Cabinetmakers meeting

ALWAYS a pleasure to have Daryl present for us. I was super excited too, can’t wait to try some!

Thanks guys. Here is a link for the mini router bits I mentioned, and few others:

http://www.drilltechnology.com/sapfm.html
There might be other bits that are out there, but these were designed by Steve Latta and they are really excellent.

Also, the different router bases:

This is Lee Valley’s, and it’s really well made:

http://www.leevalley.com/us/Wood/page.aspx?p=73720&cat=1,43000,51208&ap=1

And Stewart Macdonald, which makes two different ones. Also exceptionally well made. Steve Latta showed me one years ago, and he even uses the router bit, which is a precision 1/8″ dia. as a bearing against a template (with is router bits). This is the link to the page, you can click on any of them. The little pump is terrific to get rid of the dust, or you can rig up your own.

https://www.stewmac.com/SiteSearch/?search=router%20base

Also check with stewmac for abalone and mother of pearl blanks.

And the last, MicroFence, which is just an amazing company. Their products are insanely great. Also expensive..I didn’t say overpriced, they are great. I started by needing a circle template that would give me a radius of about 15 feet (for my bed), and this was the best choice. Then I needed a good ellipse template. Then Frank Klausz talked me into the router base (which I use with a Bosch Colt router). Then of course the collets, which are better. It took over 20 years, but there isn’t much more for me to get:

https://microfence.com/

It doesn’t have to be a Dremel, but it’s what I have. As I said, my old 395 from 1985 or so is way better than the newer models, and you can get one on Ebay for under $20. I do think that most of the rotary tools use a Dremel standard thread, but I don’t really know that for sure.

I also realized I never showed a picture of the bed I made years ago. No laughs from those who know I had to make my bedroom furniture purple curly maple. It’s a lot more work (all aniline dye, two washcoats of black and red, then the purple, which I also custom mixed), then the lacquer. Anyway, the camelback top took something like 6 templates, all of them 7 feet wide with different radii (curves like this are rarely smooth irregular curves, but are a combination or circles to make sure everything is precise). I’m uploading this to show just why I needed a precision circle template that was big. And not just for one circle, but a series of changing radii. I recall that cutting the masonite templates took most of a day (now I would probably use 1/4″ or 3/8″ baltic birch, or MDF), and then cutting the maple from that took a few days. Hornery work, and not I would do it on my shaper, but I didn’t have one then (with a shaper you don’t have to worry as much about only routing downhill). It started me on the downward (or upward) spiral of being a Microfence customer. Without them, the bed and also my elliptical table, in my album here, would not have been possible, or at least much much harder.