Router Basics – Day 2

We made our way back up to Woodcraft, Heather fighting way more traffic that I did, to finish our kleenex boxes and the rest of the class. We finished the last cuts on the router and then glued and clamped our boxes. Since the glue took about an hour to dry, we did a bunch of technical discussion about different types of routers, the baseplates, bushings, motors, tables, etc. There was a lot of information that we didn’t know, and if we hadn’t taken the class we probably would have made a bad purchase.

Our boxes are now glued and sanded, but not yet finished. We’ll do that later on, probably some Danish Oil, that should look nice on the oak. And then we’re going to go shopping…

Router Basics – Day 1

Heather and I headed up to Woodcraft in Plano for the first day of a two day router basics class. No, not the networking ones, the woodworking ones. We’ve got some projects around the house that really do need one and we decided that it’d be better to know what we’re doing before we buy an expensive and dangerous power tool.

The shop is well designed, with separate workbenches for everyone and lots of room to maneuver. Our instructor is great, he’s patient, funny, and doesn’t pander to the females in the class, instead treating them just like the guys. We’re building a kleenex box, with rabbet joints, dados, chamfers, and some rounding over to make things pretty. It’s all hands-on, with each of us doing every part of the build. So far we’ve got the rabbets and dadoes done, as well as the hole in the lid. In between hands-on work, we’re learning about the different types of routers and bits, as well as safety and what to look for when shopping.