Using a Horizontal Panel Bit in a Make-Shift Router Table?


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I need to create some panels and I'm trying to figure out what's going to be my cheapest way of doing so.

 

I own a Bosch router (MRC23EVSK, trigger control) with I believe 2.3 hp.  I have read that this isn't the best router to be used in a router table due to the trigger control.  Bosch sells a couple of tables that work with it but I haven't read anything great about them and I'm not really interested in dropping the cash for one unless necessary.

 

So I was thinking of using a horizontal panel bit since it comes with the bearing, that way I don't need a super accurate fence?  And I could just mount the router to a piece of acrylic glass that drops in to a rabbeted piece of plywood (that I mount to something).

 

I'm not convinced with this plan, but it seems like it should be possible if done well and with good advice! But I'm willing to concede and invest in a Bosch router table if necessary.

 

Other options I've considered are using the table saw with some kind of jig to hold the panel (which is a drawer front) to do the short side.  Or maybe just super splurging on a new hand tool and getting a Veritas skew rabbet plane.

 

Anyone have any thoughts?  I've included a link to the dresser/changing table I'm building from WOOD magazine that shows the look we're going for on the drawer fronts that we really like.

 

http://amzn.com/B00286QZGW

 

Thanks!

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>>Why would anyone make a panel any other way?

post-9382-0-33720800-1406488963_thumb.jp

See the square tenon profile on the right of these shapes and the way the slope or cove stops back from the edge? You cannot get this with your table saw method. Ok for what you and I may want to do, but invalid for reproduction work. The table saw method is a work around and while valid is less "authentic."

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>>Why would anyone make a panel any other way?

attachicon.gifimage.jpg

See the square tenon profile on the right of these shapes and the way the slope or cove stops back from the edge? You cannot get this with your table saw method. Ok for what you and I may want to do, but invalid for reproduction work. The table saw method is a work around and while valid is less "authentic."

How big does the router need to be to accomplish this?

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My post is not about big or little but rather the mechanics of the profile and the physics of the cutting machine. Don was firmly in the shaper camp. Others here run big bits in 3 hp table mounts. I have never milled this with a router in one stage.

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I have ran a horizontal bit in my 2.25hp Bosch, and it worked fine.  The trick is making it in multiple passes.  As C Schaffer mentioned Don was in the shaper camp, and gave pretty compelling evidence that a horizontal bit on any router isn't a good idea.  So much so that the next time I buy a panel raising bit, it will likely be a vertical bit.

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