We thought there might be some of you who are interested in seeing how our creations come to be. So, we've included a few of the tools we use and jigs we "invented" to help us with our designs and creations.
DISCLAIMER: These are shop built jigs. While we are willing to share our designs and inventions, we do not claim they will work for everyone. We've taken designs for these jigs that we've gathered from magazines, books, and the Internet and adapted them for our own use. If you decide to use any of the designs or suggestions included here, your results will vary depending solely on your own capability to design and use them however you may see fit. We do NOT guarantee any designs and/or results for you. Likewise, should you decide to use any of these jigs, or adaptations of them, you do so at your own risk. Again, these are shop built jigs. Proper safety precautions are a MUST, and we STRONGLY encourage you to take every safety precaution you possibly can in order to prevent injury to yourself or to others when using them. Ensuring your power equipment is suited to the job you are about to use it for and is properly maintained and ready for use, and properly securing both the jig and the workpiece are very critical places to start. Wearing proper eye and hearing protection, along with proper attire for the job (no loose clothing, etc.), and ensuring you have a clean and clutter free area in which to work are also critical safety requirements. Finally, rushing to get the job done almost NEVER has the desired outcome, and the chances for injury to yourself or others significantly increase the faster you try to complete the job. Take your time, have patience, and the results you achieve should meet your expectations.
JIGS:
Here is a router planer we really like. It took a lot of modification and obfuscation to get it to this point, but the results are fantastic! It allows us to plane much larger pieces without fear of slipping off the edges of the runners because we put "L" brackets on each end to prevent that from happening. The runners are actually metal ceiling joists we had from a building that never got built. They're each 12' long, so we can plane virtually any length log as long as we have the patience and stamina to do it.
This jig uses a sled concept that incorporates angle iron as the sled in which the router slides back and forth. The sled was made just wide enough to accommodate the width of the router baseplate, so there is no chance the router will slip out when planing. However, this process is time consuming and hard on the back if the piece is very large or the angle makes for a long reach. To address this issue, we found working on half the piece at a time, and then switching to the other half when done, works very well. We also found that a larger router works a lot better than the smaller ones (a 1/2" router planer bit that cuts a larger diameter is definitely in our future purchase plans). Anyway, we found this modified router planer to be the answer for us. We believe we could even plane mantels with this setup if need be.
This jig is also a large router planer for table bases and tops, althought this one might not get too much use anymore because adjusting the height is really hard to do to get it straight and level on all four sides.
Using two cross rails, this jig allows the router "sled" to move forward, backward, and sideways. There is one caution we would make - if the runners on the sled aren't long enough, there is a potential to slip off the rail when working close to the end of a piece. If this happens, the router bit will damage the surface you're working on.
As mentioned previously, the height adjustment is the most difficult part (getting both end rails the same height) because the stop collars (see below) must be in almost perfect alignment in order to get the most exact cut with the router.
This is really quite a simple jig to make, and only costs around $100 (for the piping). The rest of the materials can be made out of scrap lumber. We chose to make a mobile base for our planer so we could move it around in the shop to get it out of the way rather than taking the whole apparatus apart after every use.
It's still a bit time consuming, but, as you can see from the picture below, well worth the effort. We plan to purchase a larger router and wider bit to be able to take off more stock with each pass, but, for now, this works just fine.
This planer helps us come up with a top and bottom that are almost perfectly parallel to each other which provides a much more stable table base or top than we could ever achieve using a chainsaw and angle grinder.
Here's another view of a different project using the jig above to plane a table base/pedestal to two parallel ends. You can see the shims needed to level the piece and the bungee cords (tie downs with ratchets would also work) needed to secure it so it doesn't give the router user a good swift kick. When the top surface has been planed, the whole piece is turned upside down, secured again with bungee cords or tie downs (shims aren't necessary for this step in the process because the side already planed is perfectly parallel to the sled runners the router sits in), and given a final planing.
The end product looks something like this (of course, it will need further cleaning and finishing before we can call it "done", but you get the idea, we hope):
The second jig we invented is a bandsaw sled for "slabbing" fireplace mantels. As you can see in the photo, an old solid core six panel door makes up most of the sled. It rolls on two roller tables that are clamped together and to the bandsaw table to provide as much rigidity and stability as possible. The largest mantel we've tried so far was 6 feet in lenth. Any beyond that will be done with a chainsaw and "Beam Machine" (a special tool that attaches to the chainsaw and guides it in a straight line as the mantel is being slabbed.
This smaller router planer is for (you guessed it) smaller slabs that can be used as tops and bases for smaller bedside or end tables.
We also have a lot of larger power tools (bandsaw, drill press, table and radial arm saws, thickness planer, jointer/planer, etc.) that come in handy on occasion, but aren't really used all that much for creating the pieces of art we do.
When it comes right down to it, the most used tool in our shop seems to be our own hands and a lot of "elbow grease". Yes, we use smaller power tools (router, hand drill, die grinder, Dremel tool, and a few other specialty tools like dental picks, riffler rasps, and cup rasps), but there really is no substitute for good old fashioned hands-on elbow grease to get the job done, and done well!