Router Templates

It’s Fair Time,


It’s August and almost time for all of our local Fairs to start. I am looking forward to the 4-H Displays, animal judging, lemonade stands, greasy fried foods and all the different vendor booths. 

One booth you can always count on to be at the fair is the Sign making booth.  I am amazed at how many people spend their money on signs when they are so easy to make.

All you need are a few woodworking tools and woodworking accessories and you can make signs for you and all of your family and friends. Remember, signs make great holiday gifts and Christmas is not really that far away.

For a simple sign, all you need is a router and the Router Sign-Pro Sign making template kit from Eagle America. They even have vertical number templates that are great for putting numbers on your mailbox post!

Once you start with these few items you will be making signs like these in no time.

So pass right on by the sign making booth at your local fair this year and save your money for some new sign making woodworking accessories that will give you satisfaction for years to come.

I was looking through the Popular Woodworking Pocket Shop Reference Guide and came across a list of “Circle Templates around the House”. I thought it was so funny that they have a measurement for the bottom end of an Old spice Shave Cream 11 oz. can! By the way it measures 1 5/8” and has a radius of 11/16 “.

If you need to make circles, you don’t have to trace pennies, or the bottom end of a coffee can. Eagle America has many woodworking accessories for making circles. Here are 6 different router accessories and router jigs to help you cut circles:

1. Adjustable Circle Cutting Jigs
2. Turnlock Circle / Edge guide
3. Curv Pro Circle / Oval Cutting System
4. Circle Template
5. Circle Cutting Template
6. Router Tri-Jig

If you are using other woodworking tools, like a Drill press, or Jig saw, don’t forget about our 3 Piece Circle Cutting Pins Set.
 

Simply drill a 3/16" diameter hole half way through material being cut, thread proper length pin into filler strip, place material onto pin and cut to shape using straight or spiral router bits. Circular pieces should be rough cut using a band saw or jig saw prior to cleaning up the edge. Pins measure 3/16", 3/8", and 3/4" long for various material thicknesses.
 

Another woodworking accessory we carry at Eagle America for your drill press is the Wheel and Circle Cutter.

Certainly, with all these woodworking tools and woodworking accessories, you should never have to trace another bottom end of the Borden’s’ condensed milk can again!

We get a lot of requests for templates, router jigs and routers bits for making wood signs. One of the best selling kits on the market is the Milescraft “SignPro”. We do sell a lot of this item, but you are limited to 1 letter style in 2 sizes: 1-1/2” and 2-1/2”.

I personally find that very limiting, as I spent 20 years as a manufacturer of high end architectural signage.

There is a definite need for a system that has greater flexibility. I have yet to find anything available that is end user oriented.

I recently watched a new DVD that Eagle America has on how to freehand rout signs. This video shows how easy it is to make your own free handed signs using a router.

The techniques are easy to follow and it appears to be a doable process that almost anyone can do. The techniques in this DVD give you unlimited latitude as far as the letter style, size and layout you choose.

They use plastic letters as a pattern, but you could also use computer generated graphics and spray adhesive.

The video is “Freehand Routed Wood Signs Made Easy” (413-9200). Check it out!

Back in August my husband decided we needed to replace the doors on our shed.  So we removed the doors to use one as a template to make the new ones.


After buying materials, we got to work in the pole barn.  Since I own all the woodworking tools, I was volunteered to help him build the doors.  We did not have to do any router woodworking but we sure did a lot of nailing!


Well, you know how one job leads into other. The next step was painting them. I put a primer coat on by brush. Then we decided we should put a coat on the whole shed.  

I took the easy way out and used a sprayer called the Earlex. It's a great new addition to the line of woodworking tools.  After checking the viscosity of the paint, we were able to easily spray a coat on the doors and lightly coated the rest of the shed. 

And while I was at it, the trim around the garage doors needed repainting. 
 

So I got out my sanding supplies to see what I needed.  One of the new woodworking accessories I tried out is called a scuff ball.  It is brand new in the sanding supplies category at Eagle America. 

I used it to get the paint off the trim around the garage doors. It hooks up to a hand drill and it actually did a good job taking the peeling paint off. 

I decided to hand brush because of the siding so I put a primer coat on the trim and then brushed on the final coat. 

 It’s nice to have the right woodworking tools to do the job right but I really hope this job lasts a few years! 

Mike, one of our Eagle woodworking guru's writes:


The Christmas season found many woodworkers looking for gifty projects. One type of project that was very popular this year was making bowls and trays using a router and various templates.

Besides the standard tray and bowl templates, there were also holiday oriented templates such as a Snow Man, Christmas Stocking and a Christmas Tree.

I too thought this to be a good project, but I wanted something different than the templates that were available, so I decided I would make my own.

I wanted to keep it simple since I planned on making ten trays. I also had some 5/4 wide cherry stock and did not want to do a bunch of Glue ups. I was in the shop one day thinking about size and noticed the template I had used to cut the opening in my router table top for my router height adjustment lift. It was the perfect size!

The beauty of this template was that is featured straight sides that could be ripped on the table saw to get the width of the tray sides after it was hollowed out using my routers bits.

Templates, patterns and router jigs are great time savers but don't let them limit your imagination. It’s easy to make your own for whatever shape you desire.

Following are some photos of the sanding supplies and finishing process I used after drilling out and routing the hollowed out part of the tray.
 

I first used the direct drive setting on the Festool Rotex sander to smooth out the bottom of the tray and clean up the radius corners.

 




The final sanding was done with  the Festool rectangular random orbit sander so I could get into the corners better.

The inside radius edges were done with the Fein Multimaster with the profile sanding attachment.

To speed things up while applying the finish I used Painters Pyramids so I could do both sides at once.

 
And here is the final batch of nine trays. My kids loved them and it didn't take me all month to make them!

• Making Bowls and Trays (pictured) with their router templates, router jigs and router bits
• Making Keepsake Boxes, often with Eagle router bits and a router table system of some kind.
• Picture Frames were also a very popular gift, given the flexibility and creativity that their favorite router and wood router bits provides them
• Pen Turning allowed people to make gifts for many people all at once, plus they made the perfect stocking stuffer. 
• Wood Carving Tools, especially a new Wood Carving Set, came in handy when making truly unque gifts