Took the photos after the process, but hopefully they still show well enough what to do.
Supplies needed:
Router (trim or regular)
Router inlay set
Loxbox box
Superglue
1/8" (or 1/4") masonite
spray adhesive
The most difficult part for me was figuring out how to mount the router inlay bushing on my trim router, as it wasn’t designed to accept one. This involved installing a chunk of masonite within the router base itself. Then, since the bushing stuck out farther than the depth of my jig, more masonite and some card stock was necessary on the outside of the base to get the guide depth just right.
Here is what a router inlay set looks like:
Here is one installed on my router:
The first thing I did was glue a lokbox box to a chunk of masonite using superglue. This one has already been sanded to shape, but the idea is that you’ll glue a bigger chunk of masonite to the box, then sand it back to perfectly match the outline.
Here is the first template, sanded to fit:
By the way, don’t do all this on a surfboard (duh). This one was used for demonstration purposes only.
Next thing, you’re going to remove the finished guide from the lokbox box. If you try to pry it off, it will probably splinter. I bounced mine of the floor a couple of times (box first), that seemed to pop it off cleanly. Left some residue on the resin dam of the box, but that will come off when it gets installed and sanded flush.
Then you take your guide, and glue it to another piece of masonite with more superglue:
Hard to see, but it’s there.
Then you take your router, and using the guide you just made as a template, very carefully trace around it. For this cut, you want the spacer ring (see it on corner of masonite) OFF of the inlay bushing. I started my router with the inlay bushing resting on top of the template, then slid it to the edge and dropped it down while keeping it against the template. I wound up notching the template a little, but better than than going outside of it and screwing up my jig cutout.
Again, don’t do this on a surfboard, use some scrap wood underneath.
Now you have your jig!
I kept mine in place using an idea I totally borrowed from probox. Simple spray adhesive (again, don’t do it on your board!):
Just let it get good and tacky before putting it down, and you might have to re-apply between boxes, but this is the cheap solution, right?
Now you put your spacer ring on your router bushing, get your jig set in place, and go to town!
If you did everything right, you should now have a perfectly-sized clean hole for your lokbox box. Practice on some scrap first.
On marking the locations, I did very careful measurements and marked everything out before laying down the jig for each cut. An explanation of just how to do that is far beyond the scope of this writeup.
If you think you might not be able to figure out how to mark your box positions and your jig to get consistent results, or if you think you might not be able to figure out how to get a good cutout for the deeper portion of the box, then this backyard method may not be for you. If like me however, you just want your box install to look clean, and don’t want to spend a big chunk of $$$ on the “official” jig (sorry JJR!), then this may be the way to go for you.
I assume no liability for any injuries or f-ed up boards that result from using this method.
