Project Information
For reasons unknown to me right now, I purchased this router in 2009:
![]()
Boy is it a big puppy. I have no complaints with it at all, but it has only seen light use. So who knows how it would hold up under daily use/abuse? It is a Freud FT3000VCE plunge router. Unfortunately it looks like Freud has gotten out of the market of producing power tools and accessories are seemingly impossible to find.
Yesterday I needed to route a slot near the edge of a table top that a) I didn't want to bring to the router table and b) was just shouting out to use the plunge router. Unfortunately, I didn't have an edge guide and I didn't feel comfortable free hand routing.
Well, when when faced with the need to do something, I did what any self respecting woodworker would do: see what was available on Amazon and finding nothing, I moved immediately to a Google to get ideas on how to make my own.
And bingo! We have a winner! From a site called Very Super Cool Tools they have free plans and a fairly well done video series on Youtube. Just what I was looking for.
The edge guide "platform" is 3/4 inch baltic birch, the two brackets are 7/8ths inch cherry and the pressure plate is 1/2 inch maple with sand paper glue on where the rods are pinched. I used brass threaded inserts to hold the removable fence to the platform. The rest was glued and screwed. The only out of the ordinary purchase was the two 1/2 inch steel rods. I had them from another failed router fence attempt, so these were on hand. The final hardware is a bolt and a knob I had laying around.
So, this is what I made (disassembled) out of scraps:
![]()
and all this hardware (clearly I need to work on focus …):
![]()
and here I am routing my table saw fence:
![]()
All in all, it took me a few hours to build this and just about two minutes to route the slots. I do have a pretty solid and usable fence out if it, so it was worth it.
In shout out to Mads, a nice Guinness Stout awaits after a leisurely Saturday afternoon woodworking!
Thanks for looking
Greg
Boy is it a big puppy. I have no complaints with it at all, but it has only seen light use. So who knows how it would hold up under daily use/abuse? It is a Freud FT3000VCE plunge router. Unfortunately it looks like Freud has gotten out of the market of producing power tools and accessories are seemingly impossible to find.
Yesterday I needed to route a slot near the edge of a table top that a) I didn't want to bring to the router table and b) was just shouting out to use the plunge router. Unfortunately, I didn't have an edge guide and I didn't feel comfortable free hand routing.
Well, when when faced with the need to do something, I did what any self respecting woodworker would do: see what was available on Amazon and finding nothing, I moved immediately to a Google to get ideas on how to make my own.
And bingo! We have a winner! From a site called Very Super Cool Tools they have free plans and a fairly well done video series on Youtube. Just what I was looking for.
The edge guide "platform" is 3/4 inch baltic birch, the two brackets are 7/8ths inch cherry and the pressure plate is 1/2 inch maple with sand paper glue on where the rods are pinched. I used brass threaded inserts to hold the removable fence to the platform. The rest was glued and screwed. The only out of the ordinary purchase was the two 1/2 inch steel rods. I had them from another failed router fence attempt, so these were on hand. The final hardware is a bolt and a knob I had laying around.
So, this is what I made (disassembled) out of scraps:
and all this hardware (clearly I need to work on focus …):
and here I am routing my table saw fence:
All in all, it took me a few hours to build this and just about two minutes to route the slots. I do have a pretty solid and usable fence out if it, so it was worth it.
In shout out to Mads, a nice Guinness Stout awaits after a leisurely Saturday afternoon woodworking!
Thanks for looking
Greg
