# round router bases



## levon (Sep 14, 2008)

i have seen members of the forum make auxiliary bases for their routers that are round. how do they get them perfectly round??

thanks for any help you could give.:help:


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## Bob N (Oct 12, 2004)

levon,

I am not good enough to make them so I buy mine from Pat Warner. A great guy to do business with.

ROUTER WOODWORKING


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## levon (Sep 14, 2008)

Bob said:


> levon,
> 
> I am not good enough to make them so I buy mine from Pat Warner. A great guy to do business with.
> 
> ROUTER WOODWORKING




thanks for the information Bob,

your always a big help here on the forum!


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## bobj3 (Jan 17, 2006)

HI Guys

Just my 2 cents ,, SQUARE is better than round,, 8" sq. works the best for me..in that way I have a square edge to use on the router...plus it so easy to find the dead center of a square  plus you can add the bearings to the corners for mortise jobs easy..plus many other jobs with a sq.plate..

====


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## levon (Sep 14, 2008)

bobj3 said:


> HI Guys
> 
> Just my 2 cents ,, SQUARE is better than round,, 8" sq. works the best for me..in that way I have a square edge to use on the router...plus it so easy to find the dead center of a square  plus you can add the bearings to the corners for mortise jobs easy..plus many other jobs with a sq.plate..
> 
> ====




hello BobJ,

i know you see the little wheels in my brain going round and round,lol
i do like the square plates. i may build one for what im thinking of. but im also thinking of getting one fast so i can mess up some nice mdf, lol

as a matter of fact im thinking of making about 3 bases in the somewhat future.


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## harrysin (Jan 15, 2007)

I personally prefer a router to have a round base, when routing shapes, round square etc, the router can be rotated this way and that way making the job so much easier. I know that Bj in the past has stated that you can't guarantee that the cutter is dead centre, but my answer to that is to buy a quality tool and it WILL be dead centre!


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## kolias (Dec 26, 2008)

I made the attached base out of 1/4” acrylic following *bobj3* instructions and it turned out perfect.

I also used this base (lets call it base A) to make a new ZC insert and template for my TS and they also turned out perfect. My ZC insert is 4” wide so I measured from the cutting edge of the bit 2” and drilled a 1/16” hole on base A and put a nail thru. Then with the router I cut on both ends of the insert a 4” diameter half circle.

I also would like to make another base but round this time. I think it will be easy.

Assuming that the router base is 6-1/4” in diameter, 1st I will cut the new base material at 6-1/2” square (in my case it will be acrylic). Then I will drill the center of it as per *bobj3* instructions to drill the mounting holes and make the recess for the bushing. Then on my base A I will drill another 1/16” hole at 3-1/8” from the cutting edge of the bit, stick a small nail and route all around.

It should work


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## Birchwood (May 13, 2005)

For what it's worth I'm with Bob3j on this one, although I understand Harry's point about a round base for more "free form" routing. In my case at least, so much of what I do is straightline stuff. And I also second the comment about Pat Warner. I have a couple of doo dads he made for me and they not only work perfectly they are of obvious high quality and workmanship.
So, if you're not bound to be round go square and be there!!


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## charimon (Apr 8, 2009)

Hi 
Here is a crazy thot. If you have 2 routers, maybe one a small trim type, you could mount a new base plate, whatever material you want to make it out of, to the router you want a circular base for. Take a circle cutting jig with a 1/4 pivot point-- chuck the pivot in the router that you are making a base for and cut / trim the base to a perfect circle dead on to the mandrel. 

you could use this method to true up any circular base to the mandrel

Rambling in the middle of the night
Craig


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## istracpsboss (Sep 14, 2008)

bobj3 said:


> HI Guys
> 
> Just my 2 cents ,, SQUARE is better than round,, 8" sq. works the best for me..in that way I have a square edge to use on the router...plus it so easy to find the dead center of a square  plus you can add the bearings to the corners for mortise jobs easy..plus many other jobs with a sq.plate..
> 
> ====


Square with each side offset by 1/16" or 1mm and *clearly marked* is useful. i.e. one side standard, second side 1mm less, third side 2mm less, fourth side 3mm less. They are available commercially. Handy for opening a dado.

Cheers

Peter


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## kolias (Dec 26, 2008)

charimon said:


> Hi
> Here is a crazy thot. If you have 2 routers, maybe one a small trim type, you could mount a new base plate, whatever material you want to make it out of, to the router you want a circular base for. Take a circle cutting jig with a 1/4 pivot point-- chuck the pivot in the router that you are making a base for and cut / trim the base to a perfect circle dead on to the mandrel.
> 
> 
> That's a very good idea


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## charimon (Apr 8, 2009)

Thank you

Craig


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## yairfe (Sep 26, 2004)

*Get them easily round!*



levon said:


> i have seen members of the forum make auxiliary bases for their routers that are round. how do they get them perfectly round??/QUOTE]
> 
> For that purpose I use the simple jig shown in the photos. It is not more than a laminated 6 mm plywood board, with a 4 mm nail as pivot. The ruler marks the distance between the pivot and the outer end of the router bit minus 2 mm to compensate for the pivot-nail radius. I mount the board on the router table, and fix it in place acoording to the desired diameter, then tighten tne knobs.
> 
> ...


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## derek willis (Jan 21, 2009)

Getting the centre hole dead central, is easy, just use a cone as I have stated before, made by Trend Routing Technology, very cheap about £3 or £4 that's all. item no, Trend taper pin, part no. temp/otb/pin 1
I have several round sub bases that I have made using this method, and very good they are too.


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## istracpsboss (Sep 14, 2008)

The Milescraft products all contain a tapered centering pin. Some seem to contain both metric and Imperial versions.

Cheers

Peter


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