Making a cabinet door with the Festool OF 2200 router.

[Brice Burrell]

Making a cabinet door with the Festool OF 2200 router.

I recently needed to make a mockup of a cabinet door for a client. I thought this might be a good time to try out an idea I?ve been thinking about for some time now-making a cabinet door freehand with a handheld router. Not just any router, the Festool OF 2200 router.

The mockup was made from 3/4? pine. I have an American Eagle rail and stile bit set with a bead profile and CMT 3 ?? raised panel bit that I used for this project. The OF 2200 was very easy to fine tune the height of the bits and the extended base gave the router extra support. That?s just what I needed for this project. Here are all the door?s parts. Note the rails haven?t been ripped to width yet. This will give me a little more surface to ride the router on as I routed the cope profile into the ends.

I also used a scrap block the same thickness for even more support for the router as it exited the cut. After routing the copes I ripped the rails to width.

To routing the sticking I made a simple fixture from some scrap 4/4? stock the same thickness as the rails and stiles and some plywood. The fixture helped hold the pieces and supported the router. All went as planned. Although the 2200 is very large and heavy router it handles much easier than one might expect. The fine adjustment for the bit made matching up the profiles super easy.

Then the more challenging part, routing the raised panel. I went for it all, routing full depth in one pass. I was a bit hesitant at first. I took it easy one the end grain since I was worried about chipping. As it turned out it wasn?t a challenge at all. The 2200 handled task without breaking a sweat and with great results. The bit was so large that the chip catcher wouldn?t fit on. Even without the chip catcher the dust collection was respectable.

I shot some video, here?s a condensed version of the process.
Making a cabinet door with the Festool OF 2200 router

Okay, this was fun but is there really any practical application for freehand routing cabinet doors? I think there is. I?ve got a small router table. Much too small for long stiles or large panels that one might come across on a pantry unit. Or maybe for arched top doors, freehand routing could be easier in that application. I?m not going to throw away my router table after this exercise but it does open up other possibilities, you know, food for thought?.

Copyright 2010

 

[John Stevens]

Great job, Brice.  I kept hearing that the OF2200 was easy to handle with a big bit, but there's nothing like seeing it in action.  Yeah, I've seen Festool's video, but the manufacturer's own videos are always so staged.  Thanks for the demo--I think John Lucas would have been proud of you, both in terms of your fixture and the production value of your photos and video.

Regards,

John

 

[vkumar]

Wow Brice. As usual from you, very impressive.

One question though--were you taking the stiles and rails in one pass ie one depth of cut.  I did see you take the raised panel in several depths of cut.  Who do you control the depth of cut--I didnt see you click the depth knob, were you plunging the router inboard and if so how did you control it?

Vijay

 

[Warrior]

Nice work Brice, I think I would have made you routing jigs a bit taller 6-8" to make the routing a bit more comfortable. It looks like it would take a toll on your back bending over like that if you had to make a bunch of doors.

 

[jonny round boy]

Nice job Brice!

With something like that, I'd be extremely wary of accidentally lifting/tilting the router with the rail & stile cutters. I'm guessing the weight of the OF2200 helps with that?

Also on the video, when routing the last edge of the panel the dust seems much more noticeable, and the perspex collar around the bit looks as though it's jammed with chips. Did taking so much material off so quickly overwhelm the dust extraction system on the 2200?

JRB

 

[ajones]

Hello Brice could you post a pic of the panel cutter

 

[wubears71]

Great video.  I would never even attempt to try doing a raised panel using a hand held router (not even my PC 7518), but you really made it look easy.  That sure says a lot about the OF 2200.

 

[Brice Burrell]

Wow Brice. As usual from you, very impressive.

One question though--were you taking the stiles and rails in one pass ie one depth of cut.... 

The rails and stiles can't be cut in several passes at different depths. On a router table you could expose less of the bit by adjusting the fence if you wanted to remove less material per pass.

...I did see you take the raised panel in several depths of cut. Who do you control the depth of cut--I didnt see you click the depth knob, were you plunging the router inboard and if so how did you control it?

Vijay

Actually, I didn't adjust the height of the bit for the raised panel. On the first cut on the end grain of the panel I made a few light passes. The bearing on the bit controls the amount the bit cuts horizontally into the material, I didn't push bit all the way into the material on the first two passes. I just controlled it by feel.

 

[Brice Burrell]

Nice work Brice, I think I would have made you routing jigs a bit taller 6-8" to make the routing a bit more comfortable. It looks like it would take a toll on your back bending over like that if you had to make a bunch of doors.

You're right, the MFT1080 is way to low for me. I hope a MFT/3 is in my future but I've got to start making money before I buy more tools. I like to work at 38-40" or so and I do have a something to get me to that height. This was just one mockup so I didn't bother setting anything else up.

 

[Brice Burrell]

Nice job Brice!

With something like that, I'd be extremely wary of accidentally lifting/tilting the router with the rail & stile cutters. I'm guessing the weight of the OF2200 helps with that?

Also on the video, when routing the last edge of the panel the dust seems much more noticeable, and the perspex collar around the bit looks as though it's jammed with chips. Did taking so much material off so quickly overwhelm the dust extraction system on the 2200?

JRB

Jonny, you correct about lifting or tilting the router. The extended base helped a lot but it was the extra support of the fixture that made it easy. I was more worried tilting the router on the panel. I suppose I could have rigged up the MFT to cut the panel using the guide rail.

I'm glad you asked about the dust collection. Yes the router was getting overwhelmed by the dust.....because I forgot to turn the vac on for the last pass. [embarassed] I had the router and vac on separate circuits so the vac wouldn't auto start. You can see in the video the clips cut to another scene numerous times. I was getting bombarded with phone calls. I needed to take these call so I had to stop the router to answer the phone several times. The video would be pretty boring if you guys had to watch talk on the phone. ;D The dust collection was much better than I expected it to be without the chip catcher (when the vac was turned on). 

 

[Brice Burrell]

Hello Brice could you post a pic of the panel cutter

[attachthumb=#]

Great video.  I would never even attempt to try doing a raised panel using a hand held router (not even my PC 7518), but you really made it look easy.  That sure says a lot about the OF 2200.

Tim, I would have agreed with you before I owned the 2200. The thing's got power, a lot of power and I think some guys might be intimidated by that. But there is no reason to be, this beast is very tame. I think you'd be very surprise by how easy it is to handle with large bits.

 

[bruegf]

Nice job, again......

Thanks

Fred

 

[ajones]

Hi Brice thanks for the picture of the cutter well anticipated, I did want to see the clearance between cutter/base what speed did you run it at?

 

[Brice Burrell]

Hi Brice thanks for the picture of the cutter well anticipated, I did want to see the clearance between cutter/base what speed did you run it at?

The 3 1/2" is about as bit a bit you can fit in the 2200, about an 1/8" or so of clearance. I believe Festool recommends a maximum 3 3/8" bit. I set the router to 1 for the speed.

 

[clintholeman]

I usually use my of 1400 and a 2 1/2" panel bit for making door panels - as well as an assortment of rail and stile bits. If the the 2200 will swing a 3 1/2 panel bit that is way cool.  I use a fixture similar to the one you were using to "stabilize" the pieces - works like a charm and has for about 5 years now. 

 

[tbellemare]

Excellent, Brice! I wish I'd thought of that.

Did Steve bring his big bit(s) to the class?

That looks like a CMT 890.507.11. CMT says to spin them between 10K and 12K RPM. The router turns minimum 10K.

As usual, Brice, you're spot on.

Tom

 

[Brice Burrell]

Excellent, Brice! I wish I'd thought of that.

Did Steve bring his big bit(s) to the class?

That looks like a CMT 890.507.11. CMT says to spin them between 10K and 12K RPM. The router turns minimum 10K.

As usual, Brice, you're spot on.

Tom

That's the one Tom. No, Steve didn't bring any of his bits. I did get to try out one of his bits in the 2200 a couple of years ago out at the Vegas training center.

 

[clintholeman]

One needs to be sure that the bit size is what it says.  It is not uncommon to encounter a bit that is over-size enough not to fit - especially true of lower cost bits.  I've never had a problem with Whiteside or CMT.

 

[Gabeloooooo]

I usually use my of 1400 and a 2 1/2" panel bit for making door panels - as well as an assortment of rail and stile bits. If the the 2200 will swing a 3 1/2 panel bit that is way cool.  I use a fixture similar to the one you were using to "stabilize" the pieces - works like a charm and has for about 5 years now. 

Oh! Do you have pictures/video of that setup? Looking into using 1400 for door panels as well.

 

[Jesse Cloud]

I was totally skeptical that a hand held router could raise panels and hog out huge roundovers until I took the router class.  The 2200 was cutting through hard maple with a huge roundover bit (maybe an inch) like it was butter.  The cut was smooth and chatterfree.  Everyone in the class did the exercise with no problems at all.  I was amazed and converted.

Saving my pennies for a 2200.... [big grin]