As you can see in the pictures, I’m currently in the middle of constructing a round table (my first real furniture project!!!), and needed a circle guide for my router. This is the design I came up with.

The jig attaches to my router (Bosch 1617) with two 3/8” steel rods, which are held together with a walnut block. They are attached to the block with epoxy and some small pins (nails, actually). The long bar is a piece of 3/4” extruded aluminum, epoxied into the block. The pivot pin is a small finish nail that I cut the head off and epoxied into the bottom of another walnut block. A thumbscrew through the top allows the pivot to be locked in place for a circle radius anywhere from about 8” up to over 40”.

One thing I didn’t think about beforehand is that the router is much heavier than the guide, and when I was routing the outside of my table top a counterweight (the clamp in the pictures). With a proper counterweight, I found that I could give it a little shove and the jig would spin freely almost 2 full revolutions before stopping. Another issue is that I couldn’t use any of my dust collection attachments with this jig, hence the pile of chips in the second pic. And that’s just from taking about 1/8” off the inside curve!

Total cost of materials: about $5

I have a sketchup drawing as well if anyone’s interested.

Comments and critiques are welcome and appreciated.

I got a 12” ryobi drill press for christmas, and after several months of having it taking up valuable workbench real estate, I decided to build a cart to get it off the bench and make it mobile. I also decided (or my wife decided?) that my compressor is way too loud, so this cart needed to contain a space to enclose the compressor.

Construction is mostly out of 3/4” birch ply from HD with some 1/2” in the drawers. It took me a while to find a good sheet (no filler on the faces, no visible voids, intact edges, etc) but I was glad I took the time because it was actually really nice to work with. Finish is 2 coats of wipe-on poly. This was the first time I’ve ever made and installed drawers (all grooves and dados cut on the router table), and I think they turned out pretty well, if you ignore that the applied fronts are a little out of square with the drawer boxes.

The top is the same doubled up MDF with poplar edge that I used for my workbench. It’s finished with a few (2) coats of wipe-on poly and a coat of Minwax wax.

I made the top at the same height as my workbench so in a pinch I could use it for more support (after unbolting the drill press of course). This puts the drill press probably a little above a normal height, but I can still use it comfortably.

And the bottom cabinet does its job wonderfully, reducing the compressor noise from an “I can’t hear myself think” level to a background hum about on par with the dehumidifier.

All comments and critiques are welcome

When I saw Marc build that clock a while ago, it seemed like a great goal to make christmas presents for the grandparents this year. So here are the 4 clocks I made. Frames are walnut, center is curly maple, dowels are maple. I’m trying to train myself from the beginning to pay attention to grain, so the grain pattern is continuous if you follow it around the outside of the frame. Due to lack of time and tooling I decided not to do the keyed miter that I’ve seen done; hopefully just the glue will hold these together. The clock movements are 3 1/2” models from Rockler, and I routed the holes with a circular template. The holes don’t go all the way through, so you can fully enjoy the cool grain pattern on the back of the clock as well.

After collecting suggestions here for how to sign my name, I ended up burning my initials with a soldering iron and inlaying a 2008 penny in the bottom of each. Thanks John Gray for the awesome penny idea!

Finish is 4 coats of thinned poly, satin on the frame and semi-gloss on the maple. I tried to pop the grain on the maple with an initial coat of dyed shellac followed by a sanding. I probably could have done better on that part, but it still looks pretty darn cool I think.

Thanks for looking

At long last, I’m posting my first project. This is a slightly modified version of the workbench from the Fine Woodworking Getting Started in Woodworking video series.

The top is doubled up 3/4” MDF wrapped in poplar, which is also what I used in the jaws of the 7” Rockler quick-release vise. This was the primary modification I made to the FWW design, and although I don’t think it was really necessary, I definitely became more comfortable with the router by adding this detail. Top is secured to the base with metal clips. It’s hard to see with my fuzzy photography, but here are bench dog holes spanning the width of the top up by the vise.
Legs are 4×4 douglas fir with screw in leveling feet, and the other pieces are 2×4 pine. Threaded rod through all the rails hold it together. There are some 1×2 cleats that support the shelf, which I thought would be nicer than just resting it on top of the 2×4s. The shelf is also 3/4” MDF.

The whole thing is finished with several (5) coats of thinned polyurethane, and the top and shelf got a coat of paste wax as well. I’m not sure yet if I overdid it on the top and made it too slippery, time will tell I guess. I was really happy with how the grain on the poplar came out after all the coats of poly, but was unable to get a good picture of it with my camera. I didn’t think poplar had much grain to speak of, but I was surprised with how nice and shimmery it looks.

The top is 62”x25” and the whole thing stands 38” tall.

Now that I have a proper workbench, I guess I can get going on some “real” projects for around the house!