Getting Started Table Routing

[Ben Roman]

Well I have had my Triton Router and MuleCab Router table insert installed in my TS3650 for about 2 months now and have not used it...:confused: Not sure why still new to routers in general... I think I have made 1 pass with my handheld in my life and it was fun... How should I get started using this obviously valuable tool in my day to day woodworking. I want to use the table router to make mortise and loose tenons.. I bought a bunch of bits from woodcraft and I am ready to go.. Any suggestions.

Ben

[mark koopman]

Hi,

First off I would strongly advise against making mortises with a table mounted router. There are a bunch of jigs available for this while using the router in the handheld position. In a table just seems dangerous to me. As for the loose tenons I would cut them to size on your TS and then round over two of the edges on both sides with a roundover bit half the size of the spiral bit you use for the mortises.

Ex: 3/4" stock Use a 3/8" spiral bit for the mortise and a 3/16" roundover for the edges of a loose tenon.

I may be wrong about this...somebody will clarify would he use a 3/16" roundover for a 3/8" spiral bit or would you use a 3/8" roundover. It's bee a while since I've used a router for mortises, got myself a bench mortiser.

[Ben Roman]

Is a bench mortiser the same as a hollow chisel mortiser?

[mark koopman]

yes it is indeed

[Ben Roman]

Do you use it to mortise both sides that you join together then create a loose tenon or do you do regular tenons?


Stupid Questions Probably

Ben

[mark koopman]

I have never used it to do loose tenons. I've always used the standard tenons. If you do use a hollow chisel mortiser with loose tenons you wouldn't have to round the loose tenons over though.

Hope this helps.

[Tom Jones III]

My best suggestion, go to www.patwarner.com

[PeterTorresani]

This is a pretty good book with a lot of tips on how and where to use a router.

[Norman Hitt]

Hi,

Ex: 3/4" stock Use a 3/8" spiral bit for the mortise and a 3/16" roundover for the edges of a loose tenon.

I may be wrong about this...somebody will clarify would he use a 3/16" roundover for a 3/8" spiral bit or would you use a 3/8" roundover. It's bee a while since I've used a router for mortises, got myself a bench mortiser.

Mark, you are "CORRECT" in the Roundover size in relation to the Spiral bit size. In your example, the 3/8" bit is sized by its diameter, whereas the roundover bits are sized by their radius, and since the radius = 1/2 of the diameter, a 3/16" roundover would be correct.

As to the mortise size in relation to the thickness of the stock, there are differing trains of thought on this. :confused: I have used both a 1/2 ratio as in your example, ie; (3/4" stock with a 3/8" mortise), but more often, I use a 1/3 ratio, ie; (3/4" stock with a 1/4" mortise), either will work, it just depends (with me at least:rolleyes: ), how much shoulder I feel that particular joint needs. Don't ask me how I make that decision,:confused: because I don't even know myself, and there's sure nothing scientific about it, :rolleyes: it's just whatever feels right at the time.:D

[Ben Roman]

I will try and fire it up tonight and see what happens... Also just got the book too.

Ben

[Dave Falkenstein]

I think a good way to get comfortable with your router table is to use it to do roundovers on fairly large pieces of material. Using a roundover bit with a bearing, you can make the cuts without a fence, and simply get a feel for working with the table. Once you are more comfortable, move on to more difficult cuts.

[mark koopman]

Mark, you are "CORRECT" in the Roundover size in relation to the Spiral bit size. In your example, the 3/8" bit is sized by its diameter, whereas the roundover bits are sized by their radius, and since the radius = 1/2 of the diameter, a 3/16" roundover would be correct.

As to the mortise size in relation to the thickness of the stock, there are differing trains of thought on this. :confused: I have used both a 1/2 ratio as in your example, ie; (3/4" stock with a 3/8" mortise), but more often, I use a 1/3 ratio, ie; (3/4" stock with a 1/4" mortise), either will work, it just depends (with me at least:rolleyes: ), how much shoulder I feel that particular joint needs. Don't ask me how I make that decision,:confused: because I don't even know myself, and there's sure nothing scientific about it, :rolleyes: it's just whatever feels right at the time.:D

Funny I use that exact same train of thought when deciding on shoulder sizes too.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Ya got the Triton in the right place. I think they built it intending it to be a table router. I have mine in a table also. It cycles back and forth between one "table" and another. Eventually I'll get a second Triton at a show where I can pay the $190.00 show price.

If you want to do mortices with the router You can do it one of several ways (here are some):

1.) The old fashioned way- affix the router horizontally projecting from a flat surface standing verticle. Rig a table neath the bit. Rig either the table or router to give you a locvkable height adjustment. Then you can hand feed the stock all day every day making fine mortises.
I ran an old machine for a while that was exactly like this. It was a wood contraption in a cabinet shop left over from the old days of Pully power from the ceiling. It worksd quite well. The OSHA inspector would have had fit. We hand held everything. Even used it for roughing out DTs.


2.) use one of those shop made jigs ( or commercial ones like Trend Router Technologies etc. ) that let you carve out mortises. Some commercial ones will mount the router to a fixed position others let you hold it in your hands.

3.) Build a slot mortiser. Yah it's the bomb there is nothing better!! Get yourself a nice X*Y milling table. I got mine for $90.00 new. Drill Tap & Rig it with stops, pull the dials and install lever handles. Then build a heavy steel angle iron frame to hold both the table and a horizontally mounted router. I built mine so I can angle the router head for chairs etc..
It's every bit as sweet as those thousand dollar slot mortisers. The triton is plenty powerful for this application. Ya just gotta build a heavy frame.

4.) Try those shop made jigs that you clamp to the work. Plans for them are all over the internet. Most of the shop jigs I've seen for hand held routing of mortices look a tad unlikely but I've not tried one so-----


I like loose tenons because they are faster, easier, and brutally precise.

Once I built my mortiser, I started using loose tenons exclusively. It's so much easier and the slots are always going to be percisely in the same place so long as you remember to place the work pieces in the mortiser the same way each time. They are also going to be precicely the same size (length and width) every time. So loose tenons make perfect of sense. With tenons and mortises I found it easy have a misalignment issue that I'd have to later sand out. The tenon stock can be mass produced for the bits you use. It's faster too.

I've used end mills as well as stagger tooth bits from Whiteside. Both work great. Really, they work great. The Witeside stagger tooth bit will not let you simply plunge the bit in as you might with a two flute Center cutting end mill as it's not center cutting. I haven't found a 1/2 shank mortising bit supplier with a center cutting carbide bit selection.