Shopsmith Forums

I started work on this months ago and never finished it. Tonight I needed a piece of cutting board so I pulled it apart. Not sure it will ever get finished but I'm sharing the idea in case someone else wants to work on it.

I personally like router tables without miter slots. I have not had a use for them other then to perhaps mount a finger board but I have plenty of ways to do that without them.

So along came the ibox jig and while I have used it on the shopsmith table saw I have not tried to use it on a router. I do have a shopsmith OPR with a miter slot but again I don't normally use those slots. I was also thinking that there are no doubt others here who have router tables with out miter slots. While you do not need a miter slot you do need a way of mounting guide bushings.

I see designs here all the time without provisions for guide bushings or reducers and to me that is one of the main things I look for in a router table. A router table without that provision is pretty much useless to me.

So lets take a look at how this idea looks:
It is a cutting board from Sam's Club with a 1" slot cut in it. There are two screws to mount the i-box jig and that is about it. You simply mount a guide bushing in your router table and then that controls the jig. It is really simple but you have to get the slot right.

The 1" guide bushing is a sliding fit in the base of the jig:
Like I said it has just two holes to mount the jig, t-nuts from the jig along with the two countersunk screws.
If anyone wants more information just ask.

I might or might not get back to finishing this idea but I have no doubt that it will work. I've done several other jigs using this method and its pretty slick.

Ed

Ed, the idea of using a table-mounted bushing to control a jig or sled is a new one on me, and Google wasn't much help. What are the advantages over guiding against a fence? The one that occurs to me is that you can orient the workpiece any way you want, which could be handy at times.

BuckeyeDennis wrote:Ed, the idea of using a table-mounted bushing to control a jig or sled is a new one on me, and Google wasn't much help. What are the advantages over guiding against a fence? The one that occurs to me is that you can orient the workpiece any way you want, which could be handy at times.

Yes you can route in what ever orientation you want or need to, it also means you can have a smaller table, like in the case of this jig you would need a very large table in order to set a fence up to run against. It also means just putting the guide bushing in again to get back to your setup rather then having to adjust a fence each time. You can make a miter gauge like this too. I have one tucked in a drawer somewhere..... This is a neat way to make jigs.

Ed

If you finish it it would be interesting to know how it worked .

Yes I would like to see it finished and with a review!

ED

It looks neat but! It looks to me like you would need to mount the router fixed in a panel of some sorts and the cutting board with I-box mounted permanently would slide around on top of the panel. It looks like it would be awfully cumbersome.

Don G

dgreen810 wrote:ED

It looks neat but! It looks to me like you would need to mount the router fixed in a panel of some sorts and the cutting board with I-box mounted permanently would slide around on top of the panel. It looks like it would be awfully cumbersome.

Don G

The router is mounted in a table just like one is normally mounted and then the guide bushing is mounted in the table just like normal. The jig I showed slides on the router table and the guide bushing controls were it moves. Not at all cumbersome.

Ed

I'll be watching this because it may be helpful to me when I begin setting up shop AFTER downsizing.

Perhaps so of you are doubting how this works. In case that is the case or just to give you some added information this is based on something the Router Workshop guys made. Back in the days when if a project didn't use a router it wasn't worth doing phase I did a lot of router work. As soon as I saw how they were doing tasks it was like a light was turned on and my router techniques changed accordingly.

So in that light here is a miter gauge they use to sell, the makers mark:
I don't feel like setting up a router table so lets see how this goes just showing the mounting plate that the router attaches to and go from there. Now just to be clear the router is mounted below, the router and plate fit in to a table. The plate has a guide bushing inserted.
This is the miter gauge from Oak Park, it has a replaceable strip along the front edge and some holes for an attachment and of course the clamp to hold the stock in place.
Now the jig with the slot just slides and is guided by the guide bushing in the table/mounting plate.
I hope this clears things up. If you are still confused let me know as this is really a neat idea that a lot of you could use on this or another project.

I still love routing and jigs but like I mentioned I'm not all that sure I will complete the project as I just have too many other things going on.

Ed