7 Replies

Surely you clamp the part/jig combination to your bench/table before actual routing, right? Having “launched” a part from an insecure clamp on my router mortising machine, I have found first hand how easy it is for a high-speed router to grab and throw things.

Interesting build. Thanks for sharing.

The dado jig I built will hold a piece of material up to twenty-four inches wide, so it, by itself, is big enough to stabilize a router operation, since it is clamped to the wood. I’d have no qualms about using my 3hp Porter Cable on it (other than it would be over kill and the thing weighs as much as a small VW).

The most common use for this would be to, for example, router a shelf three feet or more feet tall. I’ve used it several times and never noticed any inclination to wander in response to the bit. That said, I always use my 1-3/4 hp and I’m only going down about 3/8" or less at a time.

When I route, I usually have one hand laying on the table and the other pushing and pulling the router (I use a D handle for this). If it were inclined to move, it would be no more complicated to keep the jig still than to control the router, of course.

Ok for you to use one hand routing, but for me I prefer both hands on the beast… ;-)

Very creative ,this looks like it will make short work of dadoing.

When I run my big boys, the Hitachi or the Porter Cable, it’s always a two handed job, but the D handle makes it an easy task to do single handed routing up the side of a board, or the dado jig.

I’ve been running routers, as both a hobbyist and a pro, for forty years and have never had one get away. Of course, my back trouble accounts for much of that – there’s a yellow streak up it about a foot wide when it comes to my woodworking equipment (it took me a week to get brave enough to turn on my first cabinet saw thirty years ago), so I usually have a death grip on whatever I running.

Kelly, Thanks for ‘fessin’ up though I truly would rather play it safe rather than “what-I-could-get-away-with” in the long run. And Yeah, I have danced with that devil on occasion when I felt the need… Still tryin’ to be a clean WW’r… ;-)

Just to clarify, when I talk about the big boys, I’m talking about my two and a half horse, or over three horse routers.

Running a 1-3/4 hp Porter Cable with a D handle using just one hand is the similar, but less difficult than running a worm drive. Both can kick back, but, if you know what you’re doing and pay attention, your control stops things from getting out of control.

Were I to chose to fight one of my worm drives or a router with a pattern bit set for a 3/8"-1/2" dado, I’ll take the latter every time. The bit would have to be dull or cutting pretty deep to compare to the bit of a worm drive blade.

The smallest boards I dado are usually four foot long. A two footer is rare. The weight of the jig and the board (remember, you’re talking a two foot by two foot, or better, project) is significantly more stable than, for example, a small plaque resting on an anti-skid surface and being routered with a cove or other shaping bit.

I just wanted to add these thoughts so others didn’t get the erroneous impression this jig required as much effort to use as others. Of course, the user can add (a) clamp(s) to the project material, if that is their want, to secure the stock to some other item. This jig will still require less effort to use than others. The clamps built into the jig secure it to the work and the single front clamp is all you have to consider, when moving to the next cut.