The IDIOT'S GUIDE to mounting a router on BT3100

[davidtu]

That's surely what I need, as I've read the various posts on how to do it and I'm still baffled.

If anyone is inclined, I could sure use a step by step--assume your grandmother is doing it (no offense granny)--description. What parts do I need, where do I get them? What should I make myself?

I'm confused by mention of bushings and inserts... not sure what these are for or why I'd need them.

My immediate need is to mount a Ryobi PL180 that I borrowed. I don't want to modify it or spend much money on that as I am going to get my own Bosch 1617 in the mail soon, if it ever ships that is.

The reason I want to mount it, btw, is that I want to make tongue-in-groove connections for two 3/4" boards. I figure with the router mounted, I can do that fairly readily, with some practice and marking of the fence.

Now, can I use the RIP fence for that and if not, why not?

Alternatively, I've designed a jig I could make that would allow me to move the router along the edge of the boards to make the cuts. Is that the better way to go? To be honest, I suppose I am being a bit masocistic in that I am not going to use a tongue-in-groove bit, but a 1/4" straight bit. Is that insane?? If its insane I could go get one, but at $56 I am feeling too cheap.

Thanks,
David

[mschrank]

David,

If you really want to go with the router mount, you can purchase the kit for it. Or you could make your own mounting plate....but that's too much work in my opinion, especially since you've got a new router on the way that will have a different bolt mounting pattern.

You certainly can do this with BT using the rip fence and blade (no router). It will take some careful setup, but I did this very thing well before I knew what I was doing (as if I do now )

The key is to have plenty of scrap stock of the exact same thickness as your work pieces.

In order to get the groove centered, you'll want to pass the stock through once, flip it so that the side that was against the fence is now away from it, and pass it through again. You'll have to fiddle a bit with the fence adjustment to get the width you want...and you may have to make a cleanup pass right down the middle of the groove.

Making the toungues is similar...just make sure you test with scrap.

And use a feather board to keep the stock tight to the fence.

Even if you went with a straight bit in the router table, you'd have to follow the same procedure to get the groove centered.

Any of this make sense?

Or, just do as Loring suggests below.....

[LCHIEN]

That's surely what I need, as I've read the various posts on how to do it and I'm still baffled.

If anyone is inclined, I could sure use a step by step--assume your grandmother is doing it (no offense granny)--description. What parts do I need, where do I get them? What should I make myself?

I'm confused by mention of bushings and inserts... not sure what these are for or why I'd need them.

My immediate need is to mount a Ryobi PL180 that I borrowed. I don't want to modify it or spend much money on that as I am going to get my own Bosch 1617 in the mail soon, if it ever ships that is.

The reason I want to mount it, btw, is that I want to make tongue-in-groove connections for two 3/4" boards. I figure with the router mounted, I can do that fairly readily, with some practice and marking of the fence.

Now, can I use the RIP fence for that and if not, why not?

Alternatively, I've designed a jig I could make that would allow me to move the router along the edge of the boards to make the cuts. Is that the better way to go? To be honest, I suppose I am being a bit masocistic in that I am not going to use a tongue-in-groove bit, but a 1/4" straight bit. Is that insane?? If its insane I could go get one, but at $56 I am feeling too cheap.

Thanks,
David

you ask a lot of questions, each of which could, in depth take several paragraphs to answer completely.

So, I'm gonna ask you a question or two and see if we can narrow this down.

You want to join two, no more, no less, 3/4" thick boards together on edge?


The cheap way to do this for a small quantity is simply to make a clean ripped edge on each, lay them side by side and good face down on a flat table, and glue them together, and clamp them.


All the other stuff with biscuit joiners, router Tongue and groove, dowels table saw tounge and groove are ways to do it accurately in quantity. A good simple butt glue joint will be quite strong and except you won't have the help aligning it. But frankly, using routered T&G or dowels you'd have to spend more time aligning your router setup to make the faces match than it would be worth. You can make sure it's aligned correctly as you glue the simple butt joint since you only have to worry about one joint.

[Stytooner]

Loring makes a good point as usual. If it's just one tongue and one groove, you can easily pull that off on the tablesaw side. Couple rabbets, a dado on the other side and viola. A straight butt joint can glue together so well that you couldn't possibly break it at the glue joint. It would snap the grain first if enough (hundreds of pounds) pressure were used.
It may not benefit you to setup the Ryobi router unless you don't have anything to mount your new router with.
If this be the case, I'd first lay my hands on a router mounting kit available on Ebay or the Bargain Alerts section here.
I have made many T&G cuts with a straight bit, but it is not the easiest cut to learn. There can be several problems associated with it. Safety issues, not the least of which is which direction to feed the material.
I'd get used to doing some practice cuts first.

[LCHIEN]

my point is, if its only one joint you need to make,
even T&G on a table sawis too time consuming to setup.
A plain, simple butt joint will work well, glued joints are stronger than wood. the BT3 table top is flat enough to line this joint up without resorting to even moderately complex joints requiring setup.

[guycox]

Don't Trap the work between the bit and the fence

Just be sure you don't "trap" the work piece between the router bit and the fence -- Bad things will ensue.

[axio]

Yeah, I can attest to that. I've lost part of the tip of my finger doing that before... wasn't cool

[davidtu]

Thought I responded already.. but I see not.

Thanks to all for your help.

Regarding the sensibility of doing this at all: I am sure you are correct, it makes no sense. I am doing it because I figured I could learn some new things by trying it out. I've never even used a router before! So... that was new.

I ended up forgoing the router mounting as some of you suggested, I will wait until I get the final Bosch router.

In the meantime, since SketchUp is all the rage here, I will post the jig I built in lieu of a router table or mounting on BT3100. As for using the saw ala dado/rabbet, I was not too keen to take off the saw's blade guard, pawls, and riving blades as I seem to remember that being a pain when setting up originally. I guess I'll have to get over that feeling though. But it was a good suggestion, and one which I had completely overlooked... suffering from--ahem, get this--TOOLnelvision, I guess could only envision a router.

Here is the jig I made. It actually works pretty decently on short scraps any way... tomorrow is the big day to test on the real pieces. Btw, I am connecting several pairs of boards together, not just one pair, in case it makes it less crazy.

Here is the SU: (that little can is the router... it's not so easy to draw a router in SU!)