Routing a precision 'ledge' for GG in mahogany, which bit type?

[Roger Thoms]

Randy I have a router for you and the price is right. PM sent!!!

Roger

[Tin Can]

PM returned.

Thanks!

Randy I have a router for you and the price is right. PM sent!!!

Roger

[Tin Can]

Been studying this problem all day, even bought and returned a cheap router table. I have not bought a router yet, and I think Roger has solved that problem.

Thanks Roger!

I am going to make my own router table setup, everything I see it either cheap junk or too expensive and still junk in my eyes.

One $500 router table boasted their cast iron, 150 lb router tabletop, was flat to within 0.008"! That's not flat. The one I returned had new, failed plastic router plate leveling screws...

On an entirely separate note, I just got my darkroom sink running hot and cold water in what used to be the living room. I am stoked!

[Paul Fitzgerald]

"Which brings up biscuits, can biscuits be used on 1/2" stock at the 45 degree joint?"

NO, biscuits are dried and compressed, made to swell when wetted with glue, likely break your joints or crack the wood itself.
Same idea is to use splines but you make them yourself out of the wood at hand, two per corner should have enough glue area to be permanent.

[Jody_S]

Been studying this problem all day, even bought and returned a cheap router table. I have not bought a router yet, and I think Roger has solved that problem.

Thanks Roger!

I am going to make my own router table setup, everything I see it either cheap junk or too expensive and still junk in my eyes.

One $500 router table boasted their cast iron, 150 lb router tabletop, was flat to within 0.008"! That's not flat. The one I returned had new, failed plastic router plate leveling screws...

On an entirely separate note, I just got my darkroom sink running hot and cold water in what used to be the living room. I am stoked!

You're better off buying a used shaper, though unfortunately it will take 3/4" or 1" shank bits, and those aren't cheap. But around here, you can buy a used one for $500-1000, and of course it's 50 or 75 years old so you will always be able to resell if for what you paid, once you're done. The plastic crap from Home Depot? It loses 50% of it's value when you open the box it comes in.

[vinny]

A 2x2 "handy panel" of 3/4" mdf with a hole drilled off center, a 2' piece of aluminum angle stock for a fence, a couple c clamps to hold the fence, and a $25 craftsman router off craigslist. Boom. Router table.

[Tin Can]

My thoughts exactly, I even have everything I need here, well, a free router is coming.

A 2x2 "handy panel" of 3/4" mdf with a hole drilled off center, a 2' piece of aluminum angle stock for a fence, a couple c clamps to hold the fence, and a $25 craftsman router off craigslist. Boom. Router table.

[Harold_4074]

I've often thought about this but never tried it; since the critical distance is from the face of the groundglass to the inside face of the frame, it seems reasonable to mill some stock to that precise thickness, then rip to width. The narrower "rim" of the frame would then be glued on, since its only functions are to beef up the assembly and keep the glass in place. At the corners, make a full lap joint by crossing the two layers of wood from opposite directions.

No?

[Tin Can]

Yes! I am kinda wandering around this and trying to do it with cheap and few tools. T distance is 5/16" which is not a common store bought hardwood milled size. I have considering finding high grade 5/16" marine or aircraft plywood.

Or finding a cabinet maker to mill me some 5/16" hardwood.

Every other dimension of a back can be rather crude, I have already made some other conversion backs based on premade GG mechanisms.

Maybe build DIY sanding planer.

Look what this guy uses to make guitars. http://woodgears.ca/sander/thickness.html

I've often thought about this but never tried it; since the critical distance is from the face of the groundglass to the inside face of the frame, it seems reasonable to mill some stock to that precise thickness, then rip to width. The narrower "rim" of the frame would then be glued on, since its only functions are to beef up the assembly and keep the glass in place. At the corners, make a full lap joint by crossing the two layers of wood from opposite directions.

No?

[Jim Jones]

With the most basic tools, the back could be laminated from strips of wood, the strips facing the lens being the thickness of the ground glass spacing. However, with a router one can make a more elegant back.