Syllabi & Jigs:

Fixture for Making Robland X31 Horizontal Mortiser a into a Horizontal Router/Shaper

These images are temporary, designed only for exhibiting to some friends.

Notice too that I have expanded the usefulness of the mortiser by making another type of table: a sort of sliding table for the mortiser.



Below is Charlie Belden's rendering of the table. For Charlie's rendering of my first table extension on the X31 XYZ Mortising table, click here

Note that Charlie -- with solid logic -- prefers a different set-up for the Zero clearance inserts. His are square, mine are circular. Charlie is much more systematic than I am. My inserts show someone making the necessary cuts improvisationally. After seeing Charlie's take on the inserts, if I make a refinement of the table, I may adopt the square inserts.

Charlie's rendering eliminates the vertical fence, but that doesn't mean that he eliminates the fence altogether. Au contraire, both of us know that -- for safety -- the vertical fence is absolutely necessary.

Finally, in discussions after I posted these images, we agreed that my first XYZ mortising table designs could be altered to incorporate the design below, that is rather than two fixtures, a better design of the first will give you the flexibility that you see below.

Please notice that I have an after-market collet on the arbor. The collet that Laguna supplied with the X31 was not adequate. I found this out -- sadly -- when I ruined numerous workpieces what the chuck's jaws loosened.

The collet is half inch, and I can use several bushings for different sized router bit shafts. However, this setup also accommodates shaper cutters. That the X31's 3-hp is reversible makes the set-up an ideal substitute for the difficulties encountered in the shaper portion of the X31, which -- for me -- has a labor-intensive set-up time.

(However, I am not dismissing the potential utility of the X31 shaper, especially its 1 1/4" spindle.)

If you have any thoughts, please get in touch. See links for communicating on right, above.


Horizontal Shaper 1


Horizontal Shaper 2 -- half inch shank chamfer router bit in collet


Horizontal Shaper 3 -- Steps in Creating Zero-Clearance Insert -- 1st

 
Horizontal Shaper 4 -- Steps in Creating Zero-Clearance Insert -- 2d



Horizontal Shaper 5 -- Steps in Creating Zero-Clearance Insert -- 3rd



Horizontal Shaper 6 -- Steps in Creating Zero-Clearance Insert -- 4th



Horizontal Shaper 7 -- Steps in Creating Zero-Clearance Insert -- 5th


Shop-Made Router/ Shaper 8-- Steps in Creating Zero-Clearance Insert -- 6th

In this example, the system of creating replaceable/interchangeable zero-clearance inserts in the straight fence on my shop-made router table. Unlike the horizontal shaper setup illustrated above, where the table height is adjustable -- allowing for the creation of tailor-made profiles -- the profiles on thes inserts need to be cut out on a bandsaw.