inlay routing

[southern_guy]

not strictly a festool question - but I am using festool router for this job, so here goes ...
I am replacing door handles in a number of hollow core doors, moving the handles down. The doors have thin ply facing, and are currently finished in a clear finish, but will end up being painted. The holes that I need to patch are probably only 40mm in diameter. I plan to route out around the existing holes and insert a 3mm mdf inlay, sand and paint over. I was pondering how to create the rectangular template when it occured to me that I could instead use a circular template created with a hole saw. Does anyone see any reason not to go circular?

 

[Eli]

Sewer covers are round because it's a shape that won't fall through if put down wrong. If you can get hole saws the right sizes, why not?

 

[Ned]

Sewer covers are round because it's a shape that won't fall through if put down wrong.

OK, it's early and I'm pre-caffeinated, but I don't see any connection between this and  southern_guy's question.

Is there a connection or did the question just trigger your round thing factoid synapse, Eli?

Ned

 

[Dave Rudy]

That's it Eli.  Take the conversation straight to the gutter!!! lol

;D

 

[semenza]

Hi,

        How about filling the holes with a wood plug glued in, and then finishing them off with wood filler. You could use dowels that are close in size, or cut plugs with a hole saw. That way the whole job requires a lot less set up and precision.  If sanded flush and smooth it will all disappear when painted.

Seth

 

[Dave Ronyak]

Southern_guy,

If you don't locate a hole saw of a size that can produce the correct size of plug, here are three options to get perfectly sized circular plugs.

1) Use a hole saw to cut a plug of the nearest oversize, then make a "pivot pin" board and secure it to the table of a belt or disk sander or the table of a drill press fitted with a sanding drum with the pin positioned from the sanding abrasive the radius of the plug that you need.  If you have a tilting table, you can set it so as to create a very slight taper, e.g 1 or 2 degrees.  Then set your rought cutout plug on your shopmade pin board and sand a perfect cylinder or slightly tapering cone-shaped plug for your doors.

2) Use a circle or "fly" cutter in a drill press to cut plugs of the exact diameter needed from your MDF or plywood.  These adjustable radius cutters are available from Amazon and many other vendors.  Here's the URL to to a General unit through Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/General-Hardware-8-Hole-Cutter/dp/B00004T7P1.  For safety's sake, don't try to use a cutter of this type in anything other than a drill press with your work piece clamped down!!

3) Using a hole saw, jigsaw or bandsaw, rough cut a plug larger than you need.  Then turn it to size on a lathe.

Of course, since you are plugging the old lockset holes, you could simply jigsaw the old holes to a square or rectangular shape and then cut a plug of a size and shape that corresponds to your new cutout.  This could be another great use for an MFS and your router, essentially making a very thick inlay.  Jerry Work describes how to use the MFS for inlay work in his manual on the MFS.  (I've got to get myself one of these MFS thingies!)

Although you indicated that you intend to paint the doors after modifying them, I am somewhat concerned that the plugged areas will telegraph through the paint over time with changes of the seasons and ambient moisture levels.  To mitigate that risk, you might install the plugs as above, then do a much thinner, e.g. 1/8 inch depth inlay of plywood or whatever the original surface of your doors is, that extends somewhat, e.g. 1/4 to 1/2 inch beyond the edges of the original through bore.

Dave R.

 

[Eli]

Sewer covers are round because it's a shape that won't fall through if put down wrong.

OK, it's early and I'm pre-caffeinated, but I don't see any connection between this and  southern_guy's question.

Is there a connection or did the question just trigger your round thing factoid synapse, Eli?

Ned

Yes.

That's it Eli.  Take the conversation straight to the gutter!!! lol

;D

Hehe.

 

[Frank-Jan]

There was a how to article on the Dutch festool site about routing inlays using a 8 mm bit and two different sized guide bushings (40 en 24 mm if I recall correctly). It was meant for the removal of knots etc. and the method was like plugging screw holes, but then with variable and bigger plugsizes. But in this case I would go with Semenza's method, since it's going to be painted, and you don't need to match grain paterns etc. In such cases I use a 2 component filler, that if you apply it so it slightly bulges out, to compensate for shrinking while drying, can be sanded after about 20 minutes.

Here's a link to the pdf file:http://www.festool.nl/images/Toepassingen/316_NL.pdf The pictures are more or less self-explanatory, but I can write a translation if there's interest, and maybe for future reference.