Woodworking Router Techniques

Edge Rounding

• Routers are used to round the edges on furniture to prevent them from being excessively sharp, a problem that could lead to injury and to peeling finish. Depending on the bit that is used, an edge can be slightly rounded just to take the edge off, or rounded to a quarter-or-half-inch radius to give it a softer and more contemporary appearance. Edges are usually rounded with a handheld router that is worked over the edges of a complete piece of furniture after the furniture is assembled.

Dado and Rabbet

• A dado is a straight notch that is cut across a piece of wood, usually to fit the end of another piece of wood into it. A rabbet is a similar notch, but at the edge of the piece of wood so that one side of it is open. Dados and rabbets can be made with a router by installing a straight bit into the router and setting up a fence on the piece of wood to be notched. The router is then drawn across the piece of wood while holding it firmly against the fence.

Profiles

• Many styles of furniture feature bases, crown moldings and decorative elements that feature profiles of varying degrees of complexity. These profiles can be created using a router with a profiled bit in it. For smaller pieces of wood, this is most easily done by mounting the router in a router table with the bit protruding out the top of the table. The piece of wood to be profiled is then fed across the spinning router bit, while being stabilized by a fence that is attached to the router table.

Dovetails and Finger Joints

• Routers are used in conjunction with dovetail jigs to create the required notches in two pieces of wood to make a dovetail or finger joint. Finger joints are made by cutting matching straight cuts in the ends of two pieces of wood so that they fit together like fingers. Dovetails are similar, but the edges of the fingers are slanted to create a firmer fit between the two pieces of wood. Making dovetails and finger joints with a router is a very precise operation, and needs to be done with a high-quality jig for maximum stability.