# Brass Guides



## bobj3 (Jan 17, 2006)

Many have a error with brass guides, it's hard to get your fingers in to lock them in place , if you use the right base plate you can pop them right out and use a wrench on them and the same for the router table.

With the right base plate you can use just about any router bit in your router..
I use the inserts on all the router tables and the hand routers.
It makes it a snap to get the brass guides in right.
I have push the HF and the MLCS plates for a very long time because they work so well, if you don't like a sq. base plate you can make a easy guide to make a round one ..just drop the jig plug in place and use you cir.jig to make a new round base plate.




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## bobj3 (Jan 17, 2006)

Just some more


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## Mike (Nov 22, 2004)

BJ, a set of cannon plug pliers work great for adjusting brass guide bushings and reducers. The soft replaceable jaw inserts are designed to provide the best grip on round objects and since they are pliers they multiply your gripping force, a real advantage for those with reduced gripping power. I have found many uses for mine.
Cannon Plug Pliers (AKA Connector Plug Pliers)


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## harrysin (Jan 15, 2007)

Bob, I really do admire all the things that you make, in fact you actually inspire me BUT, you know what I think of three piece Brass template guides, there just is no substitute for one piece guides made specifically for a particular router.


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## bobj3 (Jan 17, 2006)

Hi Mike

Me too for a long time but so many of the routers I have the guide ring is in a pocket hole so to speak and then when I use the dust pickup tube it's right in the way.
So to say with a quick drilled hole in the lock ring it's easy to get the tool on the ring nut..and I'm always 100% sure it's in place and will not come flying off at any time ..

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Mike said:


> BJ, a set of cannon plug pliers work great for adjusting brass guide bushings and reducers. The soft replaceable jaw inserts are designed to provide the best grip on round objects and since they are pliers they multiply your gripping force, a real advantage for those with reduced gripping power. I have found many uses for mine.
> Cannon Plug Pliers (AKA Connector Plug Pliers)


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## bobj3 (Jan 17, 2006)

Hi Harry

Thanks and yes I do know what you think of the brass guides.I was thinking about you when I made the tool, maybe now Harry can see the light ,something like the Metric and the SAE thing that we play ping pong with all the time..many of the routers we have in the states can't take on the funny one piece guides..not to say anything about how to use them in the router table, a real PITA ...IMOP..

Not to say anything about how safe it can be by using the guides to choke the hole down, try that with steel funny guides in the router or the router table.. 





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harrysin said:


> Bob, I really do admire all the things that you make, in fact you actually inspire me BUT, you know what I think of three piece Brass template guides, there just is no substitute for one piece guides made specifically for a particular router.


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## papawd (Jan 5, 2011)

I do like those pliers and can see a real use for them , Thanks for the link


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## Mike (Nov 22, 2004)

BJ: I didn't notice the holes in the nuts; great idea!

Harry, I know you are fond of your one piece bushings. I just never cared for using a screwdriver when changing guides. That has been eliminated with the new generation of Makita routers with the toolless locking lever. Since you have a nice lathe why not make some brass metric guides for your router? Then you will have the best of both worlds.


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## bobj3 (Jan 17, 2006)

Hi Mike

Thanks,,, I also use the tool below  it's set up at a right angle and just right to get on the ring nut, the water pump tools need to be open to 1 1/2" and that makes in a PITA to get in that small pocket hole in the base of the router base ..

But they both have a down fall ,you can only turn them just a little bit in the pocket hole, so I came up with spaner tool for the router that has been used for round lock ring nuts for a very long time, but most just have a slot in the ring nut.

http://www.amazon.com/Lisle-52990-S...ref=sr_1_1?s=hi&ie=UTF8&qid=1312497222&sr=1-1
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Mike said:


> BJ: I didn't notice the holes in the nuts; great idea!
> 
> Harry, I know you are fond of your one piece bushings. I just never cared for using a screwdriver when changing guides. That has been eliminated with the new generation of Makita routers with the toolless locking lever. Since you have a nice lathe why not make some brass metric guides for your router? Then you will have the best of both worlds.


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## istracpsboss (Sep 14, 2008)

Mike said:


> BJ, a set of cannon plug pliers work great for adjusting brass guide bushings and reducers. The soft replaceable jaw inserts are designed to provide the best grip on round objects and since they are pliers they multiply your gripping force, a real advantage for those with reduced gripping power. I have found many uses for mine.
> Cannon Plug Pliers (AKA Connector Plug Pliers)


Thanks for that, Mike. I've never seen those before. To you, too, Bob. I've not seen either of these soft jaw pliers before and I thought I had most things !

Cheers

Peter


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## harrysin (Jan 15, 2007)

bobj3 said:


> Hi Harry
> 
> Thanks and yes I do know what you think of the brass guides.I was thinking about you when I made the tool, maybe now Harry can see the light ,something like the Metric and the SAE thing that we play ping pong with all the time..many of the routers we have in the states can't take on the funny one piece guides..not to say anything about how to use them in the router table, a real PITA ...IMOP..
> 
> ...


One day Bob, Americans will realise that there are PLUNGE routers, that being the case, why would template guides be needed for table use


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## harrysin (Jan 15, 2007)

Mike said:


> BJ: I didn't notice the holes in the nuts; great idea!
> 
> Harry, I know you are fond of your one piece bushings. I just never cared for using a screwdriver when changing guides. That has been eliminated with the new generation of Makita routers with the toolless locking lever. Since you have a nice lathe why not make some brass metric guides for your router? Then you will have the best of both worlds.


Mike, I use whatever material that I have available for making template guides, in the past I've used all steel, steel and Brass, Aluminium and brass and steel and Brass. I've never been given suitable Bras to make the disks.


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## bobj3 (Jan 17, 2006)

Hi Harry

I have posted many,many ways to use the brass guides in the router table with jigs and/or templates, many don't have a tank router like yours to hold the stock down but no need if the router table is holding the router for you.. 

Some day AU. members will " realise " that the router table can do so much more than a plunge router like make cabinet doors for just one of them with templates, pattern work for just one more. 


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harrysin said:


> One day Bob, Americans will realise that there are PLUNGE routers, that being the case, why would template guides be needed for table use


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## bobj3 (Jan 17, 2006)

Hi Harry

No need to make your own Metric ones, Milescraft makes a set just for the metric guys over the pond, Once you have a set you will say they are safe and easy to use also but I know you will never buy the set...so that's out I'm sure .Peter did post a link to them at one time.


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harrysin said:


> Mike, I use whatever material that I have available for making template guides, in the past I've used all steel, steel and Brass, Aluminium and brass and steel and Brass. I've never been given suitable Bras to make the disks.


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## harrysin (Jan 15, 2007)

Bob, just about everyone can rout using a table mounted router but as the saying goes "use the same old methods and get the same old results"
This being a specialist routing forum, I've done my best over the last four years to promote DIFFERENT and exciting methods of using a router, methods that are not readily available on the bookstalls. So few members owned up to using template guides four years ago and skis were believed to be for use on the snowfields! The situation has now changed considerably, especially since YOU realised and actively promoted some of these "new methods". I've never suggested that all of my methods are suitable for commercial use, but for hobbyists like me they are capable of producing so many projects in a very safe way.


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## jschaben (Jun 21, 2009)

I would like to think that the majority of European routers are better at a attaching the steel bushings than my Trend T-4. The combination of countersunk holes plus flat head screws makes it impossible to get a good center. A simple fix by switching to pan head screws except the only metric pan head screws I have found locally are actually a "cheese" head, the head is nearly 4mm thick and will not duck below the plate. Using the adapter for 3 piece bushings is no help as it is also countersunk. I can find the screws online but am loathe to pay $7-8 shipping for a $1 worth of hardware. I'm waiting to assemble an order to amortize the shipping issue. 
Harry - As much as I respect your opinions and appreciate your contributions, I must admit that I also find the use of bushings very useful in the table.


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## harrysin (Jan 15, 2007)

jschaben said:


> I would like to think that the majority of European routers are better at a attaching the steel bushings than my Trend T-4. The combination of countersunk holes plus flat head screws makes it impossible to get a good center. A simple fix by switching to pan head screws except the only metric pan head screws I have found locally are actually a "cheese" head, the head is nearly 4mm thick and will not duck below the plate. Using the adapter for 3 piece bushings is no help as it is also countersunk. I can find the screws online but am loathe to pay $7-8 shipping for a $1 worth of hardware. I'm waiting to assemble an order to amortize the shipping issue.
> Harry - As much as I respect your opinions and appreciate your contributions, I must admit that I also find the use of bushings very useful in the table.


John, what projects have you made using the plunge router with template guides?


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## Mike Wingate (Apr 26, 2009)

If there is reluctance to use the proper screw, which can be adjusted to give accurate concentricity. How about a sub-base, ok you lose a bit of depth, but... There are many things that I do with my tools and jigs that are not commercially available, not due to Health and Safety. But even so, you have to be careful and know what you are doing. I have been "chastised " for fileing about 1mm off the throat of one of my 40 year old (new when I bought it) handplanes. To take a state of the art Canadian blade and chipbreaker, designed to fit the plane with minimum modification. It works really well, my best bladed plane. But I had to puzzle things out, do a little more accurate filing on the inside casting of the plane and the underside of the frog. I have ruined an historical tool. No I have made it work better, just as I adapt all my tools, whether they are bikes, tents,guns and bows, or wood/metal tools. I don't do anything blindly, but with a lot of planning, plenty of questions and a bit of skill.


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## jschaben (Jun 21, 2009)

harrysin said:


> John, what projects have you made using the plunge router with template guides?


Hi Harry - I'm a little artisticly challenged and haven't graduated to the elegant projects you usually post; clocks, bowls and the like. Right now I'm more of a construction type. I use guide bushings and plunge router for things like dados in bottoms and sides for dividers in boxes and drawers. I have also used them to put door knob blocks in hollow doors where the door knob didn't seem to want to be where the factory put the block. About as close as I have been to being artistic is putting beading around drawer fronts and doors where a 1/8" radius plunge bit is used in conjunction with 1/2" and 1" bushings. I guess I did manage to inlay a Ford hood emblem on top of a storage box I made to house my sons birthaday present a year ago. Would have been simpler if I had had an inlay kit at the time. Had to work out all the offsets on my own but learned a lot. All pretty basic stuff but a giant leap from where I was two years ago. 
One example of using it in the table is shown in my post on a quick and dirty little router table I tossed together last week. The bit opening in the fence was cut with a 1" bushing, 3/4" bit on a router table after the fence was assembled. That thread is at the end of the "Show me your table" thread.
I've also used bushings on the table for things like embeding cross supports on my miter saw stand. 
So, if you are looking for any elegance from my activities, I'm sorry to dissappoint but am trying to get there as fast as I can. You have no way of knowing how much your tutorials have helped me understand routing, or at least get to the level I am. About the only thing is that I did pick up a 1.5" guide bushing about a year ago but have yet to actually use it. I suspect it is because I notice you usually use one in conjunction with skiis and I found I really haven't got a large enough, nor level enough worksurface to effetively use skiis either.


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## harrysin (Jan 15, 2007)

John, you still have so much routing pleasure ahead of you, Using a hand held plunge router using templates and guides is a totally different experience to using a table mounted router, and using skis, I have in the past likened the experience to sex (going from memory of course). Once your present commitments are completed, give it a try, I guarantee that you will experience a sense of satisfaction that you never achieved using the table.


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## bobj3 (Jan 17, 2006)

http://www.routerforums.com/table-mounted-routing/25465-router-table-guide-bushing-use.html

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