Brainstorming: Handheld router jointing?

[Gene Takae]

Hello all,
At work I occasionally need to work with 1/4" polycarbonate with lengths as long as 8 feet. I would like to be able to dress the edges by using a router to trim off approximately 1/16" of and inch without the need for a long straight edge. I'm trying to design a base plate with an offset fence similar to what you'd shim on a router table fence to joint edges. I'd appreciate any ideas and input from you fine people. Thank you.

[Mike Cutler]

Have you ever looked at the Micro Jig? It can facilitate two different thickness edge guide pieces.
I think any, quality, router edge guide could do it. It may not be very adjustable, you'd have to add fixed thickness shims to the fence sections, but it's possible. I wouldn't be surprised if someone's already done it.
If I'm envisioning the dynamics correctly, and it's 0445 here right now for me, the trailing fence, to the left, would be the reference face to end the jointing. I'm assuming a left to right movement here.

[Jim Becker]

Regardless of what method you use, your reference edge(s) are going to have to be of some reasonable length in order to increase the accuracy of the edge over some distance. That might be somewhat uncomfortable to work with hand-held and you still need good support for the entire length of the material you're working with. If you setup a router table to do this, you can use things like feather boards to keep the material to the table and fence and less critical support beyond the router table as you move the material through the cut.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

It'd be easy on a shaper using an offset fence, like this:


This ones laying on it's face, but you can see how both sides of the cutter are independently movable, like a jointer bed.

[johnny means]

We use the jointer for cleaning up polycarbonate edges. The larger cutting diameter leaves a smoother cut routing.