I might have made the base a smidgin bigger

Hi Jon,

it is always a difficult path to navigate between what is ultimately desirable and what is possible in relation to the most economic use of the materials. I will see if I can reduce the length of the rails a little to leave a section for clamping but this will reduce the available travel of the router and so there are always things to balance against one another. If the jig gets bigger such that I can only get 4 out of an 8’x4’ sheet rather than 6 then this has a jig impact in the cost. If having to screw it down to a bench rather than being able to clamp it saves £20 on the sale price then this will have a significant impact on sales.

But hey!, this is whole idea of prototyping and suggestions and comments leading to product development.

Cheers

Darren

I'd buy this ! When can you ship? 🙂

@darrenking

Of course no solution is perfect for everyone.

It doesn't seem to me that this would require a huge amount of clamping force, since there's a fair bit of weight holding things down (jig, blank and router) and the router is doing most of the work so you're not inputting a lot of lateral force. So it seems like you just don't want it sliding around.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

So would if the front lip had just a little more surface area would it be possible to get a couple of small G-Clamps in there and have the sled still pass over them?

If necessary might that extra surface area might be achieved by the user screwing an extra piece on the front?

I don't mind screwing something on, it's just that if there's a way to make it clampable without doubling the weight with a full size baseplate that would be nice.

I'll just repeat ...

I have a home-made something that does a similar job.  For fixing it down, I can either screw through some holes in the baseboard onto a stand (as Darren has provided for) OR I use clamps on top of the side rails to fix it to the bench.

The head of the clamps also works as an end-stop for the sled - 2-in-1 solution!

The clamps only fix to the near-end of the rails because the bench isn't the right dimensions to fix the far end too - but I'd have to lean an unsafe distance over the jig for the sled to fall off the far end of the rails, so there's no real need for far-end stops.

I wish I'd had one of these this weekend. 50mm seems on the money, the blank I had was 48mm at it's fattest end. I'd stick with a round 50 and then maybe you could look at an extra large version if there's enough demand. I'd personally prefer stops for travel as you can see I bumped into the far end a few times and it's bloody terrifying. 

Looks great, another bagpress winner.

Might the middle tend to get more use than the extreme edges and wear more for example?

Birch ply is pretty hard wearing and you'd probably have to surface rout several thousand blanks to see any noticeable wear on the rail so I really don't think this should be a concern. 

if the front lip had just a little more surface area

I'll just machine a square hole in either side of the rails big enough to get a small clamp through. Simples!

When can you ship?

Give me a few days to incorporate the mods and I should be able to run an initial batch by the weekend.

Give me a few days to incorporate the mods and I should be able to run an initial batch by the weekend.

@darrenking I’ll definitely have one Darren please and one of the neck pocket routing/aligning jigs as well. It’s all very exciting, well done sir. 🎸😁👍

I'll just machine a square hole in either side of the rails big enough to get a small clamp through. Simples!

@darrenking

Genius!

Ok,

I have been mulling over this ‘travel stop’ thing on the flattening jig and have been drawing little adjustable plywood stops with slots and screws and threaded inserts and so on. The problem is that router bases aren’t a standard size or shape and so coming up with something simple that also looks on the good side of elegant has proved to be pretty much impossible. So, what I’m going to suggest is this. Every make of router that I have ever owned has had the option of fitting a guide bush to the bottom that looks a bit like like this....

 And, once fitted, like this...

Select or purchase a guide bush for you router just a little bigger than your favourite cutter and the bush acts as a stop on the front and back edges of the cut out in the slide section. This particular combination of guide bush and cutter stops the cutter 15mm from the side of the jig meaning that the maximum machining width is 375mm, not enough for a joined acoustic back or soundboard but these could be done as two pieces before joining so this should be enough for most purposes. What do you all think?

ooo nice @darrenking

That seems like a clever solution @darrenking!

@darrenking

A set of guide bushes for your router is a sensible purchase anyway, so I don't even see requiring them for this jig as an extra cost.

elect or purchase a guide bush for you router just a little bigger than your favourite cutter and the bush acts as a stop on the front and back edges of the cut out in the slide section. This particular combination of guide bush and cutter stops the cutter 15mm from the side of the jig meaning that the maximum machining width is 375mm, not enough for a joined acoustic back or soundboard but these could be done as two pieces before joining so this should be enough for most purposes. What do you all think?

@darrenking Yeah that is a great solution and will be good enough for my purposes.

@darrenking In fact my home made one (badly home made one) is a bit chewed up because I kept hitting the slidey bit with the router bit. Using a simple bush to solve the problem is a simple and eloquent solution. This why you're on more money than me. 🤣  

need to be longer to flatten neck blanks as well as they are around 700 mm

The layout of the components on an 8' x 4' sheet is pretty tight so if I can avoid having to enlarge the base it would be great. As it stands you can flatten a 100mm wide x 710mm long neck blank if it is held on the jig on the diagonal. Alternatively you can flatten as much as you can and then move the blank along a bit to finish it off. Is this workable fo you guys?

@darrenking.

If it keeps the cost down Darren, I'm sure we can all cope with putting it at an angle. Your work on this is very much appreciated. 

🎸🎶🙏🙂

@darrenking It’s fine with me Darren. 👍

@darrenking I’ve never known a router be sold without a guide bush so don’t see it being an issue to say to use one. I’ve seen some deeper than others but don’t think that’s an issue for what you’re suggesting.