How to hollow out a box lid??

You need to fix a guide bush to your router that will follow the template you have created. If you gradually increase the depth of cut you will achieve your designed depth and not go through the base of your box.
Jim

-- It always looks better when it's finished!

I get that part… I just mean hollowing out the rest of the surface. For example.. if i’m wanting to make a 5” x 3” box.. and i plunge out 1/4” deep, and trace out the square shape inside the lid, the is still a lot of surface left inside the lid that would mash down the flies on the bottom of the box. My question is, how or what kind of tool do I use to get rid of the rest of the center surface?

Hope that makes sense.. like I said, newbie. Don’t know sh** :)

Start in the middle and go round(in a spiral-ish fashion) and round till you get to the edge of the template. This way you have one large pocket, rather than a moat. Am I understanding your question?

-- Backer boards, stop blocks, build oversized, and never buy a hand plane--

Rance I believe is correct.

-- Mother Nature created it, I just assemble it. - It's not ability that we often lack, but the patience to use our ability

Rance shows you the right way, all you have to make sure is that your router base plate is bigger than the pocket area you need to route out. Basically the middle of the pocket can be dome “freehand” if the router base is big enough.

-- Roger-R, Republic of Texas. "Always look on the Bright Side of Life" - An eyeball to eyeball confrontation with a blind person is as complete waste of Time.

Oh, listen to what JR45 says about cutting in small depths until you reach the desired depth. Do not expect to route everything out at full depth.

-- Roger-R, Republic of Texas. "Always look on the Bright Side of Life" - An eyeball to eyeball confrontation with a blind person is as complete waste of Time.

My guitars feature a Tonal Chamber that is sometimes almost 12” across, and 8-9 inches wide. I start in the MIDDLE with a plunge router and work my way out, so my base is always on the outside edge. I would do any kind of box this way also, even if I had a bushing setup that would hit a template around the edge

-- Paul, Tennessee, http://www.tsunamiguitars.com

You can build a larger sub-base for the router and use a bearing-guided
dado clean out bit. Nail or tape your template to the work. The template
has to be thick enough that the bearing on the bit shank engages
the template even before plunging into the work. The larger sub-base
allows you to just move the router around in whatever pattern you
like until the waste is removed.

You can also make the template so it is defines the outer limit
of travel of the router sub-base… a square board with a square
hole in the middle and simple scrap fences on all four outside
edges. You can use a standard straight bit this way.

Awesome guys. Thanks a bunch. The only thing I could think of was to use the router and cut in strips until it was all gone. Didnt know if I should use a forstner bit or what.

That helps a ton! Thank you all!!

Show us the finished product!
Jim

-- It always looks better when it's finished!