Help with routing a centered through slot for 20x24 front standard

[Drew Wiley]

With all respect, Ron ... My router table is exceptionally clean and even relatively quiet. Almost no dust. And way more precise than the old ways. Believe me, I've imported and sold all kinds of Euro hand tools. Many of my own hand tools are vintage 1800's. Good stuff; but I rarely use them. When Festool landed on this continent, it was an "extinction event" for the dinosaurs. I helped launch that asteroid, at least here on the West Coast. I appreciate the Zen mentality of the old ways; but when you need to get it done fast and right and actually profitable ....

I remember a fellow arriving from Dublin with all his mortise chisels looking for work. We were selling huge quantities of expensive mortise locks at that time, along with doors. He boasted he could precisely treat a door for a mortise lock installation in a single day. I told him that was an admirable skill, but unfortunately also had to inform him that I sold machines that would do the same thing in five minutes.

And even one of the fanciest hardwood ULF wet plate cameras I've even seen, along with a gorgeous matching fold-up coating booth, was done almost totally via Festool power tools - that was the stipulation, plus video evidence. It won second place in their first worldwide woodworking contest. No, the ten thousand dollar prize probably didn't even pay for the labor they put into it; but the wide free publicity it brought their cabinet shop was worth far far more. If hand tools were involved, they'd probably still be plugging away at it a decade later.

I have nothing against anchorites and long-bearded hermits honoring tradition and training termites, but it's just not practical for everyone. And what do you think I would have been paid if I had to spend two hours explaining the differences between hand planes to those nice people, and have them just walk away to meditate for another thirty years over it in their cave, when cabinet shop folk were already standing in the same line ready to spend forty thousand dollars apiece?

[Ron (Netherlands)]

With all respect, Ron ... but when you need to get it done fast and right and actually profitable ....

agree ..

He boasted he could precisely treat a door for a mortise lock installation in a single day. I told him that was an admirable skill, but unfortunately also had to inform him that I sold machines that would do the same thing in five minutes.

also agree...

And even one of the fanciest hardwood ULF wet plate cameras I've even seen, along with a gorgeous matching fold-up coating booth, was done almost totally via Festool power tools -

yes indeed, but I guess you must admit that it can't do the London style dovetails which was the main binding also for handcrafted sliding box camera's in the 1850's....(although in the US they seem to have started making them a little later with machined fingerjoints)...

...and I guess many of us also find it very rewarding to do it with the help of hand tools when you have the time for it (and no commercial pressure)....for instance when making and restoring smaller camera's and parts from the era.

[Drew Wiley]

Hi Ron - one of my first jobs after college was in relation to restoration of buildings not old by your standards, but pre-WWI, by a particularly famous woman architect named Julia Morgan. I lived in a couple of houses built by her and exchanged work for rent, and worked on a number of her famous buildings too. She is best known as the architect of Hearst Castle on the central coast. She brought in all kinds of highly skilled craftsmen from Europe. Sadly, a lot of those buildings needed to be rewired and re-plumbed; and it seemed almost criminal to mess with any of the woodwork. But I got pretty good at faux finishing and hiding any disruption. All hand tools back in her day of course, and mostly still when I started out. But her workmen were so skilled with their materials that 60 years later, and even now, it is almost impossible to tell where a joint begins or ends, or where real wood ends and faux plaster substitute begins. They factored in even the long-term humidity expansion/contraction differentials between the different wood species, and how varnishes would shift color with age. Think of superbly crafted hardwood furniture the size of halls, or in the case of Hearst Castle, truly castle sized. People are amazed to this day. I admire fine craftsmanship no matter how it is done.

But even nailless Japanese temple joinery is now done via special "groover" power tools. The fellow who was once my art agent studied Ming Joinery in the Forbidden City in Beijing for a year, working right alongside the maintenance crew. Then he came back and made miniatures in his little shop with hand tools to figure out all the jigsaw-puzzle aspect at it, then under contract for a Public Television Nova Science episode, went to Japan to build a 1/20th scale version of an actual Ming building. That was because the largest earthquake simulation shaker machine is in Japan. They ramped that thing up to higher levels than any recorded earthquake, around Richter 11, and couldn't make the structure collapse. In other words, the Ming Dynasty figured out the most earthquake-resistant architecture the world has ever known, and it was all based on floating hardwood joints. Unfortunately, their Achilles Heel was flammability.

[Ron (Netherlands)]

Hi Ron - one of my first jobs after college was in relation to restoration of buildings not old by your standards, but pre-WWI, by a particularly famous woman architect named Julia Morgan. I lived in a couple of houses built by her and exchanged work for rent, and worked on a number of her famous buildings too. She is best known as the architect of Hearst Castle on the central coast. She brought in all kinds of highly skilled craftsmen from Europe. Sadly, a lot of those buildings needed to be rewired and re-plumbed; and it seemed almost criminal to mess with any of the woodwork. But I got pretty good at faux finishing and hiding any disruption. All hand tools back in her day of course, and mostly still when I started out. But her workmen were so skilled with their materials that 60 years later, and even now, it is almost impossible to tell where a joint begins or ends, or where real wood ends and faux plaster substitute begins. They factored in even the long-term humidity expansion/contraction differentials between the different wood species, and how varnishes would shift color with age. Think of superbly crafted hardwood furniture the size of halls, or in the case of Hearst Castle, truly castle sized. People are amazed to this day. I admire fine craftsmanship no matter how it is done.

But even nailless Japanese temple joinery is now done via special "groover" power tools. The fellow who was once my art agent studied Ming Joinery in the Forbidden City in Beijing for a year, working right alongside the maintenance crew. Then he came back and made miniatures in his little shop with hand tools to figure out all the jigsaw-puzzle aspect at it, then under contract for a Public Television Nova Science episode, went to Japan to build a 1/20th scale version of an actual Ming building. That was because the largest earthquake simulation shaker machine is in Japan. They ramped that thing up to higher levels than any recorded earthquake, around Richter 11, and couldn't make the structure collapse. In other words, the Ming Dynasty figured out the most earthquake-resistant architecture the world has ever known, and it was all based on floating hardwood joints. Unfortunately, their Achilles Heel was flammability.

Thank you Drew for you nice write up. Makes me wonder btw if there ever have been made wooden camera's with Japanese style joints - so without the use of nails/screws/glue :-)