Router duplicating jig

[John T Barker]

A year and a half ago I bought a chunk of morrel burl which I flattened on one side, sanded up, and then "scooped" out a bowl in to it. I roughed it out with a forstner on my drill press and then went at the final shaping with a carving burr chucked in my hand drill. This surface was then sanded with pad sanders in the same drill. WAY TOO labor intensive and punishing on me. I got requests for more of these and am thinking of selling some so I need to come up with something faster and less labor intensive. I've seen different versions of duplicating machines which use routers and they seem straight forward and capable of doing the job...or close to it. I was wondering if anyone had come across plans to make one. I'm fairly confident I can do it without them but if I can find a cheap set of plans (Shopnotes) it would help me greatly. I think the only drawback of these machines is that they can only allow the router to move on two axis and the stock must make the final move. This has drawbacks for irregular pieces of stock like burlwood.

[Jamie Buxton]

Why not turn the bowl shape? You'd need to have a lathe, but small ones aren't that expensive. You also wouldn't have to invent anything; turning is a standard process, and there's lots of knowledge and help available.

[HANK METZ]

Knocking together a working lathe isn’t really all that hard, and you probably have enough materials on hand to get a reasonable facsimile up and running.
Should you decide this is the way to go, check out Craigslist and pick a real one up on the cheap.

Here’s a link to one homemade lathe (http://www.nobugs.org/engineer/woodlathe/index.html) that is so low tech it’s no tech, powered by a portable electric drill. I wouldn’t even spend a buck on shaft pillow blocks, make ‘em out of maple, a self- lubricating hardwood that can take an amazing number of revolutions just fine.


- Beachside Hank
The use of nails in fine furniture is to be abhorred- drywall screws are preferred.

[Homer Faucett]

For a bowl, you may be better served using some jigs and a bowl bit in your router. Do an online search for "router" and "bowl". I think Woodsmith had an article on doing this a few months back.

As far as doing bowls on a drill-operated lathe . . . you might be able to, but I don't think I'd want to try it. I started out with an el-cheapo lathe, and it was both frustrating and dangerous (too much flex in the head allowed things to wobble). The drill-powered lathe might not be powerful enough to be dangerous, but I wouldn't want to find out. I now have an old-school 1954 Delta lathe I restored and put a 2hp motor with a VFD on it.

[Myk Rian]

This, or a variation of it, will work.
Some copiers are side-by-side.

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[Prashun Patel]

I think yr best bet is to use a router with a "bowl and tray" bearing guided bit. You can use these in conjunction with a 1/4" circular template.

[Greg Hines, MD]

I would use a lathe for it, but if you are set on doing it with a router, David Marks made a jig for one of his shows with two half-moon shaped sides, spaced to fit the sides of a square sided router (I think it was a DeWalt) and you would scoop out a depression with a straight bit. He was making a bowl in the center of a plank for a table top, so could not lathe it. However, he had to make several passes, and you could only bring the bit in from the edge to the center before you start climb cutting, so he just spun this round jig in a round template clamped to his workpiece to do it. If you are just making bowls, a midi lathe with a jaw chuck is the way to go.

[John T Barker]

My mistake gents. I should have shown a picture of the bowl. The thing I liked about what I did was that it left one side(?) completely natural. (P.S.-I own one lathe and the parts to make a second.)

The concavity in this is eliptical and I'd like to do some uniform circles, depending on the burl.


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What do you think would be a good price for that...the burl cost about $80.

[Brian W Evans]

This is totally outside my experience, but I was watching some of Matthias Wandel's (http://www.sentex.net/~mwandel/) (woodgears.ca (http://woodgears.ca/)) videos on youtube (http://www.youtube.com/user/Matthiaswandel?ob=0&feature=results_main) this morning and I saw he had made a router pantograph. I think it might be able to do what you want. Check out the articles on his web site (http://woodgears.ca/pantograph/index.html) to learn more.

229508

[John T Barker]

This is totally outside my experience, but I was watching some of Matthias Wandel's (http://www.sentex.net/%7Emwandel/) (woodgears.ca (http://woodgears.ca/)) videos on youtube (http://www.youtube.com/user/Matthiaswandel?ob=0&feature=results_main) this morning and I saw he had made a router pantograph. I think it might be able to do what you want. Check out the articles on his web site (http://woodgears.ca/pantograph/index.html) to learn more.

229508

What you've got picture is similar but it needs to be able to duplicate on at least two axis, all three if possible. I have tons of pictures of professionally sold stuff I just was hoping for a plan for some guidance.
Thanks.

[Myk Rian]

What you've got picture is similar but it needs to be able to duplicate on at least two axis, all three if possible.
Did you see my post? http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?184971-Router-duplicating-jig&p=1910988#post1910988
It isn't hard to make, and will do what you need it to.
In the book "Router Magic" by Bill Hylton

[Brian W Evans]

What you've got picture is similar but it needs to be able to duplicate on at least two axis, all three if possible. I have tons of pictures of professionally sold stuff I just was hoping for a plan for some guidance.
Thanks.

This pantograph works in 3 dimensions. He has plans on his site (for $12) but there are also lots of pictures that might give you some ideas.

[John T Barker]

This, or a variation of it, will work.
Some copiers are side-by-side.

229398 229397

Thanks. This one seems to limit the size of the stock or require me to build that frame much bigger. The test also offers it as a shallow depth carver, my bowls are about 4" deep in the concavity. I think the side by side type will serve my purposes.