The Router Stand

   I enjoy watch wood working videos.     It is always fun watching other wood workers build and put stuff together.   There is so much of it on YouTube etc. now days.    They seem to do it with such ease.    While watching them build something, I can't help but wonder if they are working on their original project or if there is a pile of wood pieces cut in error that is laying in a heap behind the camera.  My goal is to some day post a video on this blog site rather than just pictures.   (If you've been around awhile, you know how me and my goals seem to progress along.)  

   One of the things that I had watched was the building of a router stand.   Routers are kind of clumsy when you are working with one.   They don't just park themselves on the work bench.  They kind of lay there and tend to roll around.   When the bit is exposed you can't just sit them down.   When I saw this video of making a router stand, I put that project on the list of things to do.   Besides, I just happened to have a bunch of new little pieces of wood scraps laying in the cave.   Some I glued together to make pieces that were one and one half inch thick.  

   I ended up cutting six square pieces of plywood and I made 14 blocks.   I only needed 12 blocks, but I made a couple extra.  (Just in case I screwed up, I could throw one or two behind the camera.)  I surprised myself by spending a little time sanding all these pieces.   When working at Pioneer Research this spring,  I worked with a fellow who was also a woodworker and in our discussions I found out that he seemed to make the effort to sand his wood pieces a little more than I did.   (I hate sanding!!!)   I'm going to try to make the effort to polish up my boards just a little more than I have in the past.

    One of my routers does not have a round base.    Two others do.   Before when I wanted to make a larger circle, I would take a compass and draw my circled area to cut out.  Then I would take a jig saw and cut the circle out.   If nothing else was gained by this project, I learned of a method to make bigger circles using a router and a rabbit bit.     The two frames on the bottom of the picture to the left were cut that way.    They turned out perfect.   One is 5 3/4 inches across and the other is 6 1/4.  

       I put a solid sheet on the bottom, four blocks - one in each corner - in the middle and the face frame on top.   The router will sit in the hole on top and rest on each of the corners of the four blocks.   If the bit is exposed it can just hang in the open area in the center.  

     Looking at the picture to the left you can see how each of the routers fits into its own stand.    (I know, three routers seems a little excessive, but sometimes it is just handier to have an extra router on hand.)   So there you go.  I can now keep them safely on the shelf in the shop.  I will confess that when you look at that picture you will see three of my most prized possessions.    (Yeah, just three...)