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Trimming the edge of a piece of stock to a flat, smooth, square surface or exactly following the contour of a pattern is one of the router's specialties. Attaching a straightedge or a template to a piece of stock is one of the quickest and most effective ways to clean up an edge, or to perfectly and repeatedly form the arched top of a frame and panel door or any other curved part.  Using a router table for edge trimming and pattern work speeds the process by eliminating the need to hold both the workpiece and the pattern down while you make the cut.

Trimming the edge of a piece of stock to a flat, smooth, square surface or exactly following the contour of a pattern is one of the router's specialties. Attaching a straightedge or a template to a piece of stock is one of the quickest and most effective ways to clean up an edge, or to perfectly and repeatedly form the arched top of a frame and panel door or any other curved part.  Using a router table for edge trimming and pattern work speeds the process by eliminating the need to hold both the workpiece and the pattern down while you make the cut.

 

Cutting grooves, slots, dadoes and rabbets, sliding dovetails, mortises and tenons are all part of the router tables stock in trade. With a router table and a few basic router bits you'll be surprised what you can accomplish. Especially when you have multiple identical parts to cut, a router table can greatly speed these fundamental woodworking operations.

Cutting grooves, slots, dadoes and rabbets, sliding dovetails, mortises and tenons are all part of the router tables stock in trade. If you need to cut a wide groove, click on the image to the right. Start with the inside edge. To avoid a climb cut, consider the second cut when positioning the fence for the first. Push the fence back, then rout the rest. By routing the outer side, the bit continues to push the work against the fence.

Many woodworking operations call for stopped cuts - cuts that do not continue for the entire length of the stock. Stopped cuts can be either decorative, like a chamfer that begins and ends at a certain point on a table leg, or functional, as in the case of a mortise or a half blind dovetail pin. A router table can be set up in seconds to perform a stopped cut; the same operation with a handheld router or a table saw is often extremely cumbersome or dangerous.

Many woodworking operations call for stopped cuts - cuts that do not continue for the entire length of the stock. Stopped cuts can be either decorative, like a chamfer that begins and ends at a certain point on a table leg, or functional, as in the case of a mortise or a half blind dovetail pin. A router table can be set up in seconds to perform a stopped cut; the same operation with a handheld router or a table saw is often extremely cumbersome or dangerous.