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About two weeks ago, Tom Miller posted a couple of improvements he'd made to his shop that, although small, made a big difference in the way he was able to work. Over the weekend I cooked up something for my own shop that's in the same category.
I recently bought a Porter-Cable 4212 dovetailing jig and a reconditioned DeWalt 616 router to use with it. With no room in my small shop to give the jig a permanent home, I needed a quick and easy way to set it up for use, as well as to keep track of the various accessories needed for dovetailing -- one of those being the router itself.
What I came up with is simple in concept: a slab of 3/4" plywood with riser blocks, made of the same material, at each end to which to attach the jig. (I used the psuedo Baltic birch plywood from Home Depot: about $15 for a 2x4 panel.) As you can see in the second picture, the base plate is large enough to give the router a place to sit, behind the jig.
But it's the small details that make the difference. The alternate template for the dovetail jig stores on a pair of 1/4-20 studs and is secured with small plastic knobs. The collet wrenches for the router are mounted the same way. The plastic Gatorade jar is screwed to the base plate and holds spare bits, guide bushings, router centering cone, etc. The thru-hole in the base plate is sized to fit the bushing on the router; this allows the bit's depth setting to be retained from one project to the next, and keeps the router from sliding around. Lastly, the T-handle used to adjust the edge stops on the dovetail jig stores in a hole drilled in the left (right in this picture) riser block.
The final picture shows how the assembly mounts to the fence tracks on my router table, using a 5/16" T-bolt and star knob on each end.
With my new dovetailing station, I can bring the entire rig out of its storage place, set it on the router table, tighten the two knobs, plug in the router, and be ready to go in under a minute. Best of all, I know that everything I might need will be immediately at hand since everything is stored right there with the jig itself.
I recently bought a Porter-Cable 4212 dovetailing jig and a reconditioned DeWalt 616 router to use with it. With no room in my small shop to give the jig a permanent home, I needed a quick and easy way to set it up for use, as well as to keep track of the various accessories needed for dovetailing -- one of those being the router itself.
What I came up with is simple in concept: a slab of 3/4" plywood with riser blocks, made of the same material, at each end to which to attach the jig. (I used the psuedo Baltic birch plywood from Home Depot: about $15 for a 2x4 panel.) As you can see in the second picture, the base plate is large enough to give the router a place to sit, behind the jig.
But it's the small details that make the difference. The alternate template for the dovetail jig stores on a pair of 1/4-20 studs and is secured with small plastic knobs. The collet wrenches for the router are mounted the same way. The plastic Gatorade jar is screwed to the base plate and holds spare bits, guide bushings, router centering cone, etc. The thru-hole in the base plate is sized to fit the bushing on the router; this allows the bit's depth setting to be retained from one project to the next, and keeps the router from sliding around. Lastly, the T-handle used to adjust the edge stops on the dovetail jig stores in a hole drilled in the left (right in this picture) riser block.
The final picture shows how the assembly mounts to the fence tracks on my router table, using a 5/16" T-bolt and star knob on each end.
With my new dovetailing station, I can bring the entire rig out of its storage place, set it on the router table, tighten the two knobs, plug in the router, and be ready to go in under a minute. Best of all, I know that everything I might need will be immediately at hand since everything is stored right there with the jig itself.
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