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Better Than Shopping for Shoes

I am a geek about tools, even though I'm not an expert woodworker or builder. And I think I know where it started.

When I was in sixth grade, I was the most uncoordinated kid ever. While other kids were dashing after volleyballs in gym class yelling, "Mine! Mine!", I was crouched down to the side with my arms protecting my head and screaming out, "Yours! Yours!"

But in wood shop and metal shop, I felt confident. I could cut a straight line! I could use a drill press! Math made more sense when I used it in wood shop.

So when this very talented woodworker I know asked me if I wanted to borrow his benchtop router table, I was in awe. Amazed. A little overly excited. Because, um, YEAH! I get to try out a router table!!! Whooooooo! (Thanks TK!)

Which makes me a certifiable geek.

I borrowed it because I was trying to figure out the retrofitting for the wood storm windows. I experimented on some old pieces of wood and window framing that couldn't be easily saved. (Another good reason to keep a few bits of salvage laying around.) I used a rabbet bit first because that seemed the most obvious choice.

The rabbet bit did an okay job. Not a fantastic job, just okay. But I couldn't get close to the inside corner of a frame without making a proper mess of things.

However, the benchtop router table. LOVED IT! It was an awesome experience. I was in tool geek heaven.

Just for grins, I tried a straight bit. This is not a bit you would usually grab for this type of a project, but I just had a hunch...

I set it up so the channel cut by the straight bit would be very, very close to the edge of the wood. Very close.

And then I snapped off the tiny sliver close to the edge. I worked surprisingly well.

In the end, however, the frame of the storm windows was too wide to fit between the bit and the fence of the benchtop table router. Which made me very sad. Because that benchtop table router? Was pretty awesome.

(What is a fence, you say? A fence is the thingy that helps to keep your wood in place and guides it against the bit so you are cutting the wood in the proper place.

Maybe a full sized router table with have enough room between the bit and the fence to make this work? Alas, I do not have a full sized router table. Nor does anyone I know rent these things. (No Home Despot Tool Rental, no House of Rental, etc.)

Nick from Pigeon Point has told me that I can do this. He wants me to step up to the plate here and try it. Probably with a router fence guide or some similar. (This is a router fence guide.) His belief in my skills is based on this old photo of me (at the bottom of the page) using a slot cutter on our wood windows. He is more trusting of my abilities than I am. Plus, I was pregnant in that photo and pretty desperate to finish that project before I couldn't hold the router in front of my belly.

So, this will require my finally ponying up the cash for a plunge router (I only have access to a fixed-base router and it's not even mine!) plus a fence guide.

Any recommendations?

(Tool shopping. Better than shopping for shoes.)

Posted by jeanne on November 7, 2007 at 1:32 PM

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