Plexiglas template (Routing Aid) to cut the male portion of sliding dovetails.

[Brice Burrell]

This is a quick how to use the Routing Aid to cut the male portion of siding dovetails. In my edge routing thread Jerry Work talks about how he modified his routing aid, below is part of his post in that thread.

Bruce's excellent write up on the edge routing accessory (both here and on his web site) reminded me post something about a easy modification that makes this already good accessory a real must-have for my use.  In stock form, the two edge guides are designed so you can easily center a router bit over the edge of a workpiece.  Works well for many tasks.  The edge guides are held to the top by strong threaded knobs that screw into a barrel bolt on each end of the guides.  The threaded rod passes through a slot in the top of the unit which is clear and has rules and scribe lines visible to make alignment easy and fast.  Each edge guide has its own slot.  The range in stock configuration allows the two edge guides to be positioned to support stock from a bit less than 20mm to around 100mm in thickness ( I don't recall the exact measurements at the moment)

If you simply connect the slots side to side (easy router table task) and cut a notch in one of the guides aligned with the center of the bit, then you can easily and safely do all kinds of edge profiling work.  This is perfect for doing male sliding dovetails where you want the edge guilds to hold both sides of your workpiece for a perfect male DT cut on each side.........

Jerry

 Jerry goes on to describe the rest of the modification and he points out that the mods will likely void the warranty. I really like the concept, but I didn't want to have a pertinent modification to the routing aid, so I came up with this.

I used some scrap MDF to act as spacers, one out of 3/4" and the other 1/4". In the 3/4" piece I cut a notch for the dovetail bit. A little two sided tape to stick the MDF to the Routing Aid, make sure the MDF is free from dust or the tape won't stick. In picture you can just see the dovetail bit protruding, you can still use the routing aid's scales to set the distance. With the guide with the 3/4" piece of MDF containing the bit set the other guide to make a tight fit on the work piece. Test on scrap, rout face then flip the piece over and rout the other side or turn the router around and rout the bottom. You can make adjustment as necessary. Finished DT in the last pic.

 

[Ned]

I thought Jerry's idea was great.  And I thought I understood it.  Thanks to Brice's pics, I'm sure I do.

I thought the Routing Aid was Festool's least well-explained accessory.  A tiny pic of 3 pieces of acrylic, and a big price tag.  Brice, Jerry, and then Brice again have fixed that.

Does the MDF have a higher coefficient of friction on the work, compared to the acrylic?  No reason Brice's add-ons couldn't be made or coated with some other material.

Thanks,
Ned

 

[Brice Burrell]

Does the MDF have a higher coefficient of friction on the work, compared to the acrylic?  No reason Brice's add-ons couldn't be made or coated with some other material.

Thanks,
Ned

Ned, the MDF does produce more friction than the acrylic, but it's not an issue. The next version's shims could made of HDPE or maybe just the HDPE tape on the MDF. 

 

[lawhoo]

Is the routing aid pre-drilled to accept both the 1010 and the 1400 routers?

 

[Brice Burrell]

Is the routing aid pre-drilled to accept both the 1010 and the 1400 routers?

Yes and the OF2000, also includes the mounting hardware. Here is a link to my Routing Aid review.

 

[John Stevens]

Outstanding work, Brice.  I can remember, going back to the old forum on Yahoo, several of us asking whether this accessory could be used to make male sliding dovetails.  Thanks for showing us how.

I guess it also makes for a great (tho' expensive) dust collection accessory for certain edge-routing applications like chamfers and quarter-rounds.

Regards,

John