Multi-Use Wood Router Base Plate

hello everyone i'm colin kannette today i'm going to show you how to make the router plate jig that i used to make this innovative box design that i came up with a couple of weeks ago and in this case i used some spalted wood and you can see it's got the curved top and bottom and an interlocking lid in this case i put some flocking on the inside as well to make it stand out and that just fits just like a glove and i'll show you how to make the jig today the link for making this kind of a box is at the end of this video you'll be able to see exactly how to make this kind of a box so let's get started making the jig so this is what the router base is going to look like when it's finished in my case i have this long extension arm here and i want that because i need to cut accurate rabbets i need something to stabilize the router you could also use this as a circle cutting jig by putting holes or tabs up there you could also use it for cutting floating mortise and tannin joinery by putting a couple of pins in here you could do both of those and you can still use it as a rabbeting jig so lots of things you can do with this and the point today is how and where you attach this on your router so let's get started with that so i've taken all of the screws out there's only three holding the plate on and that's what they look like you can see they've got a little bit of a head on them so i'm going to have to recess on the new plate now when i take this off you'll notice that i've already marked where the holes are and i've marked them in red and you'll be able to see those so so that i'll know where which of the holes because there's all sorts of different holes in these things and you never really know where they are so best to mark them now the next thing i've done i found three screws that fit that thread and these are flathead screws so what i need to do i need to grind the top of that head off and make the bottom of that pointed so i'm going to show you how to do that now you're best to use a hardwood dowel and what i'm going to do i'm going to drill a little bit of an undersized hole in the top of it then i'm going to insert the screw into that hole and it doesn't really matter if it's exactly in the middle now that's the only way you can safely hold this little screw without damaging the threads now to speed things up a little bit on the grinding you could grind this off but what i'm going to do is i'm just going to take the head of it off with my angle grinder now i have a fairly fine grit grinding wheel here and what i'm going to do now is just sort of spin that around and put a bit of a point on that and i'm probably going to grind down some of the wood as well don't worry about that [Music] [Music] and to take that out we just put some pliers on the very top because we don't really care about the thread on the very top it's the thread further down that we want to protect there's the sheet that i'm using the plastic sheet that i've cut and what i want to do i've already installed the pins so you can see the red there and i think you can probably see the pins one there but what i'm doing before i mark these i want to make sure that i have the orientation right and basically for this router i want this the the carriage that's where my hand goes to touch the carriage so that's where i want that so now i'm going to flip that upside down like that and now i'll know that that is how i want that to be okay so what i've done here i've just drawn a line here so that i can line that up with the flat spot here of the router and i'm just trying to align that and all i need to do now i've got a hammer here and i'm just going to make a light indentation on each one of these and i'll be able to see it through the plastic so the purpose for the very small hole is so that the tip of my forstner bit will fit in there without wiggling around and now i can drill the countersink for these the heads of these bolts that are going to go in there i'm just going to do that off camera and i'm just going to go over to my drill press and make those little shallow cuts okay you can see those recesses there's the third one and what i need to do now now that all of this the recesses and the pilot holes are drilled i now need to drill a hole big enough for the threaded part of this bolt to go through and i'm just going to do that right here there and that should fit there there we go perfect now i'll just do the rest of them and we'll be able to mount that to the router base the next thing i need to do is to drill a hole in the center of my new base plate and most people think that this needs to be in the center it doesn't if it's a little off center it doesn't matter the only reason i can think of that it needs to be in the center of your new plate is if you were using something like templating guides where you fasten it inside the plate and if you absolutely need to have it centered you can go out and buy a 30 or 40 dollar kit to set that up that you might use once or twice in your life or you can go out and buy a little v bit like this let me show you how that works uh you put in this v bit you'll make a plunge cut into the plastic but you'll just barely touch it just enough to mark it because then you're going to drill a hole with your drill just like we did when we installed the base plates in because all we want is a hole large enough to accommodate the very tip of a forstner bit and then the forstner bit will cut out the hole the hole size that you need what i need my base plate for i need it large enough for this rabbeting bit to go through so what i need to do is to drill a hole in my case with a hole saw that's going to be large enough to do that so rather than using the v bit what i'm going to use is this little bit here this little straight bit and then i can drill a hole right through the plastic then i'll i'll take the mount off of here take it over to my drill press and i'll be able to put that hole saw right through that pilot hole that i've already drilled there so that's what i'm going to do okay i've have a sacrificial board underneath i've got my bit mounted i'm just going to cut that hole [Music] [Applause] so okay so i cleaned up the hole a little bit and i just want to check make sure my bit fits in there yeah lots of room so okay now i need to fasten that back down to the base there we go and that's all ready to go and its present form just need to install a router bit and we're ready to start using it well that concludes my video for today and here's the example of the box that i made and the link for that is at the end of this video it's a lot of fun i think you'll enjoy it so check out that link as well i'm colin kanat for woodwork web thanks for watching you

Channel: WoodWorkWeb

Views: 33,105

Keywords: router jig, router base, router base plate, router base plate diy, router jigs, base plate, trim router, simple router jig, wood working jigs, wood router jig, woodworking jigs, router edge guide, router, woodworking router, wood router, diy router edge guide, mini router, compact router, using a router, how to use a router, router tutorial, woodworking jig

Id: yZielQL1ed8

Length: 9min 34sec (574 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 12 2021