Why Routers SUCK (At Details)

[Music] thank you a bit provocative sure I admit but I mean this is the internet you know how the game goes I am not here to make an argument that the router is not necessary or obsolete by any stretch of the imagination but I am here to make an argument that I think that there is a more interesting and engaging way to add an edge profile to your piece that elevates the object Beyond mass production and I'm going to show you exactly what I mean so here's the thing about the router it does any number of things really well and really quickly it is almost impossible to be a contemporary furniture maker without the use of this machine nor would I ever try to do so but it does have its limitations like all other machines namely its goal is uniformity it aims to make the same cut every time which is great in a lot of circumstances when you're doing joinery for example you want the same cut every time however when you apply that same logic to an edge profile and what I mean by that is the corner of a piece it tends to look a little bit lifeless a little bit mass produced and that's not a bad thing per se but it doesn't speak to the amount of effort and work and care and love that you put into the object you're making it just kind of speaks to the path of least resistance now trade that for a tool like the spoke shave which has the ability to imbue those subtle differences that your hand imparts on an object and it can really start to come to life now I'm not going to say that the spoke shave is an absolute replacement for the router it has its limitations for example your hand is not consistent your hand is not as accurate as a machine and so if you're trying to get a perfectly consistent edge profile it's going to be difficult to do that with this not impossible I do it regularly but more difficult than with a router this however does have the ability to change and I think that's the advantage that it has so in order to visually show you what I'm talking about we're going to do a quick head-to-head competition on a couple of pieces of scrap I've got two pieces of pine here they have been milled to the same dimensions we are going to impart a curve on them we're going to put a chamfer on with the router we're gonna put a dynamic chamfer on with the spoke shave we're going to see which one is more interesting [Music] [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] so we've got our two pieces we've got our routed piece and we've got our hand shaped piece now this may be difficult to tell but can you see how even this profile is along the length of this piece even on the ends and there's not anything necessarily wrong with that it's perfectly adequate but it feels static it feels produced it feels there is something lacking Humanity in this it doesn't make it wrong I'm trying not to make it a value statement because it has its place into design interesting objects only with the use of machine is possible and difficult however when you have a profile that grows over time and over length that accentuates a curve interesting things can happen so let's take this edge profile as an example you have a piece that's wider at the bottom than it is at the top kind of like a tree and sometimes you need to hit these Dimensions so you need to accentuate that curve without actually altering either of the dimensions so what you do is you take that bottom chamfer you make it tiny and over the length of the piece that chamfer grows until this piece feels a lot smaller and that curve even though fairly subtle feels much more accentuated because that edge profile that chamfer is moving with the Curve itself the curvature the edge profile the the texture of the piece it all feels like it's more synergistic than if it's just this very static line on a very Dynamic profile all right all right I hear you this is all good and well in theory but where do you actually apply a principle like this in an object I'm so glad you asked because that's exactly where I'm at in the table build so here's the situation I've got the joinery all done for the table and everything is looking nice I'm really quite happy with where it's at but it's a little bit stale it's a little bit static the forms that I have on these legs all nice and subtle aren't interesting they're a little bit flat now the conundrum that I'm in is that these forms can't be super accentuated they can't be loud visually because the goal of the bass is to be as subtle and as quiet as possible to accentuate the slab of the top so I need to make these just a little bit more interesting a little bit more engaging but in a subtle and quiet way and how do you do that but with the details but with the small things that draw you in but you don't notice until you're right up on it edge profiles so what I'm about to do is I'm going to take these legs and I'm going to accentuate this line with just a slight bevel on the interior and then I'm going to accentuate the curve with the chamfer that we just did on the pine pieces so let's play around and see how it turns out [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] Workshop well used now let's have a quick conversation about this so right off the Jump you get these details on the foot that lead us up into the leg and now you get that first bit of dynamic profile that shifts as you grow up getting a little bit thinner and a little bit thinner and I think that in and of itself just gives a little bit of movement to this object just the tiniest little bit of dynamism a little bit of life to it not to mention this profile on the interior here so if you're looking at this this starts off a square and then as it goes it rotates up and out right it does one of these a little bit it just kind of does this just the tiniest little bit and not that that makes a huge difference but it makes just enough of a difference to make it feel like it's not static to make it feel like there's a bit of rotation there's something going on there now look I'm not out here suggesting that this is going to make or break a project right this is details what I am suggesting is that your use of a Spoke shape simply gives you more opportunity I'm not saying throw out your router even though I did kind of say that at the beginning I'm just saying employee hand tools because they can turn relatively flat objects into three-dimensional objects in a much easier way than you can with machines and I think there's real value in that I think there's Beauty in that I think at the least it's something worth exploring but for now I gotta get back to work I've got a lot of work to do yet on these pieces and on the bench before I can get this glued up and ready for finish so I can get back to having a dining table in my home so I'm gonna go do that friends I hope this was helpful I hope it was delightful I hope it was entertaining and educational and I hope it inspires you to pick up a sharp hand tool and start playing around a little bit because it's worth it so until next week cheers [Music]

Channel: ENCurtis

Views: 31,047

Keywords: router basics, wood router, woodworking router, how to use a router, using a router, router bit basics, router bits, using a router for beginners, router 101, using a router basics, router tutorial, using a router to round edges, how to use a wood router, using a wood router, wood router basics, router basics woodworking, hand router basics, router bits for beginners, Spokeshave, hand tool woodworking, hand tools only, router tips for beginners, Erik Curtis, ENCurtis

Id: 1xq0NsgvASs

Length: 12min 18sec (738 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 22 2023