ROUTING TIP

Here is a tip for some jocks who have to do a lot of routing on smaller and quick projects, especially if they are making small signs. This tip can be used on larger projects as well with a little adaptation. I learned of this from a little old sign maker about 30 years ago. I met him at a craft show…. I was carving and he was making signs. He was routing signs on the table top without using any clamps. I thought, “Boy is that cool or what? ” What he did was take two strips of sand paper and glue them back to back, then lay the sign on them…. placing the sand paper at each end, just a few inches in ….... the pressure down, or the weight of the router kept the signs from sliding while routing. You can see in pictures #4 and #5 that I am doing projects as small as 2” x 3”. You can also use this tip for routing molding around plaques as long as the bits don’t go below the thickness of the wood you are routing. Although I am due to change sand paper, I have been using the same one for about 30 years now. I improvised some what, by taking a 6” x 48” medium grit sanding belt and clamping it to my work bench at each end. This set up could slide easily without the clamps…. BUT THE WORK WILL NOT SLIDE. I use this system every other day, so it is probably one of the most useful tips I have ever picked up from anyone. I made a 1/4” clear plastic face plate for my router so I could see more clearly the small projects and the lines I have to follow. I never bought a router with out a light after the first one without the light. I’m sure there are jocks out there that know this little trick….... but I bet there are a lot more that don’t know of it. ENJOY!

-- Dave Leitem,Butler,Pa.,http://dlcarver.etsy.com