JANUARY 2008 PRESENTS TIPS, TRICKS & EXPERT ADVICE ESSENTIALESSENTIAL GUIDEGUIDE TOTO ROUTERSROUTERS JIgs, JOINts & SKILLS Everything You Need to WorK LIKE A Pro BONUS: The Complete 7-Chapter Guide to ROUTER MASTERY 12 BEST US $5.99 ROUTER JIGS 01 Boost Your Accuracy 0 74470 01489 8 popularwoodworking.com Display until January 15, 2008 Essential Guide to Routing ON THE COVER Routers do more than just decorate CONTENTS edges. Used correctly, a router 8 Router Table-mate can be a joinery With just $50 and a long weekend in your shop, Woodworking Essentials: powerhouse as well. you can make a router table that puts your old This series of articles from a veteran woodworker Workmate (or sawhorses) back to use. and teacher covers all the bases of router use. by Steve Shanesy From choosing and setting up a tool, to making intricate and complex joints, to selecting the right Photo BY AL PARRISH bit for the job, this guide will give you a good start 15 Housed Dovetails and keep you routing in the right direction. The super-strong housed-dovetail joint is a by Nick Engler stalwart of 18th-century furniture – and it’s surprisingly simple to cut with your router. by Geoffrey Ames 27 Chapter 1: Fixed-base Router Reduced to its basics, the router is simply a motor and shaft that holds interchangeable 18 The $22 Dovetail Jig bits. Once you understand how the parts Perfect half-blind dovetails with your router work together, you’re on your way to don’t require a $300 jig – you can make your becoming a router pro. own for just $22 (including the bit). by Troy Sexton 35 Chapter 2: Plunge Router To expand your routing abilities into joinery 23 Cope-and-stick Joinery you’re going to want to purchase a plunge Learn to set up and use a matched set of router. Here’s how to choose, set up and router bits to create doors that are strong, use this valuable tool. easy to make and beautifully detailed. by Jim Stuard 43 Chapter 3: The Router Table Mounting your router in a table makes many cuts easier, safer and more accurate. Plus, get ideas for a good table. 8 2 POPULAR WOODWORKING January 2008 Essential Guide to Routing 83 Real-world Router Test A woodworking pro takes on nine two-base 51 Chapter 4: Router Joinery router kits to find his favorite. How to cut rabbets, grooves, dados, by Troy Sexton mortises, tenons, coped door joints and more with your router. 90 Shop-made Router Guides You can make this versatile and valuable system 59 Chapter 5: Use Your Router to for a fraction of the cost of aftermarket guides. Build Boxes and Drawers by Michel Theriault Now take all those joints you learned to make and put them together to make boxes and drawers. 67 Chapter 6: Edge and Surface Treatments Cutting mouldings is what routers do best – and most are made up of three simple shapes: a bead, a cove and a flat. 75 Chapter 7: Advanced Techniques for the Router Jigs and specialty bits can add a whole new dimension to what you’re capable of creating with your router. 90 96 Shapers and Router Tables Though these two tools look similar and perform similar functions, each has its advantages (and disadvantages) – find out which is right for the type of work you do. by Lonnie Bird 102 What’s New in Routers Discover the editors’ favorite new routers, bits and accessories. by Glen D. Huey 102 popularwoodworking.com 3 ® FROM THE EDITOR Learn How. Discover Why. Build Better. JANUARY 2008 popularwoodworking.com EDITORIAL OFFICES 513-531-2690 PUBLISHER & GROUP EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Tip of the Iceberg Steve Shanesy EDITOR Christopher Schwarz X1407 ■ [email protected] Learn router basics from the pros, then discover ART DIRECTOR Linda Watts X1396 ■ [email protected] SENIOR EDITOR Robert W. Lang Titanic techniques that improve your work. X1327 ■ [email protected] SENIOR EDITOR Glen D. Huey X1293 ■ [email protected] MANAGING EDITOR Megan Fitzpatrick ccasionally I’ll meet someone jects by Nick Engler originally published X1348 ■ [email protected] who works wood as a hobby, in seven installments. Nick is an accom- PHOTOGRAPHER Al Parrish creates fine projects in his or her plished woodworker, author and teacher. CONTRIBUTING EDITORS O Adam Cherubini, Bob Flexner, Troy Sexton shop and does so without using a router. He’s mastered many areas of woodworking I wonder how that’s possible. How can including routing and using router acces- F+W PUBLICATIONS INC. CHAIRMAN & CEO David H. Steward someone become an accomplished wood- sories. His vast knowledge is presented in a CFO John Speridakos worker without using a router? casual, easy-to-understand way. Whether VP, MANUFACTURING Barbara Ann Schmitz I’ve used routers for years and for many you’re a beginner or an accomplished EXECUTIVE VP, INTERACTIVE MEDIA John Lerner different operations. And there is so much router guru, you’ll benefit from Nick’s DIRECTOR, IT Mike Kuehn more to be learned. years of router experience. F+W PUBLICATIONS, INC. The most-known use Also in this issue, MAGAZINE GROUP VP, CONSUMER MARKETING Sara DeCarlo for routers, the place aut hor Michel DIRECTOR, BUSINESS PLANNING Tom Wiandt where nearly everyone Theriault explains CONFERENCE DIRECTOR Sara Dumford begins, is creating deco- the need for and CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Linda Engel rative edges. And you techniques for mak- NEWSSTAND DIRECTOR Susan Rose can do so much more, ing router guides, DIRECTOR, DIGITAL MEDIA SOLUTIONS Michael Kushner PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Katherine Seal including mortise- including an offset and-tenon joints, cut base template and a ADVertising ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Don Schroder the pins and tails of flush-trimming tem- 331 N. Arch St., Allentown, PA 18104 dovetail joints and plate (the addition of TEL. 610-821-4425; FAX 610-821-7884 make cabinet doors his shopmade system [email protected] DISPLAY AND CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING using cope-and-stick makes the router even SALES COORDINATOR router bits. Just about more valuable to your Nancy Miller any profile or joint woodworking). Jim TEL. 513-531-2690 X1228 [email protected] you make in the Stuard demystifies shop can be made cope-and-stick router using a router. And that’s just the tip bits so you can make SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES: Subscription inquiries, orders and address changes can be made at popularwoodworking.com (click on “Customer of the iceberg. doors that are strong and beautifully Service”). Or by mail: Popular Woodworking, P.O. Box 420235, Palm Coast, Once you delve into routing you’ll detailed. And if you have a Workmate FL 32142-0235. Or call toll-free 877-860-9140 or 386-246-3369. Include your address with all inquiries. Allow 6 to 8 weeks for delivery. develop the desire for additional routers. folded up in the corner of the shop, Steve NEWSSTAND DISTRIBUTION: Curtis Circulation Co.,730 River Road, In fact, some woodworkers are proud of Shanesy shows you how to put it back to New Milford, NJ 07646 ATTENTION RETAILERS:To carry Popular Woodworking in your store, the number of routers on their shelf – as use with a shop-made router table. Plus, call 800-894-4656 or write Magazine Retail Sales, P.O. Box 5014, Iola, if it’s a testament to the amount of work we’ve included a couple stories on creating WI 54945-5014. BACK ISSUES are available. Call 800-258-0929 for they can accomplish in any given week. dovetail joints using your router. pricing or visit popularwoodworking.com. Send check or money order to: Popular Woodworking Back Issues, While that’s debatable, the sure thing is This special router issue will open your F+W Publications Products, 700 E. State St., Iola, WI they’ll work quicker due to not having to eyes to the many uses of the router and 54990. Please specify publication, month and year. change router setups at every turn. catapult your routing techniques to the Reading the articles in this issue will next level. PW SAFETY NOTE: Safety is your responsibility. Manufacturers increase your knowledge of the router and place safety devices on their equipment for a reason. In many photos its accessories and, we hope, increase your you see in Popular Woodworking, these have been removed to provide woodworking abilities as a result. clarity. In some cases we’ll use an awkward body position so you can The heart of this issue, “Woodworking Glen. D. Huey better see what’s being demonstrated. Don’t copy us. Think about Essentials,” is a compilation of router sub- Senior Editor each procedure you’re going to perform beforehand. Copyright ©2008 by F+W Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Popular Woodworking is a registered trademark of F+W Publications, Inc. 4 POPULAR WOODWORKING January 2008 We’ve got the C D E router bits and accessories that you are B looking for. F G Here are 7 of the over 400 A router bits that we carry. Stanley #55 Molding Router Bits A stunningly complex yet incredibly versatile tool used to make a near limitless variety of moldings, the Stanley Tools #55 Universal Combination Plane was largely Profiles made Profiles made in two or in one pass. more passes. produced during the first 60 years of the 20th century. Many of the unique moldings it produced still exist in buildings but are not easily reproduced, making repairs and restoration efforts difficult. With these bits, you can now produce many of the same moldings you could B. Quarter Hollow Bits E. Grecian Ogee Bits have done with a #55.