Tenon router mod.

[Jake Darvall]

Another scary looking contraption. But its a goodie. This ones for work. I wanted a tool that I could quickly trim tenon cheeks accurately with, should the need arise to do it by hand. Doesn't happen often, but its nice to be able to do it quickly after a machine stuffup. and move on.

Got this idea from Harry Strasil (thankyou kindly for the idea). He made his out of wood. But me, being fond of the old 71 adjustments, and having a few spare bodies about, and some scrap steel, I just welded up my own. Yes, I'm not very good at welding. But I seem to be good enough to ensure at least that the two parts I'm joining will never part ways http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/images/smilies/standard/rolleyes.gif which is the most important thing isn't it. http://www.woodworkforums.ubeaut.com.au/images/smilies/standard/biggrin.gif

Basically, its just the stanley 71 body welded to the end of plate of steel (which I flatterned on grit).
With the steel plate reaching out like that you have plenty of leaverage with your left hand to always keep it level to the top surface....What I also liked about the steel plate is that theres no risk of it flexing.
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d74/apricotripper/1-8.jpg

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d74/apricotripper/2-7.jpg

And if you look in that first picture above, you'll see the blades skewed. I made that by welding a steel rod to an old chisel, then rehardening. Ground and sharpened so its edge runs parallel to the plate.

Cuts very cleanly that way crossgrain as you'd expect. A Powerful cut. I lock my left hand on the wood and plate and swivel it all, moving back and forth with my right to scrub it at depth. I Thought starting at the outer edge was best, moving in as you go.

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d74/apricotripper/3-7.jpg

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d74/apricotripper/4-7.jpg

Right up to the shoulder. Slices in nicely into the shoulder like a knife. I used a chisel first to remove most of it here though cause was a fair bit. but then finished off with the router.

No tearout though, so you can be pretty agressive with it and still end up with good results. Even depth throughout.
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d74/apricotripper/5-5.jpg

Mines an ugly looking version I suppose. but its very effective I thought.

[harry strasil]

put the knobs back on its much easier to work that way, one at each end.

[Don C Peterson]

Cool idea. I'm beginning to think I really need a router plane. It would be kind of cool to tap the steel plate and use bolts to attach it. That way you can take it off and use it normally too, but I suppose that the old 71's can be had pretty cheap so it's not a problem to have two...

[jonathan snyder]

Yup, works a treat. Here's one I cobbled together, when making big m&t's for my workbench.

http://i157.photobucket.com/albums/t60/akwoodwkr/workbench%20construction/100_1858.jpg

Someday I will make a real wood base, when i get a aroundtoit.

JOnathan

[Marcus Ward]

I love my router plane, I don't know how I got along without it. One thought: you don't need to skew the blade if you just mount the router 45 deg on the add-on base. Just mount it turned and you're skewed without having to make a special blade.

[Jake Darvall]

Yours looks prettier than mine Johnathan ! :D She looks good.

I see what you mean about mounting it skewed Marcus. Make it a lot easier. Like Johnathans maybe but twisted around. I wanted to also make my own blade, because I wanted a blade with a shank that was a lot longer, so I could protrude it a lot deeper. Some of that depth is lost by the thickness of the added on sole.

I do think the skewed action is really important though, if your to keep the idea to attack it from one direction only.

What also sold me on welding it on steel, was because I didn't want any flex going on, which I pictured may happen when the blades hanging right out there in deep tenons. I didn't want ply or whatever warping on me down the track. But I don't know. Whatever works. ;)

[harry strasil]

I finally got around to modifying my original prototype tenon router, the blade was hard to adjust as it used two square nuts to hold it in place. Instead of making the new style, I just modified the existing one. Front and back views shown.

[harry strasil]

Unlike wood, Iron will distort on it own if your hand is warmer than the steel and you lay your hand on the top side for awhile, the top side will get warm and bow up as the iron warms up on one side, it will also bow down if friction causes the bottom side to get warm.

[Don C Peterson]

Jr,

Do you have problems with twisting? The base looks kind of narrow and as you move it forward and the iron bites into the wood the forced exerted would tend to make the plane roll. Obviously having a wider base couteracts that, but yours looks pretty narrow, so I was just curious if you have that problem.

[harry strasil]

now you know why it has such tall handles Don!