Thread: Modern Tool Versus Old Fashioned Hand Tool - Router bit or Plough Plane

Hello All,

Star log - no one is out there. Just a note in a diary that records and event.

Have you ever had a project that fought you every step of the way? Well this shortening of an entertainment unit was one of them. True to form the last thing I was going to do was spray on a coat of varnish. Nothing hard about that at all. Easy peasy. Well until the sanded down original varnish reacted to the new varnish and orange peeled with blotches thrown into the mix too.

Nope, I am not going to sand down the whole cabinet back to bare timber in order to remove the two lots of varnish that reacted with each other. I reckon the result looks 'rustic'. It is staying that way. I am not even going to sand it down with something like 800 or 1000 grit with a hand block. Nope - 'rustic' that is the word. The line has been drawn under that project.

The cabinet is at last out of my shed and I do not have to see it there any more. The trouble is the unit will have the last laugh because it will have television sitting on it in the lounge room. Each time I sit and watch TV the cabinet will be on daily display, as a constant reminder of how it fought me every step of the way. Sigh!

Kind regards
Lionel

Originally Posted by Lionelgee

...Triton router table...

Decades ago I did what you are describing. Back then I bought a Triton with router table option but found the metal too thin to maintain a flat surface under the weight of the router fixed underneath - not to mention you leaning on it to control the timbers progress through the cutter and forces that the cutting itself creates. Because the Triton table was then slightly concave the wood in effect would go into the cutter nose down. On reaching the other side of the dip the nose would then rise up. Essentially the nose and tail cut would be at set depth, but intervening timber would be cut off specification. Ended up getting small dedicated router table with cast iron bed. Also pays to have a vernier caliper reading down to 1/100 of a mm to set your cutter depths rather than a steel ruler.

Never done it manually, but could be interesting if you have the time and good vice or other holding system.