Hey every one I wanted to show you a router guide I made up that I think is pretty neat. I have seen other people make this guide with types of wood that slide along each other but it seems to me that there would be some dragging that would prevent really smooth operation. This build is not practical for every one, it only cost me 13 dollers in nuts and bolts to make because my grandpa (a cabinet builder) had some extra 18" drawer tracks that he was nice enough to let me use. I believe these slides can be near 10-15 dollars from some stores, but if you can come across them for cheap or in an old dresser it may be worth it to give this guide a try.
supplies
-4 18" or longer drawer tracks
-4 1/2in by 6in bolts
-12 1/2in bolts
-8 1/2in washers
-2 1/2"x 21" support wood
-1 1/2" to 3/4" thick base large enough to hold rails (approx 22"x22" at least)
-6 small wood screws
-4 machine screws cut to about 1/4in( this will vary depending on the amount of room in the track and the size of the holes in the tracks.)
-4 nuts for the machine screws
I started with a base that was slightly longer and wider then then tracks
Next I cut wood supports to mount the outer rails to.
Next I drilled holes in the 4 corners of the support wood for the height adjustment bolts. Its important to make the set of holes at the end of the tracks that extends off center so that they can extend without running into the height bolts. consider making these holes bigger then the height bolts to allow room to angle the rails for neck pocket cutting
I then mounted the outer rails to there supports using 3 wood screws each. you can see that about 1/3 of the rail hands off to avoid running into the height bolt when extended. I also took this time to mark out where the height bolts would go on the base board.
the height bolts are then put into place.
each bolt receives two nuts followed by a washer which will be used to raise or lower the tracks
next I put the tracks on to the height bolts. when mounting the tracks to one another take your time and check your measurements, you will need to cut the machine bolts to size and if you have cut the bolts to long they will hit other parts of the track and cause it to bind up, if you cut them to short you will have a hard time threading them into the nuts. look at the rails and plan your method ahead of time. also a drop of thread locker on each bolt is a good idea.
i chose to epoxy the rails together in addition to the bolts to make it nice and sturdy and prevent any loosening of the nuts and bolts. just be careful to keep the adhesive out of the bearings and other moving parts.
the final thing to do is to make a router base out of plexiglass that can be mounted on the rails. School has prevented me from getting to this step so far. I tested it out by taping a medium size router to the top rails and it worked nicely.
heres some pros and cons to consider before making this tool.
Pros/uses- extremely smooth operation, metal wont warp over time like wood, can be used for thicknessing, can be angled to cut neck pockets, can be use for initial carve top routing, binding channel routing(flat top), and I'm sure it can be used for many other things.
cons- rails can be expensive depending on the source, size should be considered for smaller work shops, bolting rails can be tricky and or frustrating.
Well I think that's every thing. If you have any questions or if something is not as clear as it could be please don't hesitate to ask. I hope this can be useful to a few of you. Take care.
-Tyler