On Mon, 19 Jul 2004 03:13:49 GMT, Mike Gerdts
wrote:

|Wes Stewart wrote:
| On Sun, 18 Jul 2004 20:23:25 GMT, Mike Gerdts
| wrote:
| |Question 2:
| |
| |When trying to do raisesd panel doors, does a 1/4" shank provide enough
| |stability to get decent results?
|
| No way. Frankly, I haven't done these with a router. I use the table
| saw, which of course limits the profile. If I decide to get fancier,
| I'll look into the vertical bits.
|
|I was rather surprised when I saw that raised door kits were available
|in 1/4" shanks. That was way beyond my expectation for that small of
|a piece of metal moving that fast. One other thing that I didn't take
|into consideration is that the only way I get variable speed is by
|repeatedly squeezing and releasing the trigger...

Ooops [g] You definitely want to slow these babies down. The look of
them scares the hell out of me so I can't say that I have personal
experience. Seems like a job for a shaper rather than a router to me.
|
|I have seen the table saw method described in books, but it seems as
|though the edge of the blade would leave a rather sharp edge between
|the bevel and the face of the panel. Does this not happen, or does
|it normally get knocked down with sandpaper, a plane, etc.?

Sure, the edges are going to be whatever the blade leaves behind. To
date, I use my panels with the raised side in (Shaker style), or down
in the case of drawer bottoms, so it doesn't much matter to me. You
could certainly ease the edges with a block plane, sandpaper, etc.
But for sure, you're not going to have any curved surfaces.

|My current
|TS is rather lacking as well ($179 sears special ~5 years back). I'm
|leaning toward the Ridgid TW3560. The Borg just dropped it to $549
|and it has a $100 gift card rebate.

Can't help you with this decision. I had a 20-year old Craftsman and
finally decided that I was going to get serious about this stuff and
justified, in my mind anyway, the purchase of a Unisaw.
|
| If cutting mortises is your primary consideration, think about a
| dedicated hollow chisel mortiser instead of the
| router/bit/fixture/edge guide/guide bushing.....
|
|I was at first heading that direction, but I started looking at the
|things I can do with a mortiser and the things that I can do with
|a router or a drill press. Arguably, the mortiser is a bit more
|limited in its use.

For sure. My last experience with one was in junior high shop class a
looong time ago. But if you were purchases tooling *only* to do
mortises then the router+bit+jig+mortising chisel... isn't cost
effective. Once you look at the other many uses for a router then
this bet is off.

|In looking around the net (Amazon reviews, etc.)
|it seems as though the one that is in my price range (Delta 14-651
|@188 + ~44 for a bit) has rather mixed reviews.

Unfortunately.


Wes