ok, I’m on take 3 (or maybe 4) trying to make a glass door/top for a box to hold the flag from my grand-dad’s casket. I’m making a door frame using half-lap joints – I can figure that part out since I’ve had a lot of practice now(!).
Where I’m struggling is making the rabbet to hold the glass. My first few attempts were wrong – I was trying to rabbet the individual pieces and then glue ’em up. The router table had a fun time routing the rabbet out and then chipping off some of the wood at the end of my board.
I finally decided to refer to the shelf-full of books I have on woodworking and see I need to route out the rabbet once the frame is already glued.
Just curious – would you route out the rabbet with the router in your hands, or can you use the router table? I’d be slightly more comfortable with the router table since I don’t have to worry about tipping the router and gouging my workpiece… any thoughts out there?
(while frustrating, I learned a ton with all my mistakes, so I’m glad I screwed up a few times!)
Replies
kummell ,
The router table offers support for the entire frame usually , your router bit needs to have a ball bearing for best results . CW rotation of the frame will be best .Just make sure your bearing is riding against the correct surface .
We learn best from making mistakes imo
regards dusty,boxmaker
FWIW I've just done this on Thursday. 45mm wide, 20mm thick maple frame for a vanity mirror.
I routed a 9x9 mm rebate hand-held. The frame was held in an end vice and I clamped an aluminium straight edge to the bench as a fence. I packed the gap between the fence and the frame with a strip of the same thickness wood to increase the router contact area.
Tipping was not an issue. Assuming your bench is flat you can always attach a wood block to the other side of the router base with DS tape to give you more stability.
I usually rabbet a frame on the router table after the frame is assrmbled using a rabbeting bit with changable bearings. Keep in mind that if the opening of the frame is larger than the table, at some point only one frame member will be on the table with the rest of the frame needing support. I use a starter pin to ease into the cut and make several passes. To avoid tearout where the glass meets the wood, use a marking gauge to score a line Then rout up to it. For large frames you can add an auxillary table to increase the size of your router table or use the handheld method described in the previous post.
David
Edited 1/25/2009 11:52 am ET by dmdnk
While the router table approach would seem to make stability a non-issue, in my mind it presents more safety challenges. I've done this with router in hand on a large but thin frame by placing a board the same height parallel to the edge I'm routing. Davcefai's idea of sticking a stabilizing block to the router base would be easier.
I rout my glass door panel rabbits with the door completed and glued, on my bench top with a large piece of carpet non-slip waffle pattern under it. This holds the frame very nicely so that I can concentrate on routing - no clamps necessary when using the no-slipem, so no clamps in the way.I use a bit with the appropriately sized guide bearing to get the width that I need - you can use a guide strip clamped to the board, instead, but takes more setups - 4 as opposed to 1. Another advantage to using a guide bearing is that you can't rout past your corners.I put a piece of plywood the thickness of the frame that I'm working on inside the frame to keep the router from tipping - and believe me, the darn thing will tip just as you are finishing up if you don't.Then, I climb route the rabbit - in other words, I route backwards, so that the bit wants to pull the router along - DON'T LET IT. This takes paying attention and not feeding too fast or it will get away from you and make divots instead of rabbits. I do this because the maple that I work in will catch the bit and splinter if I route it in the approved fashion, which ruins the piece that I'm working on. If your wood isn't as finicky as figured maple, I'd skip the part about climb routing.Finally, I use a very sharp chisel to square the corners.Hope this helps.Mike D
That's pretty much my method, too.My glass panel doors are mostly cope and stick which get cut, milled, and assembled without a panel. Then a 3/8" rabetting bit gets used to cut away the inside "strip", followed by a bit of chisel work to square up the corners. Smaller doors get rabetted on my shaper and larger ones on the bench with the router hand held.
Hi Dave,I also build mine cope and stick which I strengthen with floating tenons. Then I belt and suspenders the combination by having the glass cut only 1/8" smaller than my opening and securing the glass to the frame with a silicon bead. This makes a strong and stable assembly.I can't do this with mirrored doors since adhesive tends to spoil the silvering, so in that case I back the mirror with a very closely fitting panel of 1/8" apple-ply held in place with small brass screws. Mike D
Mike, hopefully Kummel will see your post. Thanks, though. I use the non-slid mats too, wonderful things they are. Good tip about climb-cutting with certain woods. The frames I was making were from Alder, pretty straightforward to mill, not so much when finishing, LOL!forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Hi,
I have poor thread discipline - I sent this to Forestgirl instead of you. Anyway, here it is.
Mike DI rout my glass door panel rabbits with the door completed and glued, on my bench top with a large piece of carpet non-slip waffle pattern under it. This holds the frame very nicely so that I can concentrate on routing - no clamps necessary when using the no-slipem, so no clamps in the way.I use a bit with the appropriately sized guide bearing to get the width that I need - you can use a guide strip clamped to the board, instead, but takes more setups - 4 as opposed to 1. Another advantage to using a guide bearing is that you can't rout past your corners.I put a piece of plywood the thickness of the frame that I'm working on inside the frame to keep the router from tipping - and believe me, the darn thing will tip just as you are finishing up if you don't.Then, I climb route the rabbit - in other words, I route backwards, so that the bit wants to pull the router along - DON'T LET IT. This takes paying attention and not feeding too fast or it will get away from you and make divots instead of rabbits. I do this because the maple that I work in will catch the bit and splinter if I route it in the approved fashion, which ruins the piece that I'm working on. If your wood isn't as finicky as figured maple, I'd skip the part about climb routing.Finally, I use a very sharp chisel to square the corners.Hope this helps.Mike D
thanks a ton, folks. I didn't get any more time in the shop this weekend, but have a great idea of how to make this work (and more items for my shopping list!)
fingers crossed for this weekend (except when I'm holding a router... that wouldn't be best practices, I imagine)
Matt
Something else I often do is make my first pass with a cove bit then switch to a rabbet bit. The cove is easier to cut while removing a good bit of the waste.
david
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