# routing background and expierences



## unlimitedwoodworker (Mar 3, 2006)

well i decided to do a little review on my router background

I use a black and deckar router. Since i'm 17 i cant "Choose" i get what ever is on sale which was $39 regular 79 i think it is unfortunte it has to be that way but thats how it is. That router has been really good for me, has never broken on me, but when i came to my shop in the AM about a year ago it was in the floor  have no clue how it fell but the case is cracked by the handle so the handle moves  but it has never failed for me, i use my grandpa's fixed Craftsman on my router table, before i used my grandpas i used my plunge on the router table, you guys know what thats like im sure, what a pain for setting the height! now with the fixed base craftsman its a dream, all you do is turn the height to where you want it, loosen the lock and slide it up! i make boxes and signs.

JEFF
















please escuse the trash, its clean now.


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## challagan (Feb 7, 2006)

That router table was my first router table back a long time ago. It did the job  It shold have a sliding carriage somewhere.

Corey


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## harrysin (Jan 15, 2007)

Jeff, I don't want to dampen you're enthusiasm,but PLEASE don't attempt any routing until you can post a photo of a clear bench and workshop. I look forward to such a photo.


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## unlimitedwoodworker (Mar 3, 2006)

I DEFINATELY will not do that, i just got back into the hobby, you guys know how everything else goes to crap when u dont use it  i will definately will be posting pictures of a clean shop soon, i plan on moving the router table anywase.
Jeff


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## unlimitedwoodworker (Mar 3, 2006)

well you asked for it harrysin i decided to go take pics before i get off at 2AM LOL i put the router on the shelf until i find out how i want my shop set up.


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## Mike (Nov 22, 2004)

This is an interesting idea Jeff, I'm sure some of the responses will be very educational. My first routing work was actually done free hand in metal with a die grinder. This was cutting steel door jambs for lock hardware. I worked as operations manager for a very unusual locksmith shop. We were all factory trained by Trio-Ving for installation of Ving Card keyless entry systems. We had 2 hotel crews traveling the country and the Caribean installing locks in hotel doors. We even did custom work for the Sovereign of the Seas, at that time the worlds largest cruise ship. I never got to travel, I was stuck in the office and doing all the local work. We had special mortising machines which used Craftsman routers to cut the cavities in the doors for the lock mechanisims. You clamped the machine onto the door edge, started the router and cranked a handle which moved the router in a rectangle and then stepped it deeper into the door. My first router was a 1-1/2 HP Craftsman with a nice worklight built in. It served me well for 20 years until Bob and Rick showed me a whole new world of routing. These days I do demonstrations for others with a Router Workshop table and some of their jigs. Simple really is better.


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## challagan (Feb 7, 2006)

Jeff my first router table and router is the exact same set up you show there. Same router table which I sold about 2 years ago. I still have that router ..1 1/2 with the dust chute bag etc. It's just an extra one at this point that I hang on to. Still works great. I bought the Benchdog Pro Top Contractor which was a great improvement over the previous table. and the Dewalt 618 with plunge and fixed base... I love that router. I bought the DW 615 to go into the Bench Dog. Best routers I have ever owned. I recently built a mini router table using a colt router to handle all my smallish jobs and mounted it to a 7 inch Oak Park plate. I am in the process of making a new table using the Oak Park router table top with the chip exhaust and building my own cabinet. I have grown to like the set up of the OP table and this way I can use the Incra on it as well. 
I have been routing for around 20-25 years. The router was always a secondary tool.... round overs and mostly edge treatments. After getting online I have discovered so much more that the router can do and when I found Bob and Rick here I discovered even more! Still plenty to learn.

Corey


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## RustyW (Dec 28, 2005)

I also started with a cheap Craftsman router I purchased new about 12 years ago. Then I picked up another at a yard sale mounted to a flimsy Craftsman table for $5. I rarely used either because they were a pain to adjust and a nightmare to change bits on the one under the table. Then a couple years ago I saw these two guys on tv making amazing stuff on a homemade router table. The table was very simple and they used a chunk of plastic for a fence. But the best part was the router was mounted to a square plastic plate. So the whole thing could be lifted out for adjustments and bit changes. I had never seen that before. Immediatley after the show I went out and bought a real router(PC 9690 which I no longer own). Then started searching the net for table designs and a plate(and put both craftsmans on ebay). I figured those 2 guys must have site and thats how I found this forum. I now have 2 verticle and 1 horizontal table,and 4 routers. And tomorrow when my new bits get here from Grizzly, I will have over 100. So even though I've tinkerd in woodworking for many years. I credit (blame) Bob, Rick, and all the great members on this forum for my current addiction.


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## harrysin (Jan 15, 2007)

unlimitedwoodworker said:


> well you asked for it harrysin i decided to go take pics before i get off at 2AM LOL i put the router on the shelf until i find out how i want my shop set up.


Jeff., I really am proud of you, that workshop looks ready for action, but please tell me, what happened to all the debris?
Regarding routing history, I first heard the word ROUTER in about 1965 at which time I was told that it was the most versatile of woodworking tools but it wasn't until 1975 that I purchased my first one, a Black & Decker which looked like a normal drill with a simple base. I used it a lot for edging then I "invented" a template guide which enabled me to rout around Masonite patterns. I used the word invented because it was some years later that I realised such things were readily available for more sophisticated routers,that's when I bought a 1/4" Bosch plunge router which I still use for small jobs. In 2000 after retiring, I met with Template Tom and my routing career really took off, by then I had a 2.5hp Bosch variable speed 1/2" router which was fixed in the table. Whilst attending lessons with Tom I bought a 3hp Makita variable speed plunge router which has been my main machine since. I know that I go on a bit, but that's one of the problems of old age!


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## unlimitedwoodworker (Mar 3, 2006)

thanks harrysin alot of the debris was trash and i just organized and compacted stuff
Jeff.


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## Drugstore Cowboy (May 17, 2007)

harrysin said:


> . . .I know that I go on a bit, but that's one of the problems of old age!


I beg to differ -- that is one of the _privileges_ of old age we've earned it by surviving this long.

If we are swapping histories -- I bought my first little Orange plastic Black and Decker router about 25 years ago. At first I was using it mainly to do roundover and ogee edges for wood plaques my wife was using to decoupage or to rabbet out picture frames for her cross stitch. I had been building simple bookcases and cabinets for some time -- and I was so excited to finally be able to v-groove the legs and shelf supports etc. I even found instuctions for making a frame I could use as a guide to 'simulate' a paneled door with grooving.

Wish I remembered what became of that little machine -

My next router was a Craftsman with the WORST depth adjustment system I have ever seen. 

It died a few months ago -- RIGHT in the MIDDLE of a table project -
YES -- I know by now I should have bought a 2+ HP 1/2" shank - BUT I was between paydays and in the MIDDLE of a project -- so So -- I had to buy the least expensive thing I could find which would be the little Ryobi 1.5hp 1/4"

MOST of what I do is for my own use or gifts for friends -- at most - I usually recoup materials cost. I really prefer it that way - cause it lets me build what I want - when I want for whom I want. A very freeing relaxing feeling after a week of sitting in and office waiting on people to gripe about something.

Skill level? As my grandad would say -- I know just enough to be dangerous.


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## seawolf21 (Jan 19, 2007)

Jeff don't feel bad about your router. I have a J.C. Penny 1/2 HP router that must be over 30 yrs old and I use this for hand routing. My main router is a Craftsman 1 1/2 HP mounted under my router table that must be 20 yrs old and still kicking.

Gary


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## unlimitedwoodworker (Mar 3, 2006)

ok thanks seawolf-

I actually like it when you all do long posts its more informitive!
jeff


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## challagan (Feb 7, 2006)

Gary, you got to post a photo of that. I don't think I have ever seen a JC Penny router 

Corey


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## seawolf21 (Jan 19, 2007)

*JC Penney Router*



challagan said:


> Gary, you got to post a photo of that. I don't think I have ever seen a JC Penny router
> 
> Corey


Well here is the JC Penney workhorse. I hope the label is clear. Here is my Craftsman with a few modifications of course.

Gary


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## harrysin (Jan 15, 2007)

Gary, that router appears to have a large opening, what is the biggest template guide that can be fitted?


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## harrysin (Jan 15, 2007)

"MOST of what I do is for my own use or gifts for friends -- at most - I usually recoup materials cost. I really prefer it that way - cause it lets me build what I want - when I want for whom I want"

Drugstore Cowboy, we have a lot in common.


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## Mike (Nov 22, 2004)

Anytime I see a label claiming 1/2 HP I always wonder which half of the horse it is? Perhaps a new rating system is needed? Instead of 1/2 Horse Power it could be 1 Pig Power? I guess not, nobody would buy something rated in PP. Then I wondered about goats? 1 GP isnt so bad. Sheep? Not even going to go there. I guess we are stuck with the horses backside. In answer to your questions: No, I don't do drugs and I havent been drinking. I just got the first good nights sleep since my loving wife brought home(and shared) the nasty sinus bug a week ago and I am feeling super and silly. I hope this has brightened somebody's day...


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## challagan (Feb 7, 2006)

Thanks Gary, never seen one of those before. 1/2 HP huh.... I don't think I have seen a router of that size with such a low HP rating. Thanks for posting it Gary. 

corey


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## bobj3 (Jan 17, 2006)

Hi Corey

I have one you can have  it's a Craftsmman (Sears) it came on the CRAFTSMAN ROUTER RECREATOR WOODWORKING DUPLICATOR I have, it needs repair  smokes a bit after running for 2 mins. or so    but your welcome to it....


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challagan said:


> Thanks Gary, never seen one of those before. 1/2 HP huh.... I don't think I have seen a router of that size with such a low HP rating. Thanks for posting it Gary.
> 
> corey


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## challagan (Feb 7, 2006)

Thanks Bj, what if you already let the smoke out then what fun is that  Just never seen a JC Penny router but that was back in the day.. huh. My grandpa had a Monkey Ward table saw  In fact... about 3/4 of why they had came from Monkey Ward! 

Corey


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## Drugstore Cowboy (May 17, 2007)

challagan said:


> . . . but that was back in the day.. huh. . .


To the best of my foggy memory -- it was about the mid 70's when Penney's had diversified into a lot of areas -- that they later dropped --
Tools and electronics in particular.
I had a pretty nice receiver/tape deck from them.

Some of their tools were made by Delta.
Willing to bet it was very similar to stuff being marketed through Sears and MW --- just with different labeling.

And Corey 
As you no doubt know -- your grandpa was not alone --
There was a time when huge numbers of folks -- LIVED out of the Sears and MW catalogs.
In fact -- some even bought the HOUSE they lived in out of one.


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## seawolf21 (Jan 19, 2007)

*JC Penney Router Giude?*



harrysin said:


> Gary, that router appears to have a large opening, what is the biggest template guide that can be fitted?


Harry if you mean what size guide bushing fits in that router, well there are no threads for one.

Gary


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