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Lills Quilt Rack Part IV Routing to Shape

Lills Quilt Rack Part IV Routing to Shape

Now that the lumber had been selected and milled four square it was time to cut out the legs and shelf. I began with the legs.

Marking out the legs on the leg stock using the leg templates.

After breaking the leg stock down into an individual piece for each leg I layed out the respective template on each piece. I traced the templates with chalk and cut out the legs using my band saw along the outside of the chalk line.


This provided good results and I managed not to undercut any lines. Next time I will use a pencil though. I found the chalk line too thick. It left too much wood outside the final trim line.

Using the chalk as a means of transferring the leg shape left a bit more waste than I would have liked.

On the later legs, I cut off some of the excess on the band saw before taking them to the router.

After rough cutting the six (6) legs (& 2 test legs) I turned back to the MDF templates. Using the Avery double sided tape sample I received at Woodworking in America I attached the templates to the legs. The tape worked very well, though I was only able to get two (2) or three (3) uses out of it, far fewer than Avery suggests in the instructions.

I took the leg blank/template combos to the router table which was setup with a pattern bit. I had to buy a new a 1.5" pattern bit as the ~5/4 width of the walnut legs was too thick for my 1" bit. I dont worry about burn marks while routing as the sanding and rasping yet to come will remove them all.

At the narrow, top end of the leg it became difficult to keep the leg flat on the router table.

The pattern bit worked great for the wide bottom ends of the legs. As I worked up to the narrow top ends I found I had difficulty keeping the leg/template assembly square to the table/bit. With the wide bottom end of the leg hanging off the end of the table there were a few locations which I undercut as the piece rotated into the bit. I fought my way through this and routed all six (6) legs even with the templates. Hopefully the undercut will not prove too hard to address during the shaping.

It was difficult to keep the legs flat on the router table.

Damn!

All fixed.

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Lills Quilt Rack Part IV Routing to Shape