Make a Mini Router Table for a Trim Router for Woodworking

Read Time: 8 mins

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Trim or Laminate Routers have been around for many, many years but there are very few manufacturers because they just aren't as popular as they could be, simply because they are small, low powered and limited to 1/4 inch bits only. But Trim Routers or Portable Routers can be a nice alternative in a woodworking shop for people who don't have full size routers. True, they are limited in their abilities, but with some add-on jigs and accessories, Trim Routers can be a useful item.

The main purpose of the "Trim Router" was back in the day when cabinet makers were building kitchen cabinets, a newly invented material was being used for counter tops and it was called Laminate. After the cabinets were made and installed, the counter tops and the back of the sheet laminate material were coated with contact cement and bonded together. The sheep material always stuck out over the edge so that it could be trimmed off even with the edge of the counter, and this was the original purpose of the Laminate or Trim Router. Since those days, counter top manufacturing has evolved and laminate trimmers are seldom used for the purpose they were designed, but there are still good uses for these smaller router versions.

Any router, full size or hand router, can do much more when it has the benefit of a router table. I would estimate that with my parter router and router table, at least 80 to 90 percent of what I do with that router involves using it on a router table, whether it's building doors, trimming wood of cutting rabbets or dados, so I expect the same would be for the trim router, which is why I decided to build this portable table for it ...

Circle Cutting Jig for a Trim Router

Read Time: 5 mins

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Making circles and cutting holes in wood can be accomplished in many ways such as ... the bandsaw, a jig saw, scroll saw, fret saw a hole saw, and even some others that are less common. Making circles or holes in wood is not always easy, depending on the tool, sometimes the circles or holes are not really round and very often the edges are quite rough, which sometime doesn't matter, but in some cases, and nice clean edge and a perfect circle are exactly what is needed.

One of the ways to make holes or circles is using a router fitted with a suitable straight bit. The problem with doing this with full size routers is that they are big and bulky and often the sizes of the cut-out can be quite small, which is exactly why I am making this Circle Jig for my Trim or Compact Router

Making a Circle Jig is pretty easy and doesn't take that long to make, but there are some procedures to follow to make it easier to make and more functional ...

Using Circular Saw Blades in Your Table Saw

Read Time: 4 mins

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Yep, it can be done quickly and easuly, and with no accessories or adapters, take off the 10" blade that is in your saw, replace it with a 7-1/4" blade, it's that easy.
Many new woodworkers do not know that the arbor in a circular saw is the same diameter as most 10" table saws which means the blades for circular saw fit nicely onto most 10" table saws.

What this does is open up a whole new world of ideas and options for using circular saw blades in your table saw, with lots of benefits and only a could of slight drawbacks. Since I have been using Circ Blades in the Table Saw for some time, I thought it would be benefical for others to see what kinds of cuts they can expect from a couple of different blades that I use all the time, the Freud 24 tooth ripping blade, that is most often used by carpenters in building construction, and the Freud 40 tooth "Plywood" blade, also used by a few carpenters, but more for specialy work like cutting plywood and trim that needs a bit finer cut. 

Like many things, there are advantages and disadvantages, so here is the list of Pros and Cons for you to dwell on ...

 let's talk about the disadvantages or Cons first or all ..

 - Circular saw blades may not give you the cutting depth you need, if you need to cut deeper than about 1-3/4" and you can't flip the wood on end, that is the biggest draw back.
 - Some of the better quality circular saw blades are made of a harder steel which mean they can be manufactured even thinner, like the Freud Diablo blades, this also means the blades can flex a little bit so you don't want to force wood through the blades or your cut may not be quite as fine as you would like.

OK, not bad, only a couple of cons, lets look at the Pros now ...
 - Circular saw blades are smaller and therefore cost less than 10" blades
 - Most circular saw blades are thinner than even the thin kerf table saw blades
 - Thin blades mean less wased wood, which is particularly valuable for small quantities of expensive specialty woods
 - Thinner blades also mean less saw dust and they slide through the wood much easier too
 - Cutting through nails often damages 10" blades, the Freud Diablo blades will cut through nails easily
 - There are a variety of different blades to choose from for different woodworking needs

I often leave a circular saw blade in my table saw, not necessarily to save wood, but more to save my health by producing less saw dust and less noise. I also like the fact that it take less effort for me to push wood through the blade, not a big deal on one or 2 boards, but when making a bigger piece of furnture and pre-cutting all the wood which can take an hour or so, all these things add up.

Circular saw blades in the table saw are not the kind of thing that everyong can use, but it's nice to know that they are an option for times when you need some other specialty cut, and the cloeset blade might just be sitting in your circular saw.,

Copyright Colin Knecht
Woodworkweb.com

Featherboard Jig - How to Make a Featherboard

Read Time: 9 mins

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Featherboards are not used nearly as often as they could be for a few reasons, they are time consuming to make, they often don't work as well as they could and sometimes they are difficult to mount on your machinery. In this video I am taking one of the elements away, which is making, good quality featherboards that will give you consistent and repeatable results with little setup (depending on your equipment).
The biggest problem I have always had is making featherboards with consistently thin fingers that will give me the kind of pressure I need for use on my router table or table saw. This jig solves that problem and speeds up the process too.

I first tried to use my "Lynn Sabin" box joint jig (kindly provided free, by Leeway Workshop), but the design of it simply doesn't not work well for featherboards. You can see more on the box joint jig I made right on this website here.  I decided to try to re-design it using the same principal of using a threaded bar a the indexing component and went about making a prototype featherboard jig. I seldom need to make prototypes but I do find them useful at times when I don't have a clear vision for the end product. The prototype I made worked OK, but not nearly as well as I hoped, but what I learned making it was what I could do to improve it and so here is what I did ...