The Amp Garage

Please excuse this possibly fringe topic, but I'm about 100% certain there are capable wood workers here who can speak to the question.

I don't have a place for an indoor shop, so I work outside on a heavy duty table I built from scrap pressure treated wood. This means everything comes inside at night.

I've been experimenting with the router in a sled as a tool to flatten boards and I've had some success with it, actually, good success. The bottom cleaning bit I've got is only 3/4" diameter, clearly not wide enough to be efficient.

I've been looking and see that you can buy these in sizes up to about 3". I've got a new variable speed router that takes 1/2" shank. I'm wanting to know, as a practical matter, just how big is too big. In the $20 range, I can get up to about 1.5" and keep thinking that's plenty wide enough. The 2 3/4" bit I looked at the other day http://www.amazon.com/Magnate-Surface-P ... eaning+bit is about $60 shipped. I think that is too much to spend and I was questioning my sanity for thinking it would be a practical choice. I'd like to find something at upper limit of about $25 but would be willing to go higher if it makes sense to do so.

I'd appreciate your thoughts.

Thanks.

Phil

My thoughts are: keep your eye on used tools on craigslist. I see 12" wide planers pretty regularly for $100 or less. I put a fresh set of knives in mine, and it's lovely. Super easy to turn 3/4" pine into 1/2" pine for rear panels, valences, whatever. Works on hardwood, too.

Sorry, off-topic to your off-topic.

Yes, all manner of great used power tools on Craig's list. As you so aptly allude to, I can't park it outside next to my work table because it will get rusty ;-( Also, my wife will start telling me there's no way the junked car and washing machine can go next to it. I don't see why not but I'll work at keeping the peace.

The router sled is the tool or should I say sled router? It works very well and it will take a board of virtually any size. I'm hoping someone has an opinion on what size bottom cleaning bit is reasonable, both for price and size.

If you go to a bigger diameter cutter you won't be able to take deep cuts.

You can only remove so much wood at once, be it depth or width.

If you are unable to clamp the slab you want a reverse spiral bit that will push the work down rather than try to lift it and gouge. This will not end cut though, only side cut.

It depends on how much HP your router has, and how tough the wood is. Also, as you go bigger in diameter the edge speed increases proportionatly, and pushing the router too hard will quickly overheat and dull the bit.

I think I would use a 1/2" bit to rough cut, and a large diameter fly cutter to take a final finish cut of just a few thousandths.

John

John,
Thank you for the pointers and good advice. I was having trouble thinking this through. It sounds like I wouldn't want to work with anything larger than about 1.25" diameter for the finishing cut.

Clamping is done with dogs at one end and wedges (scrap) up against the sled rails. This holds the work piece very tight and allows the router to travel across the full surface. An ordinary bottom cleaning bit works fine as long as the depth of cut is not excessive.

I really appreciate this. Thanks.

Phil

xtian wrote:My thoughts are: keep your eye on used tools on craigslist. I see 12" wide planers pretty regularly for $100 or less. I put a fresh set of knives in mine, and it's lovely. Super easy to turn 3/4" pine into 1/2" pine for rear panels, valences, whatever. Works on hardwood, too.

Sorry, off-topic to your off-topic.

the plus about a router sled is that it will flatten warped boards of course you can also make a planer sled.
Depends on what you router can handle If you got a big 15 amp job you should be able to handle 3" bit no problem. http://www.mlcswoodworking.com/shopsite ... bottm.html Heres some budget bits
These are what i buy for profiles i dont use a lot .

cbass: Yea! I've got a 15A 2.3HP soft start variable speed Bosch. I've been looking at that 1.5" MCLS. The 3" bit is too much money for my taste and frequency of use. For a 10" x 20" board for a head cab, 7 passes should do it if I'm paying attention.

Now the question is, what else that I don't really need can I get thrown in with that to thin out the shipping cost!

perhaps a miter lock bit box joints and dovetails are stupid and ugly

Yeah, looking at the $60 dovetail jig to have in addition to the Keller I've got. It would be real nice to do half blind dovetails. It's even nicer to cut both boards at the same time. I've had a difficult time getting good alignment with the Keller dovetail jig. I can see, the real price of the $20 gizmo is $100.

screw dovetails lock joimts are better the only advantage to dovetaild is you can show it to everyone and go " look I made dovetals. see?".

I didn't know what a miter lock box joint. is. Google found this! http://www.infinitytools.com/2-Pc-Lock- ... oC3kvw_wcB Man, is that ever cool! Watch the video. I wish I could.

The same place also has a dynamite bottom cleaning bit: http://www.infinitytools.com/Dado-Plane ... ucts/1016/ Watch the video of him cutting a tenon!

The problem? No router table! Remember, no inside shop. All sawdust has to get made outside!!!

I will have to rethink this, find a way to have a router table. Now the darn thing is going to cost even more!

Router table aint got to be no expense. Make a baseplate out of some 3/8 inch cut an inset into some 3/4 . and let it hang . then you can pull it out and use the router for free hand stuff

Hi Phil,

You need to convince some friends that their life will be better with power tools! Even better with you showing them how to use them too.

The bigger the cutting tool the lighter the cuts need to be. You are running a high speed hand held milling machine. I suspect you don't want to be known as Phil S the four fingered fella.

Do you have any options for milling stock? Like a wood or cabinet shop? I almost had myself convinced I needed a big band saw to resaw 8" stock for drop tops. One hiccup was I might need that capability for all of 4 sets a year. The rest of the use could be covered by a $400 machine. My local wood crack store has a monster saw that they charge $35 for 15 minutes of saw time.

Take pictures of your set up I love seeing solutions out side the box so to speak.

Russ

cbass wrote:screw dovetails lock joimts are better the only advantage to dovetaild is you can show it to everyone and go " look I made dovetals. see?".

A complicated joint or unnecessary complexity is the woodworkers guitar solo.

John

ha good one. its all about ease and speed for me. I mean if someone likes doing dovetails and likes the way they look. Then great but I like clean simple functional designs.
and certainly not meaning to put down anyones work ive seen some amazing stuff guys have done with dovetails on this forum