Handy Templates for corner radiusing on the router table

[Jim Becker]

You've probably seen various folks use aluminum radius corner templates in videos and they caught my eye, too. I decided to add a set to my shop and recently used them for a small master bedroom storage project I was working on. They worked well for sure, using the painter's tape and CA method for attaching them to the material. The particular set I purchased from Amazon are coded metric (which is what I use in the shop anyway) but that shouldn't cause any issues for most situations unless you are trying to fit the radius into another one that is sized differently. Regardless of what color/brand, I think these might be a good addition to many folks' bags of tricks to create consistent radius corners.

This is a link to the product I purchased; not an endorsement, but I'm pleased with the quality for the money. They seem to be out of the red ones at the moment, but do have the black, at least as of this posting.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...e?ie=UTF8&th=1

IMG_5413.jpg IMG_5414.jpg

[Doug Garson]

Those are so easy to make out a few scraps of MDF or plywood, any diameter you want. I would never buy them. I have one in my router table drawer, and you can paint them any color you want.

[Michael Burnside]

Those are so easy to make out a few scraps of MDF or plywood, any diameter you want. I would never buy them. I have one in my router table drawer, and you can paint them any color you want.

Meh, some of us like to spend time making the thing they're for instead. At least that's my opinion. Plus, they're cheap enough that my labor building a full set more than pays for them, with more durable materials to boot.

That's awesome Jim. Ironically I had a project where I need a couple different sizes and while at Woodcraft they had a similar set for 50% off. They actually worked pretty great.

[Warren Lake]

like doug I make me own stuff and dont support gizmo inventors. Some of them have degradded the trade like Pocket holes. look a photo below of the guy trimming to do a radius on ply and has left all the wood there they cant even show you how to do something properly as they dont know.

[Michael Burnside]

like doug I make me own stuff and dont support gizmo inventors. Some of them have degradded the trade like Pocket holes. look a photo below of the guy trimming to do a radius on ply and has left all the wood there they cant even show you how to do something properly as they dont know.

Heh, age old question about where people draw the line of "gizmo". Do you stop at power tools or routers or domino or what. The only degrading here is people acting like they're better or more skilled without using some of these "gizmos" that make our trade or hobby more enjoyable or quicker. Just because some of us don't get all warm inside building a "shop project" or building our own jig doesn't mean we're not skilled or highly capable woodworkers.

[Warren Lake]

I am more skilled than some here ive read long enough to know and recognize the ones that have time on machines. I have a lot of time with routers Quality was better before gizmos and the trade was more respected. Not my opion its fact. Any radius ive done say on birdseye maple bullnose were not any of those templates they were were made to match the job. The photo shown shows how to do it wrong and they are the people selling the product.

[Edward Weber]

These little things are quick, easy and inexpensive, also they work.
At about $20, I can't be bothered to make a set of these, simply not worth my time.
I'm with Micheal on this. Just because I could make them, doesn't mean I want to or need to.
Also, I would push back on a template as being a gizmo. Woodworkers use templates all the time.

Modern pocket holes have been around for 40+ years. Pocket holes in general have been dated back hundreds of years.
https://blog.lostartpress.com/2018/0...pocket-screws/
https://www.renaissancewoodworker.co...-pocket-holes/

[Doug Garson]

Meh, some of us like to spend time making the thing they're for instead. At least that's my opinion. Plus, they're cheap enough that my labor building a full set more than pays for them, with more durable materials to boot.

That's awesome Jim. Ironically I had a project where I need a couple different sizes and while at Woodcraft they had a similar set for 50% off. They actually worked pretty great.

Agree these particular items are cheap and tempting to pick up if you are in the store but if you are in the middle of a project and decide you need one, you could have it made and be using it before you could drive to the store and buy it and certainly faster than ordering it online and waiting for even Prime next day shipping. Plus you can make any diameter you want or even an asymmetric shape. As to durability, unless you are a production shop, I think a MDF version would last a lifetime.

[Warren Lake]

doug I use baltic birch off cuts and just make what is needed at the time. Some of them have run many 100's of parts on low production runs. Some of the grunt work birch ply was fine or mdf.

[Bert McMahan]

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[Michael Burnside]

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LOL, exactly. BTW as a programmer, I agree with the second box. Real programmers use VIM.

[George Yetka]

These have been on my list to either buy or 3d print but definitely not buy from woodpecker. The issue is I havent come up for a need yet. When that project comes Im not sure what I'll do. I'd say rent one from Jim but I'm an imperial man.

[Michael Burnside]

These have been on my list to either buy or 3d print but definitely not buy from woodpecker. The issue is I havent come up for a need yet. When that project comes Im not sure what I'll do. I'd say rent one from Jim but I'm an imperial man.

Bert already brought up one particular type of religion, that of programming editors, so I'll bring up the other. Mine were better than Jim's as they were imperial versions and ran me $24.99.

[Jim Becker]

Bert already brought up one particular type of religion, that of programming editors, so I'll bring up the other. Mine were better than Jim's as they were imperial versions and ran me $24.99.

ROFLOL!!!

But seriously, regardless of the measuring scale, for $20-25 for nice machined aluminum, I'm sticking with my decision on buying them for "my" shop. I'd not pay a premium price for something like this, however. There's no problem with anyone making their own if they prefer, of course.

[Brian Tymchak]

LOL, exactly. BTW as a programmer, I agree with the second box. Real programmers use VIM.

IMHO, THE one true editor for real programmers is vi. After vi, editors just got clunky and bloated.