Bill
Hylton's Ultimate Guide to the Router Table
by Bill
Hylton
Softcover
215 x 280mm
128pp
Published by Popular Woodworking Books, Ohio USA
R.R.P.$29.90
ISBN 978-1-55870-796-2
As reviewed in The Australian Woodworker Issue 138
Router Tables are now common in the workshops of recreational woodworkers.
Some are proprietary models such as the Triton, but many are home made, either to a design from a magazine or book or made to the unique requirements of the individual.
While their owners frequently recognise the potential that a router table offers, it is a potential that is not often realised in practice.
The author of the Ultimate Guide to the Router Table has set about redressing this situation by compiling and describing many of the operations that can be performed on a router table.
The book is divided into five chapters. The first deals with Basic Know-How such as checking the set-up of a table, flattening the tabletop, adding adjusters if required, controlling the bit opening, using a fence and making safe and effective cuts.
The second Chapter discusses Cutting Profiles - the common profiles, making mouldings, how profiles are cut and how they can be combined to build-up complex shapes.
Chapter 3 introduces the subject of Frame and Panel Basics. Among the subject headings are: Cutting the Copes, Sticking Cuts, Raising Panels and Making Panels with Curved Rails.
One of the great strengths of the Router Table is the ability to cut joints. The large variety of joints covered in Chapter 4 of this book include: Splined Edges, Dadoes and Grooves, Rabbets, Shiplap, Mitred Rabbets, Dovetail Rabbets, Box Joints, Finger Joints, Laps, Cross Laps, Tongue and Groove, Spline and Dovetail Keys, Sliding Dovetails and Drawer Lock.
The final Chapter describes the use of Templates.
The book is well written (the author is a longtime woodworker, author of several woodworking books and frequent contributor to Popular Woodworker and Woodworker's Journal magazines). The numerous photos are clear and informative.
Photos: Colour
Units of Measurement: Imperial
Contents
1 Basic Know-How
Checking
Your Basic Setup
Solutions: Flattening Tabletop
Solutions: Adding adjusters
Solutions:
Straightening Squaring a Fence
Changing Bits
Controlling Bit Opening
Setting
Bit Extension
Using a Starting Pin
Using the Fence
Micro-adjusting the
Fence
Feed Direction Savvy
Controlling the Workpiece
Damage-free Cuts
Pacing
the Cut
Staging a Cut
Stopped Cuts
Handling Small Parts
Sliding Fence:
the Miter Gauge Alternative
Dealing with Dust
Dressing the Part
2 Cutting Profiles
Making a Pilot-controled Cut
Fence-guided Profile
Cuts
Making Strip Moldings
Using a Moulding Pusher
Routing Long Mouldings
Basic
Profiles
Complex Profiles
Routing a Large Ogee
Building Up Mouldings
3
Frame and Panel Basics
Making Panels
Cutting the Copes
Sticking Cuts
Raising
Panels with a Horizontal Bit
Raising Panels with a Vertical Bit
Making Assemblies
with Curved Rails
Making Frames for Glazing
4
Cutting Joints
About Mortising
Jointing
Edges
Splining Edges
Dadoes and Grooves
Rabbets
Shiplap
Mitered
Rabbet
Dovetail Rabbet
Box Joint
Laps
Sliding Dovetails
Glue Joint
Lock
Miter
Finger Joint
Drawer Lock
Tongue and Groove
Spine and Dovetail
Keys
5
Using Templates
Bits
for Template Work
Cutting Issues
Offset Pattern Bits
Controlling Dust
Materials
for Templates
Designing Templates
Fixturing a Template
Suppliers
Index