Rookie router use question.

[Michael Costa]

I'll be making a cribbage board soon and want to route a place to keep a deck of cards. Yesterday, I bought a template bit with a depth of 1". Of course, after I get home I remembered that I'm going to need to route a similar size recess to hold a battery pack in another project. This will need to be 1.5" deep.

Do I need 2 separate bits for each recess, or can I return the 1" deep bit and exchange it for the 1.5" deep bit and adjust the depth of the router itself for the 1" recess I need?

I hope I explained this well enough.

Maybe I could phrase it this way. If you needed to route a 1.5" deep recess using a template and also needed to routs out a 1" deep recess using a template, how would you go about it knowing you needed to nuy a bit or bits?

[Zachary Hoyt]

I would not rout either hole to full depth in one pass. I have not done a lot of this but I like to take 1/4" at a time or so. The template will make the hole the right shape, and eventually the upper part of the sides of the hole will act as a template for the lower part of the hole.
Zach

[George Bokros]

You can adjust the depth by setting the depth of the router. All routers have depth adjustments. Like Zach said I would not rout anything that deep in one pass. A plunge router would make this easier since you could adjust the full depth then make multiple passes until your reach the full depth.

[lowell holmes]

Practice on a scrap. You will figure it out.

[Phil Mueller]

To your question, get the 1 1/2” bit (or even a little longer) and do both with that.

[Michael Costa]

I wouldn't dare route out anything in one pass. I'd probably do 1/16 per pass since I'm new to this. And thanks for answering the depth of bit question. Another trip to my favorite store.

[Zachary Hoyt]

You can do it fine with the bit you have, as long as the bearing on your bit is larger in diameter than the collet chuck on your router. If you get a longer bit you'll need a really thick template.
Zach

[Grant Aldridge]

If you get the 1-1/2" bit you'll have to use 2x material for the template to get a shallow enough first pass- the 1" bit should work nicely with a 3/4 template.

[Phil Mueller]

My apologies, I missed the part of using a template. I’m used to free handing it and cleaning up with a chisel. Do as Zach and Grant suggest.

[Curt Harms]

I'd probably use the 1" bit so as to not need as thick a template as suggested. The caveat with using a pattern bit where the top bearing rides against an already routed surface is make sure the routed surface is as smooth as the template surface. Otherwise you could have a bit of a 'step' where the guide bearing moves from template to routed surface. Of course you could always get both the 1" and 1.5" bits.

[Jim Becker]

I originally thought that having "just one" generous length of a cutter was perfectly fine, but my CNC machine has taught me otherwise. Clearance matters sometimes so when you add the "frustration and difficulty" factor in, having two cutters with different lengths suitable for different jobs isn't as expensive as it might seem at first. That would be my choice here.