Posted by John T Torkington | Posted in Do It Yourself | Posted on 01-10-2009
How does a wood working router work and what does it do
I thought I’d research the word router and this originates from a verb to rout. Rout is also a noun but this doesn’t relate to our woodworking router. The definition of the verb appears to be to rummage or to hollow out or furrow, as with a scoop, gouge, or machine. So perhaps my definition of a woodworking router would be to gouge out or machine out some part of a piece of wood. This could simply be to make a groove or round the edges of a piece of timber.
The router we know today is based on the early models developed by a company called Elu (which is now part of the Makita Power Tool company and is part of a wide range of Makita router products). Today’s router is based on a rotating cutting blade know as a spindle which can be depressed against a spring (or plunged) and hence the name plunging spindle router. The very early routers were obviously hand operated and looked more like a conventional flat wood plane with a number of interchanged differently shaped blades rather than the single flat blade.
Today’s modern router can be used in one of two ways and this depends on the job to be done. The first mode of operation is with a hand guided router that is moved across the face of the wood normally using a guide to control where the cutting blade rotates or cuts. The second mode relies on securing a router to the underside of a fixed router table and maintaining the router in the fixed position and moving wood across the face of the router blade. The second mode lends itself to larger workshop installations though small portable router tables can be used.
The hand-held plunging routers can be used (should be used) with a variety of controls. The base of the router can be fitted with a sidebar device to ensure that the cutting blade remains a constant distance from the edge of the wood you are routing. For example you may wish to cut a groove 4 mm deep and 3 mm from the edge of your piece of wood. The depth can be set to the maximum 4 mm and the sidebar guide will ensure that the groove is not made more than 3mm from the edge of the wood. You could achieve the same results by clamping a straight edge over the surface of the wood to be machined and keep the electric router pressed firmly against the straight edge.
Router cutters or router bits come in many different shapes. The different shapes allow you to use your router to cut square, vee and rounded grooves. There are more router bits to enable round, angular and decorative edge finishing. An edge finishing router bit has a spinning guide at the base of the cutter that prevents the blade cutting deeper into the timber. Generally speaking buying router bits can be a little of a lottery because you want the best bits but don’t want to spend a fortune. Unless you need a large selection of router bits for professional work I’d suggest buying a set of router bits with most of the shapes you could ever envisage using. You’ll probably also require 1 or 2 straight cutting bits and you may wish to pay a little more money to get the best you can afford if you are to use these bits frequently. For example you may wish to have a 3-4 mm straight cutting blade for groves and rebating edges of your chosen timber. A larger 8-10mm is always useful for taking a little timber off a wider area. Cheaper blades will soon lose their cutting edge and could scorch or burn the timer if you are not careful.
Most of the well known manufacturers have a range of routers and they include Dewalt, Makita, Bosch, Milwaukee, Porter-Cable and Ryobi. At the moment there are very few cordless router and it is understandable that many jobs are continuous and would demand a powerful battery system. Porter Cable have a 19.2 Volt Cordless Router for lighter jobs. You can also take a look at factory reconditioned routers to give you more more router for your $.
When you have had the time to use a router you’ll be amazed at some the tasks that can be completed with this tool.
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