Page 5 - Routers and CNCs

Today's desktop CNC routers can accurately cut multiple parts and can cut decorative carving. The new smaller machines are also much more affordable than their industrial big brothers.

Cribbage is an old and popular card game, enjoyed by both young and old. And recently, it has had a bit of a popularity rise on college campuses. All this adds up to the fact that cribbage boards make great gifts.

In this Rockler demo you'll learn how to make this fun football-shaped serving tray. With two chip compartments and a central dip recess, this is a classic snack tray. We made it from 1-3/4" thick mahogany, but any species would be fine. We also glued two 3/4" by 1-1/4" maple strips into grooves we cut in the blank, which end up looking like the white stripes on either end of a real football.If you have a CNC router, the CNC .tap and .crv filesto make this project are available as free downloads here. If you wish to make the tray the old-fashioned way, we have a PDF pattern to download that you can use to make a flush routing pattern for your handheld router.

A handheld or table-mounted router is only as useful as the bits that are chucked into it.

If the area inside the base of your router table is empty, you’re missing an opportunity for better storage. After all, there are accessories that go along with table routing — bits, wrenches, bit insert rings and featherboards, to name a few. You might also have a box joint jig, other boxed sets of specialized bits or guide collars, push pads and various odds and ends that could really use a drawer.!

/>Making signs is a fun project home or even as a business. It’s also a great gift idea. And there are a ton of applications such as address signs for homes, cabins, or businesses, signs for your workshop, for kid's rooms, or to label public spaces. The Rockler Signmaker's Template Kits are easy. The thing that makes using these templates so easy, is our Signmaking Wizard. You simply type in up to 20 characters of text and the wizard gives you the combination of templates you need to make your sign. And you can make more than just signs, we recently made these clocks with the 2-1/2" State Park Kit.

This clock project is fast and easy to make. It's a perfect gift project because once you’re set up, you can make multiple clocks very efficiently. We used the Rockler Compact Router Ellipse and Circle Jig to cut the circle shape and the Rockler Signmaker's Template Kit in the 2-1/2" State Park Font to form the numbers.Making a clock is a fun project that doesn't necessarily require a lot of tools. You can make the clock face out of just about any piece of lumber. All it needs is a hole for the clock mechanism to fit through. You can also be as creative as you like with the clock face. Keep it simple and clean with a clear finish and no numbers. Or, enhance it with applied numbers or techniques such as carving, painting or woodburning.

Are you considering getting started in the world of CNC projects? In this demo, we'll show you how the new affordable Shark SD100 from Next Wave Automation works. And, we'll make a nifty Mid Century Modern clock in the mix.

In this Rockler demonstration, we take a closer look at the versatile Convertible Router Table and how it can also be used as a benchtop spindle sander .

In this Rockler Saturday Demo Video we take a closer look at the popular Rockler Compact Router Ellipse and Circle Jig .

Whether you use a router made long before you were born or one of the technologically advanced models built today, either machine can perform a range of essential woodworking tasks that can’t be bested by any other power tool. If you’re a woodworking novice, a router should rank near the top of your “short list” of tools to buy first, even ahead of a table saw — routers are that useful.A router can help you turn sharp edges into decorative profiles of all sorts. It will machine dadoes and grooves, rabbets, dovetails, mortises, tenons, box joints and more. Need to duplicate a bunch of parts? That’s no problem for a router and a template. It can even surface plane, joint edges flat, carve lettering, cut circles and bore holes. The “can-do” list goes on and on.