# Router Based Edging Tool



## petertha (Jan 5, 2017)

This is a work in progress I've been dabbling with & its turning into a love/hate thing. I already had this smaller Makita router, variable speed, 1/4" collet. It has an accessory with kind of a rack & pinion motion which slides on the motor body & then clamp in whatever depth position. So I made an aluminum sub-plate to match the router base hole pattern...which was one of the most convoluted exercises in reverse engineering because of their bizarre bolt pattern. The plate is tapped to mount my steel angle blocks. The stock slides between the angle blocks & gets chamfered with bottom edge of EM which is kind of a nice cutting mode. The initial idea was to bolt this assembly to the edge of a workbench via a chunk of heavy MDF or something

The good: It edges very well actually. My pics don't come out well but in real life edges are quite crisp & nice finish. Aluminum is easy but even mild steel doesn't strain the motor or want to kick the part back in my face (~ 0.060" wide chamfer medium speed). I guess if wanted to chamfer a large piece I could just hand hold the router & zip around the edge that way too. I have another idea to remove the bevel blocks & mount a rail or a finger, that way I could use cove shaped bullnose bits or chamfer curved edges vs. linear. Maybe regular router carbide wood bits would work?

The not so good: It never occurred to me that the metal swarf that gets generated can migrate to unwanted places. My plate clearance hole is pretty close to 0.25" EM but its still a path for metal shavings to find their way into the rotor/windings via the cooling fan opening. Normally this end of router points down to the work, exhales air & its only wood dust. Metal particles is probably asking for trouble. I tried making a filter donut but I need something thicker maybe like that open breathing mesh stuff you see on dirt bikes? Maybe this is why guys have retrofitted die grinders instead of routers which are a lot more enclosed. The end mill is .25" dia & 0.25" shank. Unfortunately its carbide. The HSS ones I found were all 0.375" bodies, too big. I would prefer it to sit lower in the collet. Anyone know how to lop off carbide? Will one of those regular angle grinder cut-off blades work?


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## hman (Jan 7, 2017)

Nice design!  And the idea looks like it's easily adapted for other routers.  Thanks!

PS - regarding the metal swarf problem ... maybe mount the tool so the router shaft is horizontal?


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## FLguy (Jan 7, 2017)

Look into corner rounding router bits in carbide if you do steel. All edging is I do is with carbide. I find with my router table and a compound from a old lathe and the resulting "rip fence" adjustment I get a huge range of possibilities.


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## BGHansen (Jan 7, 2017)

petertha said:


> This is a work in progress I've been dabbling with & its turning into a love/hate thing. I already had this smaller Makita router, variable speed, 1/4" collet. It has an accessory with kind of a rack & pinion motion which slides on the motor body & then clamp in whatever depth position. So I made an aluminum sub-plate to match the router base hole pattern...which was one of the most convoluted exercises in reverse engineering because of their bizarre bolt pattern. The plate is tapped to mount my steel angle blocks. The stock slides between the angle blocks & gets chamfered with bottom edge of EM which is kind of a nice cutting mode. The initial idea was to bolt this assembly to the edge of a workbench via a chunk of heavy MDF or something
> 
> The good: It edges very well actually. My pics don't come out well but in real life edges are quite crisp & nice finish. Aluminum is easy but even mild steel doesn't strain the motor or want to kick the part back in my face (~ 0.060" wide chamfer medium speed). I guess if wanted to chamfer a large piece I could just hand hold the router & zip around the edge that way too. I have another idea to remove the bevel blocks & mount a rail or a finger, that way I could use cove shaped bullnose bits or chamfer curved edges vs. linear. Maybe regular router carbide wood bits would work?
> 
> The not so good: It never occurred to me that the metal swarf that gets generated can migrate to unwanted places. My plate clearance hole is pretty close to 0.25" EM but its still a path for metal shavings to find their way into the rotor/windings via the cooling fan opening. Normally this end of router points down to the work, exhales air & its only wood dust. Metal particles is probably asking for trouble. I tried making a filter donut but I need something thicker maybe like that open breathing mesh stuff you see on dirt bikes? Maybe this is why guys have retrofitted die grinders instead of routers which are a lot more enclosed. The end mill is .25" dia & 0.25" shank. Unfortunately its carbide. The HSS ones I found were all 0.375" bodies, too big. I would prefer it to sit lower in the collet. Anyone know how to lop off carbide? Will one of those regular angle grinder cut-off blades work?


Your design is very nice and should work quite well.  Look up Woodward Fab on the web, they sell chamfering machines for prepping steel plate for butt welding.  Very similar design to yours; they've been selling those machines for years.

Bruce


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## petertha (Jan 7, 2017)

Thanks for the compliment. Yeah I've seen machines like Woodward in tool catalogs. But 900$U, Ouch.
http://www.woodwardfab.com/product-...-and-beveling-tools/edge-chamfering-beveling/
I couldn't find a cheapo knock-off, are you aware of any?

If it wasn't for the router's open motor orientation to metallic/conductive chips I might live with my 20$ homebrew 'accessory' for now. But getting that up inside the rotor probably will be early death to router. I'm re-thinking this now & going to try another approach with my die grinder orientated horizontally. The router doesn't lend itself to this orientation quite as well because the base is large diameter & kind of conflicts with the V fence vs.  die grinder nose is slim.  My die grinder is essentially sealed to debris although (dangit) mine is not variable speed. Not sure that will be an issue with small cut depth though. I've got idea about how to accomplish depth control.
I also #2 will have longer V rail like commercial units for better part guiding control.


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## petertha (Jan 7, 2017)

Horizontal die grinder mode example. On long side of 'stick-out' spectrum with elongated nose. Maybe this motor/spindle was orientated towards tool post grinding back in the day? For some reason I keep seeing this ebay ad... which comes with the used grinder! I'm not clear how he accomplishes varying depth control but suspect V assembly is just loosened & re-positioned?


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## petertha (Jan 7, 2017)

This KBC machine looks pretty decent, might be Taiwan but not sure. 795 CanuckBucks = 600 USD. I'd love to have one, but not that badly for the $ outlay. Its many tools behind the priority list. This I think I can kludge an alternative. But say a tool & cutter grinder for same cost... don't think I could replicate for the cost & effort.


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## rwm (Jan 7, 2017)

Here is one like yours:






Looks like his router does not have vents in front?
Angle grinder blades will cut carbide but the blade will wear fast.

Robert


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## petertha (Jan 7, 2017)

Yeah that's more what I would call a die grinder type tool, but the words get tossed around pretty loosely. Very similar dimensions/layout to my Bosch which is what I'm considering using. Stefan's video is what inspired me to make something but I only had the router at the time.


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