Woodworking Routers

Woodworking routers are used to rout out (hollow out) an area in the face of a piece of wood. It was a tool particularly used by pattern makers and staircase makers and consisted of a broad-based wooden hand plane with a narrow blade projecting well beyond its base plate gaining it the nickname Old Woman's Tooth.

Since about 1960, it has been replaced by the modern spindle router, which was designed for the same work, although the first electric hand routers appeared in the years just after World War I. Further refinement produced the plunge router, invented by Elu (now part of deWalt) in Germany in the late 1940s. This is even better adapted for many types of work.

Today, traditional hand-powered routers are often called router planes. Modern routers are often used in place of traditional moulding planes or spindle moulder machines for edge decoration (moulding) of timber.

Woodworking routers could be described as the most versatile woodworking tool of all. It can be used in just about every manufacturing function except assembly, however although it will do almost any kind of cutting or shaping of wood, custom baseplates, templates, or jigs are typically needed for more complex cuts.

Some of the uses of routers are:

Mortices and Tennons

The mortise ( the slot or groove) and tennon ( the tounge) joint is ideal for frames of desks, stretchers of wooden chairs, book cases and cabinets. It is a joint that becomes very strong when glued together. The woodworking router is used to make the mortice, the tennon can be cut with saw or bandsaw, or if there are many pieces to be made by setting up a router jig. 

Dovetailing

Dovetail joints, for drawers and cabinets

Moulding

The woodworking router is able to cut grooves, edge moulding, and chamfer or radius the edge of a piece of wood.The shape of cut that is created is determined by the size and shape of the router bit or cutter.

There are two standard types of router - plunge and fixed. When using a plunge-base router, the sole of the base is placed on the face of the work with the cutting bit raised above the work, then the motor is turned on and the cutter is lowered or plunged into the work. With a fixed-base router, the cut depth is set before the tool is turned on. The sole plate is then either rested flat on the workpiece overhanging the edge so that the cutting bit is not contacting the work (and then entering the work from the side once the motor is turned on), or the sole plate is placed at an angle with the bit above the work and the bit is "rocked" over into the work once the motor is turned on. In each case, the bit cuts its way in, but the plunge router does it in a more refined way.