the edges of guitars to apply the bindings. This attachment,shown beside the regular router base,was made from a 3" bar of aluminum. It has vent holes drilled right on the end,so the air can circulate through the router. I can hold it freehand,and run it around the edges if guitars.

I had to also make some bits for it,with brass bearings. They have different steps on them to rout for different binding schemes.

Some of you may howl in horror,but the little handle is to grip to steady the router with my other hand. There is a longer handle that slips and locks over it,but I can't find it.Never had an accident with it,and did not make it for sale to others! Not recommended for clutzy(sp?) fingers.

I really can't recall all the things I've posted here,and on other forums,but I know I haven't posted this one. Forgive me if I re post things I have posted before. I just can't recall,and I know my searches aren't turning everything up.

[Andrew Gibson]

I know I haven't seen it before Geroge, thanks for sharing. I am working on my 6th and 7th ukuleles and routing the binding channel is always one of the more touchy processes for me.

[george wilson]

We did do it entirely by hand when I was in the Historic area. Do you have a violin purfling cutter? Make a knife blade for it,as opposed to the twin cutting edge knife they come with.

[john brenton]

Haha, I was expecting some kind of plywood jig....I forgot it was George posting!I'm also making some stringed instruments and just finally getting the courage to do some banding. I've done plenty of purfling, but no banding. So george, when doing it by hand do you just scribe along the sides and then pare out the waste? I've seen lots of luthier pages and illustrations, but never seen the process for the banding without a router.

[george wilson]

If you make a sharp knife that has a tip that centers exactly in the center of the rounded guide bar on the purfling cutter,and keep cutting downwards,you can do a pretty good job of making the rabbet.

After using the hand cutter,I ran around the edges with the little scratch stock to even things out a little better. I still have to use the scratch stock in the waist of guitars, even when I rout with electric routers. Somehow,they always cut shallower in the waist area no matter what. The scratch stock gets the binding rabbet to full depth there,though.

[john brenton]

How do you mean "center of rounded guide bar"? It would have to be a spear point tip then on the knife?
If you make a sharp knife that has a tip that centers exactly in the center of the rounded guide bar on the purfling cutter,and keep cutting downwards,you can do a pretty good job of making the rabbet.After using the hand cutter,I ran around the edges with the little scratch stock to even things out a little better. I still have to use the scratch stock in the waist of guitars, even when I rout with electric routers. Somehow,they always cut shallower in the waist area no matter what. The scratch stock gets the binding rabbet to full depth there,though.