Guide Bushings - Do you use them

[peter halle]

I have been thinking about doing some stuff for myself but wondering if others do the same.

I have never been a jig making guy.  Most of my work is more on the construction versus woodworking side and jigs haven’t really come into play.

But my goal this year is to actually do some personal woodworking and making some jigs that work with a router and guide bushings is now on the horizon.

An example:  many years ago I made decorative boxes and humidors.  I used the nice quadrant hinges with stops that required several depths to be routed.  At that time there was a plexiglass jig to make the operation easier.

Many of you use similar type jigs in your work or hobby.  When making jigs you you design them around a common busing size or do you vary?

Peter

 

[Roseland]

I probably use guide bushes a third of the time I use a router.

One of my favourite accessories is the MFS-400, which usually uses a 30mm guide bush.  I last used it yesterday.

Only this morning I needed a disc of ply 63mm in diameter; I used a template Axminster used to sell which was a metric version of this:https://www.infinitytools.com/blog/2014/02/14/a-template-that-wont-put-a-hole-in-your-wallet/

Given a selection of guide bush diameters, cutter diameters and template diameters there is almost complete flexibility.

I can't imagine buying a router without guide bushes, unless it was dedicated to use in a table.

Andrew

 

[Cheese]

I use guide bushings all the time with the MFS. Matter of fact, I'll be setting up the MFS today to rout some hinge mortises and dead bolt mortises on an exterior door.

The diameter of the router bit dictates the guide bushing I use. That's the reason I came up with this cheat sheet for convenience.

[attachimg=1]

[attachimg=2]

 

[tomp]

One useful jig for a router with guide bushing is making a long slotted hole. I made an adjustable height workbench - the top and bottom sections were separated by a scissor jack that was used to set the height - and needed long slots in the "legs" of the upper portion.

I made a jig out of 1/2" MDF, sized for a 3/4" guide bushing, as shown. If additional pieces of the 3/4" wide stock are made, they can be used to block off the long hole to allow cutting shorter slots with the same jig.

View attachment 1

The jig was screwed to the part (double sided tape could be used for a "fancier" application) and the slots cut using a plunge router.

View attachment 2

The slotted legs ready for mounting to the work surface.

View attachment 3

The finished workbench - I actually added 2-drawer cabinets inside the lower frame later - showing the scissor jack used to raise/lower the work surface and the clamping bolts in the slots in the legs.

View attachment 4

When I need to make odd-size circular holes, I typically make a template in 1/2" MDF using a fly cutter and then cut the hole with the router; typically use a 1/4" spiral bit and 1/2" guide bushing as the offset is real easy to figure.

 

[simonh]

I normally use a 17mm OD guide bushing with my smaller Dewalt router.  I always hate making jigs as I often feel they take up time and are never as accurate as I would like.  I've just bought a small CNC machine and over the past few days I've knocked out a few jigs for simple cut outs such as the recessed Button Fix Type 1.  I just love been able to quickly knock up a model in 5 minutes on the computer and then let CNC do the work while I'm getting on with more productive things.

 

[Sparktrician]

I'm with [member=44099]Cheese[/member] on the cheat sheet pairing bit diameter to the next larger bushing size. 

 

[ChuckM]

Snip.
When making jigs you you design them around a common busing size or do you vary?

Peter

Varied depending on the bit used. Here is an example of a floating tenon project with the jig (one jig for all the mortising).

 

[cubevandude]

Two years ago I started a set of custom stairs and had to make a router jig to route out the treads.  The easiest way to do it was to use a top bearing flush trim router bit and make the jig thick enough for the length of the bit so I could make shallow cuts.  I think the jig ended up being 1-1/4" thick.  Worked out great, I just made sure the cutting part of the bit was just a hair under the size of the bearing so it would not cut into my template. Ideally one would want to use a guide bushing, but I couldn't find a rabbet bit that was small enough to enlarge my template for a bushing.