Quick little update.
I hope everyone had some good time off. I have not really had any as of yet other than Xmas day and my normal days off but I have still managed to get some work done. Hopefully starting this next week work will slow down I and can take some extra days off here soon.
I got quite the haul for Xmas but I am not going to share it as I feel it is gloating and I do not like to do that. So I will just show a few things that have me busy with new projects.
First thing is this new Kreg standard size router table insert plate. I have wanted a professional one (one that is not shop made) for some time. Just never pulled the trigger.
So as you can see the shopmade plate I have made out of MDF is not of standard size. I am not sure why I did this.
New Router table plate by
bjohnson388, on Flickr
The other problem is my shopmade one is 1/2" thick where as all the ones you buy are 3/8" thick.
New Router table plate by
bjohnson388, on Flickr
My quick and dirty solutions was to glue my old insert plate into the table to fill the void so I could cut out a new hole for the new plate. If you squint you can see my layout lines.
20201227_163049 by
bjohnson388, on Flickr
The instructions for mounting the plate said to put pieces of tape around the insert to give you clearance in the hole. This is different than how I mounted my shop made plate. It was a tight fit but it also did not mount to the table with bolts like this one does.
20201227_163055 by
bjohnson388, on Flickr
So here are the pieces of plywood I used to make the template for the router to follow. With them snuggly fitting around the plate and they are held down with carpet tape.
20201227_164602 by
bjohnson388, on Flickr
Here you can see the carpet tape.
20201227_165254 by
bjohnson388, on Flickr
I forgot to mention in a previous photo you also put carpet tape on the insert and get it lined up with you layout lines so that it won't move while you are installing the router guide templates. Here the insert plate has been removed. The hole is ready to be cut. Or so I thought.
20201227_165604 by
bjohnson388, on Flickr
Of course I got this far and discovered I did not have the proper 1 1/2" forstner bit I needed to drill the corners to match the plate. Sunday evening at 5pm I made the trip to Lowes and got one.
20201227_174518 by
bjohnson388, on Flickr
I grabbed some cool sunset shots on the way home.
20201227_173616 by
bjohnson388, on Flickr
20201227_173810 by
bjohnson388, on Flickr
Okay all the corners drilled.
20201227_175338 by
bjohnson388, on Flickr
Then I cutout the hole with my absolute **** of a tool Skil jigsaw. I really need to upgrade and throw it in the trash!!!
20201227_181108 by
bjohnson388, on Flickr
At this point I discovered I needed a 3/4" long pattern bit to cut the 3/8" deep rabbet and low and behold the only one I have was 1" long. So another trip to Lowes was in order but I was not going back. So I went inside for the night and starting working on the most amazing gift my wife has ever got me.
Lego Batmobile by
bjohnson388, on Flickr
This is the coolest Lego set I have ever had. 24 bags of goodness!
Lego Batmobile by
bjohnson388, on Flickr
I have been building 1-2 bags a night since Xmas day and I still have 9 bags to go.
Bag 1
Lego Batmobile by
bjohnson388, on Flickr
This is an amazing design and engineering on this Batmobile.
20201227_185955 by
bjohnson388, on Flickr
I think this was bag 4.
20201227_194845 by
bjohnson388, on Flickr
Finally got the new hole cut for the router insert. If you look at the corners I messed up on three of them. Remember how I went to the store and bought the new forstner bit so the corners would match. That went out the window while I was routing and I forgot about it on the corners and milled them wrong.
20201230_175420 by
bjohnson388, on Flickr
The plate does fit the hole really nice other than the corners being ugly and my template slipped on one side.
20201230_175428 by
bjohnson388, on Flickr
Yeah total fubar!
20201230_175447 by
bjohnson388, on Flickr
Even the corner that is right is somewhat sloppy. Not my best work.
20201230_175450 by
bjohnson388, on Flickr
More Batmobile goodness!
20201230_192951 by
bjohnson388, on Flickr
20201230_193000 by
bjohnson388, on Flickr
The details on this thing are just crazy!
20201230_193009 by
bjohnson388, on Flickr
Cutting the hole for the insert was a little nerve racking but drilling the holes for the router to mount was probably the most stressful part. I had to choose the plate with no holes because they did not list my Craftsman router on any of their predrilled ones. So you use the router base as you template to drill the holes. Nick I think this part would drive you crazy!
20201231_103450 by
bjohnson388, on Flickr
I used a center hole finding punch that fit snuggly in the plate to center punch two of the holes. Here goes nothing.
20201231_104128 by
bjohnson388, on Flickr
So a little bit of disappoint me here. Even though I had a board underneath the first two holes the material still blew out. I am not sure what kind of plastic this is. But it crumbles really easy. The way I got the last hole perfect was I drilled a 1/8" pilot hole and then flipped the plate over and drilled from the top side so that the blowout would be on the bottom. Too bad I didn't know this was going to happen at the beginning. Now I have to stare at the blowout every time I use the router. What is that old saying about letting perfectionism go? I think this is one of those times.
20201231_105118 by
bjohnson388, on Flickr
20201231_105125 by
bjohnson388, on Flickr
Regardless of that I drilled the holes for the router to mount perfectly and here they are married together.
20201231_105129 by
bjohnson388, on Flickr
I really love this plate with the removable inserts. I am able to change bits from above the table and their are several different size plates. It comes with three and there are 4 more sold separately which I have already bought and are on the way. It also has a starting pin. Which I have never had. It seems like I should have bought one of these years ago!
20201231_105152 by
bjohnson388, on Flickr
Next up was cleaning the lift mechanism on the router it was all gunked up and not working very well for precision adjustments.
20201231_110439 by
bjohnson388, on Flickr
All cleaned up and lubed with dry lube.
20201231_115957 by
bjohnson388, on Flickr
What I used to clean it and then lube. (There's a joke there somewhere)
20201231_120315 by
bjohnson388, on Flickr
Beautiful.
20201231_121937 by
bjohnson388, on Flickr
It's going to be really nice and much safer to have the proper size hole for each bit.
20201231_121953 by
bjohnson388, on Flickr
All that work lead to this. I'll let you guess what it is going to be.
20210101_183309 by
bjohnson388, on Flickr
2020's shop calendar. I ended up with 740 hours total for the year. For those that are curious the F stands for Family time and the E stands for Exhausted!
IMG_20201229_173224_408 by
bjohnson388, on Flickr
The new on is up and ready to be filled out. I guess I will shoot for 800 hours this year.
20210101_184019 by
bjohnson388, on Flickr
All right thanks for stopping in,
Bret