has anyone ever made one??? if so, how did you make one??? also does anyone know the price on one from fins unlimited???
I used lexan but you can make it out of wood, aluminum, thick rubber, whatever. this maybe a little hard to follow but here goes… take a piece of wood about 2’x2-1/2’ nice and square. square your box up in the center and trace the outline with a pencil. cut it out on or just outside the line. put a 1/2" bit in your router. put it in the hole (don’t turn it on). while holding a pencil on the outside edge of the router base mark a line as you follow the edge of the hole. now take some wood with a good 90* on it (like quarter round molding) and match it up to the lines on all four sides (picture frame). glue and/or nail. there you have a hole for your bit to go through and an edge for you router to ride on. put some thin rubber or foam on the bottom so it doesnt slide around. remember to put some center marks to line up with stringer. hope that was not totally confusing. thanks Bruce Gabrielson, I would send you to his site with sketches of this process but it seems to be down. you can get to the same result by just measuring your router base and adding an inch for width and half the base on each side of the box length. mark it with a square, picture frame and route out the center hole.
“put some thin rubber or foam on the bottom so it doesnt slide around.” I’ve found a thin rubber webbing found at homestores or bed,bath,beyond type stores. Originally intended for seperating plates or dishes. It really grips the foam or glass well and easily applied to the bottom of your jig with 3m super 77 adhesive. Very thin so compression is not a factor when setting your cutter depth. I’ve got it on all my jigs and never had a slipping accident.
“put some thin rubber or foam on the bottom so it doesnt slide > around.”>>> I’ve found a thin rubber webbing found at homestores or bed,bath,beyond > type stores. Originally intended for seperating plates or dishes. It > really grips the foam or glass well and easily applied to the bottom of > your jig with 3m super 77 adhesive. Very thin so compression is not a > factor when setting your cutter depth. I’ve got it on all my jigs and > never had a slipping accident. The easiest way to set up the jig is, the fin box dimensions are, 10 1/2" long by 1 1/8" wide, add 1/16"th for resin and cloth, if you so desire. Measure from the edge of the router base to the nearest part of the cutting flute, aprox. 2 3/4"- 2 7/8" on most routers. Double the base measurement, add the 1 1/8" for the template width, then do the same on the length. If you have router collars, you can make an opening the size of the box, plus leeway. I do a scoring route the first time to see how close I am, then plunge through the template base if I’m satisfied. Accuracy counts.