# Cutting a hollow in a small piece of wood



## steamingbill (Jan 13, 2013)

Hello,

I want to cut a shallow hollow in a small piece of wood the blank is 6" x 1.5" x 3/4".

Intuitively I am not going to plunge the wood down onto a spinning router bit. Seems like a good way to sacrifice some blood to the great woodwork gods.

Is there any way of doing this safely - ie hold the wood in a much bigger jig ?

The intended end result will be a 1/4" hollow rectangle (5" x 1") completely enclosed by the sides of the original blank.

An alternative way would be to secure the piece to a bench and just do normal hand held routing - that's what I'd normally do but have been wondering about somehow doing it on table - old triton workstation and a hassle to pull router out.

I have only ever slid timber up to the router blade to cut edges - have never plunged a piece down - even with a large piece of timber is it a safe thing to do on a router table ? Any tips or jigs or special push sticks for what I am describing ?

Am thinking something involving a longer wider piece of wood screwed to a door hinge which is secured to a block of wood on the table top, allows hands to stay well away from blade - after initial plunge can then move jig horizontally to make trench ?


Bill


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## Phil P (Jul 25, 2010)

steamingbill said:


> Is there any way of doing this safely - ie hold the wood in a much bigger jig ?


Hi Bill

That's exactly what you'll need to do - find some method (fixturing, hot melt glue, double sided tape, screw through the back) to hold the workpiece onto a larger, heavier peice of wood or MDF which can them be secured to the bench



steamingbill said:


> I have only ever slid timber up to the router blade to cut edges - have never plunged a piece down - even with a large piece of timber is it a safe thing to do on a router table ? Any tips or jigs or special push sticks for what I am describing ?


I'm pretty much the opposite - about 90% of my routing is done hand held, including door lock mortising using these bad boys (ALWAYS used on a template jig with a guide bush to help control movement):










Doing a plunge cut on a router table (where you raise the cutter into the material) is pretty much impossible. *"Dropping on"* where you attempt to drop the workpiece onto a spinning cutter (which someone else asked about quite recently)* is downright dangerous in most cases, especially with a trapped cut* (where the cutter doesn't break-out of the edge of the material) and is to be avoided whenever possible. If you think about it a plunge router is designed specifically to be used safely whilst hand held above the work. Recesses can be tackled quite easily using a guide bush and an appropriate template guide. Just remember to use the turret to limit the initial pass to under 1/8in (using the turret) and to limit subsequent passes to no more than the diameter of the bit (i.e. a 1/2in diameter cutter should remove no more than 1/2in extra depth per pass). BTW make sure that your cutter is a plunge cutter (with a carbide insert across the bottom) if making plunge cuts

Regards

Phil


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## mgmine (Jan 16, 2012)

You could drill a large hole in each end of the wood, or for that matter a series of holes to hog out the bulk of the wood.Then lower the wood onto the router and use the fence to keep things straight. At this point you could also use a pattern cutting bit and a template if you wanted to get really fancy.


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## dave brewer (Nov 28, 2012)

Any chance of doing it on a bigger piece of wood, than cutting down to size. Reminds me of the time I did something really dumb. The result was dropping my hand into a fully stacked dado.


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## CharleyL (Feb 28, 2009)

Bill,

Do a search on this site for "router skis". They will allow you to do what you want with the router above the work so you can see your progress. Once you have built some skis and used them a few times you will wonder how you ever got along without them. Harry Sin and Bobj3 have some great posts on how to build and use them, but several others have made some great contributions too.

Charley


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## Quillman (Aug 16, 2010)

"Is there any way of doing this safely - ie hold the wood in a much bigger jig ?"
*******************************
Done here, indeed, with a jig much bigger than the work.
With stops and edge guides you can map out any rectangle and rout the excavation to any reasonable depth.


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## Stick486 (Jan 4, 2013)

dave brewer said:


> Any chance of doing it on a bigger piece of wood, than cutting down to size. *Reminds me of the time I did something really dumb.* The result was dropping my hand into a fully stacked dado.


that mind's eye thought made my hand spasm stomach roll over..

by any chance are you from Ruskin, FL???


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## Phil P (Jul 25, 2010)

dave brewer said:


> The result was dropping my hand into a fully stacked dado.


Dave, there are easier ways of trimming your nails which don't involve removing everything up to the second joint.......... Hopefully you dodn't come off too badly - stacked dados can be pretty serious opposition

Regards

Phil


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## Stick486 (Jan 4, 2013)

if you had a router table w/ lift...

lower the desired cutter below the table elevation...
mark the limits of cut...
clamp a larger piece of material into position...
raise the bit into the material and plow...
shut down the router and lower the bit a fuzz...
repeat the positioning and raising of bit as often as required to get where you are going...
cut out the desired sized piece...

Now I would use my mortiser to to do all of this or mortiser jig, which ever I felt was safer and simpler...


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## steamingbill (Jan 13, 2013)

Many thanks,

Got a few different ways of skinning the cat now.

Bill


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## allbarknobite (Sep 15, 2011)

*Plunge cut on a router table using the MLCS PowerLift*



Phil P said:


> Hi Bill
> Doing a plunge cut on a router table (where you raise the cutter into the material) is pretty much impossible. *"Dropping on"* where you attempt to drop the workpiece onto a spinning cutter (which someone else asked about quite recently)* is downright dangerous in most cases, especially with a trapped cut* (where the cutter doesn't break-out of the edge of the material) and is to be avoided whenever possible. ...make sure that your cutter is a plunge cutter (with a carbide insert across the bottom) if making plunge cuts
> Regards
> Phil


Hi guys,
I agree that attaching your small part to a larger piece of stock is the way to go.
MLCS has a PowerLift that will do blind mortices or blind dadoes routinely. 
I have used one for the past two years on my router table, and it is inherently safer than a handheld plunge router for routing anything like a blind mortice. 
My post, "x-y router" shows a MLCS Powerlift installed on a RBI RS-29 router table.
Anyway, it's worth a look, if you do blind routs routinely.
Mark


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## Phil P (Jul 25, 2010)

allbarknobite said:


> it is inherently safer than a handheld plunge router for routing anything like a blind mortice.


Inherently safer? I have to question that. With a plunge router to cut a mortise requires BOTH hands to be holding the router - which keeps them well out of the way of the workpiece or cutter - and ideally the router should be either guided by a guide bush and template or on narrow material like, say, door stiles should be guided by two fences placed either side of the material (one of them needs to be nothing more than a block of wood with two holes for the fence rods and a couple of screws to hold it). Of course the "square" safety rule has to be observed rigidly when router mortising - no pass to be deeper than the diameter of the cutter

On the other hand to make an powered upcut plunge on a router table you need to ensure that the work is adequately secured using something like a pressure pad above the work piece which prevents its' upwards movement during the cut whilst still allowing the material to slide back and forth along the length of the mortise. And what do you do when you need to cut a mortise which is wider than your biggest cutter? Say 60mm or 2-3/8in wide? Does your router fence have powered fore and aft movement? Nice though powered lifts are, I just feel that having spent a lot of money on a piece of kit you are trying to justify its' existence. 

A mortise cut with a plunge router from above is quick and easy to make and requires minimal extra expenditure over the router itself

Regards

Phil


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## Mike (Nov 22, 2004)

Bill, this is a perfect job for a template and guide bushing. A ski jig works well with this but is not required. Head to our templates and guide bushings section and read HarrySin's tutorials. You will slap your forehead and say: Why didn't I think of that!


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## MAFoElffen (Jun 8, 2012)

I see various options.

Firstly, whatever you do, holding the small piece within a larger piece is a safety idea and I see that being an option for any tooling of this. You could also make this from a larger piece, then trim it down later. An idea to hold it, it to trim a piece of larger stock of the same thickness. then use somethig suck as 1/4 ply to secure to the holder and holdee. 

There is also a handy jig for holding small work. It consists of 2 "L's" with slots and threaded rods through the slots of the long ends. The long ends hold somewhat parallel sides and the foot of the "L" acts as support from the sides. This jig can be used for routing and the bench press.

From being held in a jig as suggested above, you could easily use a plunge router or alternate tooling.

For alternate tooling, if you started out the slot by drilling a hole through your work piece, you narrow the safety risks by leaps and bounds. Then you aren't having to plunge through, you are just machining from there. 

Alternate tooling... Router table with a straight bit from below or a slot cutter from the side. Mortiser to create the slot. Scroll saw. Table saw with small diameter blades. Etc. Another would be a keying a router lathe jig... Mounted to a workbench and using a router sled jig... Hand tool options would be a scroll saw, drill, chisels, etc.

Like I said, I see lots of options. Those are just a few off the top of my head.


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## jw2170 (Jan 24, 2008)

I get the impression this is a groove , not a through slot?

I would use a hand held router with fence guide (or skis, if you have them).

Route a larger piece if you want and cut to size.


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## steamingbill (Jan 13, 2013)

Thanks for all of the answers,

As part of my "becoming organised" am building jigs as and when I need them.

Bought two rods to make skis yesterday. Gritted my teeth and pulled the router out of the triton.

Bought some double sided tape to hold the piece down and used the skis and some stop blocks and job done.

Saw a couple of really nice jigs in a previous post in this thread - lots of perspex in them and then theres the small pieces jig that was discussed.

So if I am not careful will be spending more time making jigs than making things.

Good collection of responses above - thankyou - may be helpful to others as well.

Regards

Bill


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## allbarknobite (Sep 15, 2011)

*routing a small piece of lumber*



steamingbill said:


> I want to cut a shallow hollow in a small piece of wood the blank is 6" x 1.5" x 3/4".
> The intended end result will be a 1/4" hollow rectangle (5" x 1") completely enclosed by the sides of the original blank.
> Bill


The original conversation was about working on a small piece of lumber.

The mentioned RS-29 steel top router table equipped with a powerlift will easily do that, especially with MagSwitch Hold-downs guiding the work past the bit.

I always see some criticism in this forum, but did not expect the decidedly pugilistic tone of one poster who apparently is looking for a verbal fight. 

You have your toys, I have mine. My toys do what I need them to do.

To that poster....I'm sorry that you are having a bad day.

Sacre Bleu!
Mark

201301292252


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## jw2170 (Jan 24, 2008)

In regard to some of the responses, it is usually a good idea to check the profile of the OP to see if they have indicated what tools they currently have on hand to achieve the desired result.

One may have a completely equipped metal/ wood shop for example, ( I don't, but this is an example) but the first suggestions really should be to assist the OP to achieve the desired result with the tools that he/she has at their disposal.

To suggest that the OP spend hundreds of dollars to obtain some useful new equipment is to take a very broad assumption on the OP's financial status.

There are many on the forum unwilling or unable to spend $20 to buy a set of plans. we are still trying to help that person as best we can.


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