I am going to build out a hollow cedar board and it will be a quad with proboxes. The skin / box backing will be cedar. This is pretty soft, but nowhere near how soft foam is. I have routed many proboxs in EPS, but I am a little worried about the cedar. My thought is to glue two jigs together and route first about 1/3" deep, then a little deeper and finally a complete route.
I have two routers: The first is a battery operated pannel router (Ryobi) and the other is a 2 HP plunge router…
My thought is to use the plunge router and to kind of do a somewhat loosely guided free hand (inside the lines of course) until full depth against the jig. Anyone do proboxes on hollow cedar boards that wants to offer some kind words of adivce?
I have done it a couple of times and I have had some issues. First problem was that the adhesive didn’t set up on the templates before I started routing. So it moved a little bit. I used a small trim router to do it (Ridgid). I find that even though that has less power it is easier to handle. Just go real slow. The other issue I had was that the wood started to burn. Little fires were starting. So I had to pull the router out and remove all the saw dust. I went for the full depth all at once since I was afraid of chewing up my templates by freehanding.
I would try it on a test piece first, that is what I did.
I have put a few Future strong boxes into hollow cedar boards before. I would suggest not trying to freehand it…wood is not as easy to cut as foam and will pull or push the router more than you may expect, even in shallow cuts. I use a small trim router, but since you have a plunge router, I would make a jig for that router. Take small cuts, the less you take off, the less chance for blow out and burning, always keep the slot clean to avoid burning and to keep a clean cut, and make sure to get the right router bit. Carbide straight cut is a good way to go…but a spiral cut bit would be even better.
I assume you are worried about the bearing collar not tracking inside the jig during the shallow cuts? Can you loosen and slide the bearing collar down on the bit for the initial shallow cuts then move it back up for the later cuts? That would allow the bearing collar to stay inside the jig if you can find a spot on the bit to tighten the set screw.
I am going to build out a hollow cedar board and it will be a quad with proboxes. The skin / box backing will be cedar. This is pretty soft, but nowhere near how soft foam is. I have routed many proboxs in EPS, but I am a little worried about the cedar. My thought is to glue two jigs together and route first about 1/3" deep, then a little deeper and finally a complete route.
I have two routers: The first is a battery operated pannel router (Ryobi) and the other is a 2 HP plunge router...
My thought is to use the plunge router and to kind of do a somewhat loosely guided free hand (inside the lines of course) until full depth against the jig. Anyone do proboxes on hollow cedar boards that wants to offer some kind words of adivce?
Hi da5id, First like to thank all the guys for their input great stuff my Swaylockian friends. da5 if you don't have a plung router then here's a trick. Use all 4 of your install jigs and stack them on top of each other. This will give you a 1/8" router cut at the start with the guide bearing following the top number 4 jig. When you are done then remove the jig and repeat all the way to the last jig left on the board. This will let you cut in 1/8" cuts down to finish. Hope that helps my friend. If you need some pic support I would be happy to take some and show and tell. Mahalo, Larry