# Spoon Carving Jig For Routers



## Dejure (Jul 27, 2009)

It took a while, but I got a friend addicted to woodwork. One of his projects he showed me were spoons and ladles he made for his family. They were nice. 

When I asked my friend how long it took to carve out the spoons, I thought "there has to be a faster, more efficient way." Being inclined to work abnormally hard at being lazy, I went to work finding an easier way. Okay, it wasn't so much going to work as it was kicking back in my chair, closing my eyes and letting my mind wander. At any rate, this is what I came up with:

1) I made the base seen in the photo using 1/4 plexi.

The design of the base could vary, but I thought this one looked pretty official, so I stayed with it.

As the photo suggests, the bolts at each of the support areas (120 degrees off each other, give or take a few degrees). The 120 degree spacing let me stay out of my own way, so to speak, but still provided ample support for the router.

If desired, the legs could be reinforced with wood or some other material.

Each of the three legs have a slot through which a 3-1/2" long, 1/4"x20 carriage bolt fits. The round head of the carriage bolt rides the pattern on the jig reasonably well. You can sand and polish it, if you find need.

A nut under the base, on each 1/4"x20 bolt, with a flat washer between the nut and the base, allow you to adjust the height the router and base sit off the spoon or ladle.

A washer, then a nut on the top the 1/4" x 20 bolt, above the router base, locks the height you choose.

2) I built the base from a piece of scrap 3/4" plywood. 

The guides for the base are from scrap 2x stock cut using the band saw. Obviously, you can make make different shapes (different curves, horizontal S's, V's, and so forth) to meet your wants and needs.

To make sure the carriage bolt stays in the guides, I added 1/8" sides from scrap Masonite.

3) I set the three guides on the jig base, set the router base in them, then moved things around to determine what I thought was the best place to secure them, then locked them in place. 

I added two adjustable stops near the top guide, to sandwich the spoon/ladle being worked.

I added one clamp at the bottom to finish securing the spoon or ladle. A notch in the end of the clamp holding the spoon might secure items better, if you find need.

4) Once everything is in place, set your router cut depth, set the base so the three carriage bolts land in the guides and begin routing using your usual best methods for easing a bit into wood.

NOTES:

* It takes five minutes or less to carve out a spoon or ladle.

* I grab cheap or free plexi and acrylic every chance I get. Free is, of course, best. The base for this project was from 1/4 plexi from a store display.

* I use a cove bit to produce rounded edges, but you could swap it out for a flat bit, if you had more material to remove. Just use one that will allow the round bit to take a bit more material off around the edges, so you do end up with rounded corners inside.


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## eccentrictinkerer (Dec 24, 2007)

"Being inclined to work abnormally hard at being lazy, I went to work finding an easier way."

I'm often accused of doing the same thing. We must be twin sons of different mothers!

Very clever jig. It just gave me an idea for a task I've been thinking on. Thanks!


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## Dejure (Jul 27, 2009)

Welcome. And it still ticks me off that [other] mom liked you best.


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## harrysin (Jan 15, 2007)

That's one very clever jig.


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## Carlswoodturning (Mar 6, 2013)

Very clever design! It seems that if you wanted to make oval shape, you just need to make the guides oval, do you think there would be a problem making convex guides to do the bottom of the spoon? (after flipping it)


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## thomas1389 (Jan 4, 2012)

Very clever indeed. There is an abundance of ingenuity on this forum. It never stops.


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## Dejure (Jul 27, 2009)

*Guides for Kelly's Spoon Jig*

Carl, I think you can cut about any pattern shape you want. The only complication would be adding sides to force the followers (carriage bolts) to stay within their guides. HOWEVER, I was trying to think of where I could get some flexible, but somewhat rigid plastic to make some feather boards I had in mind and it popped into my head that plastic buckets are a dime a dozen, or less.........




Carlswoodturning said:


> Very clever design! It seems that if you wanted to make oval shape, you just need to make the guides oval, do you think there would be a problem making convex guides to do the bottom of the spoon? (after flipping it)


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## Shortslvs (Jan 13, 2013)

Video Video Video Video

If you couldn't guess - I would like to see a video of this jig in action


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## Dejure (Jul 27, 2009)

*Modifications and Improvements of My Spoon Jig*

It'll be a while. It's cold here and my shop is new and lacking insulation, ceiling rock and so forth. 

It does seem I need to get more photos out, to better show construction and modification options, some of which you guys already inspired. For example, using five gallon buckets as a source for plastic sides on the guides, to allow "ovals" and other shapes.

Additionally, I'm thinking each of the three guides need to be installed on a standardized size of Masonite, or equivalent, so I can mount "T" nuts through the bottom and just lock them down with a single jig knob. The front would slip under something (like the battery compartments on remote controls), to reduce the amount of hardware.







Shortslvs said:


> Video Video Video Video
> 
> If you couldn't guess - I would like to see a video of this jig in action


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## Daikusan (Apr 12, 2013)

Good ol’ American ingenuity. Great thinking.


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## old55 (Aug 11, 2013)

Well thought out, congratulations.


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## Mike (Nov 22, 2004)

Kelly, you have come very close to reinventing Bob Rosendahls odd shape routing jig. The twin support rails on each side can be made as templates for cutting table legs (or spoons) and the shape of the round overs attached to the router determine how fine a radius you can cut. Great job.


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## Gene Howe (Jul 10, 2007)

Very impressive engineering!
I'm guessing the scooped guides are interchangeable, so that when you devise the guides for curved spoon sides, they can be quickly switched out?
Would a bowl bit work?


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## Dejure (Jul 27, 2009)

*What's It Do?*

I can't say I see the resemblance, but, I'm going to look into it for another idea to crank of my router capability.




Mike said:


> Kelly, you have come very close to reinventing Bob Rosendahls odd shape routing jig. The twin support rails on each side can be made as templates for cutting table legs (or spoons) and the shape of the round overs attached to the router determine how fine a radius you can cut. Great job.


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## Dejure (Jul 27, 2009)

You can put any bit you want in your router. You are limited only by your imagination and the shape of your guides.

As I mentioned, you could use strips of plastic cut from a five gallon bucket to wrap around, say, three oval shaped guides, to keep the bit within the lines.

You can start off by dropping a pre-cut spoon or ladle in place, or you can lock a rectangular piece of wood in place. One way, you do your scoop cut, then cut around the scoop with your band saw. The other might be easier than aligning the cut out spoon to make the scoop, but I found that to be not too difficult.

You could make guides and mount them on 1/8" stock and make it, for example, a couple inches longer than the guide. Drill a 3/8" hole on one end so it would drop over a 1/4"x20 bolt, mounted through the bottom of the base.

Just have a lip on the other end so the guide mount slides under it (say, 1/8"), then the mount would drop down over the 1/4" x 20 bolt and a jig knob would hold it in place (you'd only need three knobs and this would allow quick changes)

Hope that's somewhat clear.

Very impressive engineering!
I'm guessing the scooped guides are interchangeable, so that when you devise the guides for curved spoon sides, they can be quickly switched out?
Would a bowl bit work?


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## Dejure (Jul 27, 2009)

*Still looking for Rosendahl's odd shape routing jig*

I dug around on line an found books, but no information on the jig and its use or lay out. Any ideas where to go. I am not familiar with it and don't want to step on any toes.




Mike said:


> Kelly, you have come very close to reinventing Bob Rosendahls odd shape routing jig. The twin support rails on each side can be made as templates for cutting table legs (or spoons) and the shape of the round overs attached to the router determine how fine a radius you can cut. Great job.


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## Mike (Nov 22, 2004)

Kelly, Bob Rosendahl is unparallelled in jig and fixture design. Bob and his son Rick produced the Router Workshop TV series that ran on PBS for 14 seasons. Bob's grandson Mark is the founder of routerforums. The Rosendahl family is no longer affiliated with the forums but Rick still runs Routerworkshop.net and sells subscriptions to the show.

Many of Bob's designs have been copied by MLCS, Rockler and others. I will see if I can dig up some better photos of the odd shape routing jig for you this week.


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## Dejure (Jul 27, 2009)

I was without television for nearly decades. When I did have it, I didn't have access to channels of the fun stuff, such as the show you described. Even then, most of us "knew" there were more important things than routers, like table saws, band saws and so forth.

Of course, now I have about nine routers, and over-arm pin router, a Craftsman Router Crafter, a decent router table and drawers full of bits.

In honesty, and simple things aside, I never gave serious attention to jigs until the last few years. The first I tackled was a circle cutter for the band saw. After it, I was hooked because of how easy it made making dead-on circles.

I used to work for the feds, where my "career" of creating procedures and providing solutions to problems got its foot hold. The government bought many of my inventions and procedures, since they were above my pay grade. I'd been doing such for years, but took it for granted, until someone on the job pointed out they'd buy things like that.

Anyway, the point of it is, I have, literally, drawers full of designs and ideas ranging from the jig I posted to electronics devices.

With the internet, I'm slowly catching up. Meanwhile, I suspect I've reinvented the wheel more than once, since (I was drawing flat nosed vans around 59). Like Rosendahl, I had to come up with solutions and it's interesting to see how much people think alike, and differently, at the same time.


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## Daikusan (Apr 12, 2013)

Dejure said:


> I dug around on line an found books, but no information on the jig and its use or lay out. Any ideas where to go. I am not familiar with it and don't want to step on any toes.


There is a book called Router Magic by Bill Hylton, that has more than 50 jigs. It is well laid out with plenty of pictures and plans. You can get it online from Amazon or Abe Books http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?kn=router+magic&sts=t&x=0&y=0 for $10 or less plus shipping. It is a great book that should be on the bookshelf of any router enthusiast. Guaranteed to give you ideas and expand your routing capabilities.


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## Shortslvs (Jan 13, 2013)

Must have book. If you are new to routing and don't have it - get it


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## papasombre (Sep 22, 2011)

Very smart reply, Fred. I agree wit you.


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## WildStock (Mar 2, 2014)

I figured out how to make normal spoon depressions using xxx’x technique for controlling the router.

I used a combination of 50/50 water putty and plaster of paris to cast a mold of the spoon depression I wanted. I carefully cast three of these and then substituted them for the bandsawn patterns that xx used. I have made several dozen spoons this way with the depressions routed in less than 5 minutes and the spoons shaped with a band saw and various sanders. I believe I don’t spend more than ½ hour total from board to finished spoon.

FYI I used a box like form about 4” by 6” to cast the molds and identical forms at each of the three pattern locations to hold the molds. 

I would enclose pictures, but I am a newbe and don’t have authorization to do so.


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## jw2170 (Jan 24, 2008)

Hi Richard,

Just a reminder that you do not need 10 posts to upload your photos from your PC to the forums. Click the go advanced button and you will find a button that says manage attachments. Select this and you will be able to upload your photos.


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## WildStock (Mar 2, 2014)

Thanks for the information, James.

Question - How many photos may I attach if each is about 6.5 m??

Richard


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## idigjars (Sep 1, 2008)

Very nice. Thank you for sharing it with us.


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## WildStock (Mar 2, 2014)

*More on molds for making spoons*

Some more information on making the spoons with a router:

I used vasoline as a separator on the wooden forms when casting the molds. It worked well.

When routing, watch the router bit cut the wood and you can really improve the smoothness of the spoon dish.

I sanded the spoon dish using a 3/8” bolt chucked in a corded drill with cloth wrapped around the head and fastened with rubber bands. Strips of sandpaper were then attached, also using rubber bands. I used 100, 180 and 220 sandpaper in this contraption, then handsanded with 320 and 400 grit. Result was extremely smooth “dish” in spoon.

Attached are some photos which may aid the reader.


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## Dejure (Jul 27, 2009)

Nice job. That opens up a bunch of doors. Looks like the concave side would be a snap this way too.

whada team




WildStock said:


> Some more information on making the spoons with a router:
> 
> I used vasoline as a separator on the wooden forms when casting the molds. It worked well.
> 
> ...


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## jw2170 (Jan 24, 2008)

*How many pics?*



WildStock said:


> Thanks for the information, James.
> 
> Question - How many photos may I attach if each is about 6.5 m??
> 
> Richard



I am not sure of the final number that may be attached to one post. the upload window allows you to link 10 photos , but if you close that window you can re-open and link another 10. 

Another member has attached 20, I think........

Off course, if you upload too many it will look cluttered and many will not view the pics.......

You can lodge following posts with additional pics on each post.

The max file size for jpg image is 10mb and there is a dimension limit also.


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## EdSled (Oct 19, 2015)

This is a very nice jig and since I'm new at creating jigs would need some assistance.


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## Dejure (Jul 27, 2009)

By circumstance, I found this old post. Since it was posted, I have acquired a LOT of plastic, bought a bender (nichrome wire) and built another. I guess I should revisit this.




Dejure said:


> Carl, I think you can cut about any pattern shape you want. The only complication would be adding sides to force the followers (carriage bolts) to stay within their guides. HOWEVER, I was trying to think of where I could get some flexible, but somewhat rigid plastic to make some feather boards I had in mind and it popped into my head that plastic buckets are a dime a dozen, or less.........


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## mkoukkgou333 (Feb 21, 2020)

That's one very clever jig.


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