[quote="$1"]
Hey guys thanks for sharing your thoughts . may I refer to each seperately-
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By all means, and if you don't mind, I'll also answer in bits and pieces
[quote="$1"]
Doc- I have both a trimer and a trim router . the trim router has two handels on its sides while the trimer doesn't.
also it's a variable speed while the trimer has only ON/OFF swich. both are 1/4" shank . I use the trim router for the job
and installed a straight , top bearing laminate bit ( has two knives ..right? ) which is about an inch long and 1/2" diameter.
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Okay, I'd definitely use the router rather than the trimmer, especially with what is a fairly sizable bit. Using anything of that size with a laminate trimmer gets kinda hairy - I've used roundover bits with my laminate ttrimmer often, but scared myself a few times too.
[quote="$1"]
it also has a small gap , 1/16" or less, between where the bearing ends and where the cutting part (knives) start and this by itself forces me to set the bit slightly higher so when the knives are set to fully cut the blank stringers only half of the ball bearing actually
touches the template .
another problem is caused by the fact that my template is fairly thin masonite and it bends while I cut and the bit goes into the blank stringers. another problem is holding the router prepandicular, this is almost impossible when reaching the nose and tail areas
where the router base has almost no flat surface to sit on.
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Right, well, in the long run you'll probably want to make your templates out of ruggeder material, but in the meantime there's a few tricks you can use.
First, use countersunk screws and a lot of them to fasten down the template. Masonite....makes a nice template, but not necessarily a work jig. It flexes, bends, the edges can get soft and your pilot bearing can go astray.... you have to keep it fixed as best you can
[quote="$1"]
I could solve these problems by making my templates from thicker material but I'm really not into shaping templates for the next few months , specially not having to deal with fine tuning the deckside nose curve in thicker material.
I could eliminate the template being bent by the side force I create while cutting buy simply stapling/nailing/screwing the template
to the blank stringers but when I did that , the router base got stuck on every bump not to mention nails heads or screws.
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Right, that's where the countersunk screws come in. The good news is you only have to do the countersinking once, then you're good to go from then on.
Oh, and, to make a stronger router template, I'd suggest 1/4" to 3/8" good grade plywood, like the 'lots'of plies' birch cabinet plywood.
[quote="$1"]
also because I have this gap between the end of the bearig and the knives which force me to raise the bit , I run only half of the bearing
on the template leaving me only about 2mm of contact between the bearing and the template. this could also be solved if I had thicker templates , but as I said ... I'm too lazy to spend half of my life on building templates.
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Ah- the good news is that if you were to get some of that plywood I mention above, you can then bandsaw it within 1/4" or less, then finish it with your current router and masonite template setup, reproducing it exactly and that lets you keep the masonite thing for backup and reference, so it won't get beat up and inaccurate in use.
[quote="$1"]
thank you all for the kind help , I'm going to sleep now , waiting anxiously to waking up in the morning and reading some
more of your tips and knowledge .
Aloha
Lee
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Okay, one thing first and foremost. Instead of holding the router only on top of the template and rough-cut stringer, you want to build a small table/box the exact same height as your stringer plus template. Use clamps to hold it to your workbench, and use clamps to hold the stringer-plus-template to the bench as well - that way your router base is well supported and the bit is nice and perpendicular. Doing it almost freehand - that's dangerous, y'know? Buddy of mine has 3 1/2 fingers on one hand, that's how he got 'em that way.
If you're doing fifteen of the things and likely many more similar afterwards, a router table or a small wood shaper looks like the way to go, though. Myself, I'd look in the local Craigslist or equivalent for something like http://www.owwm.com/photoindex/detail.aspx?id=8462 - they started making 'em in the 1930s or so, there are literally thousands of them out there, all over the world, plus a lot of companies made close copies and still do, Used and in good shape, $100 US is about right. I found mine at the local dump missing a couple of parts and the parts showed up three months later, but I was lucky. Oh, and the above link will also get you to scanned manuals for a lot of older tools - look in 'Machine Info'.
Having worked with a few router tables - well, they are okay, if built well, and they can do most of the stuff a shaper can do, but the shaper does it all well and you can fine-adjust them easier and faster....which is why I have the shaper, y'know? Fun's fun and all that, but I do like to get things done in a reasonable time.
You can get straight cutters for them (1/2" bore or you can use 3/4" bore with what are called T-bushings - see http://www.grizzly.com/catalog/2010/Main/484 and succeeding pages, and that's just one supplier) , with various sizes of collars/bearings, all separate so they're very versatile. Safer than doing production with a router if you use reasonable care . The bearings and cutters are bigger diameter, so they are much more tolerant of wee nicks and irregularities in your templates than , say, a 1/2" diameter router pilot bearing.
hope that's of use
doc...
