I'm becoming more and more convinced that it's better to think of the router as a trimming tool than as a machine for hogging away large amounts of wood. So, whenever possible, I try to somehow cut away as much waste as possible before using the router to do whatever it has to do. I think this makes the router bits stay sharp longer, and helps to reduce chipping and tearout because the router has less material to remove.
So for each of these arched parts of the Aurora nightstand, I temporarily attached the blank to the template in order to trace an outline of the shape onto the blank. Then I removed the blank from the template and sawed as close to the outline as I could with the bandsaw. Then I reattached the blank to the template and routed the final profile in a single pass.
5 comments:
I'm a huge fan of the router template holding devices. I've scared the hell out of myself NOT using them.
You need one of those scary big flush bits from William Ng, even if it is just for the photo. Like the look of the lifts. All these patterns (leg waterfalls and these lifts) came from the magazine article? When I looked for it, it was nowhere on the website so maybe it sold out.
@Paul-Marcel: Yes, the patterns for all the fancy curves are given in the magazine article. In fact, quite a bit of the article is about how to make the templates for the arches. I couldn't find the magazine on the Woodwork website, either, but these guys had (and apparently still have) a copy for sale.
Greaat blog post
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