Flush Trimming Solid Wood Edging

[jteneyck]

I'm making a couple of cabinets that have solid wood on the front edges of the Baltic birch box parts. Actually, that's not quite true. Ken Vick and I are making them together. He's making the doors and drawer fronts and I'm making the boxes and drawers. Back to the task at hand, I needed to trim the solid wood edges flush with the plywood. There are lots of ways to do it, but a really easy way is with a router using a jig I saw in Woodsmith several years ago. I first saw it in issue #94, page 30 and later in the Router Workshop book, which they sent out for free several years ago. It's pretty simple to build and does a great job.

Here's the edging I needed to trim. It's about 9/16" thick and projects a little over 1/32" above each side of the 3/4" plywood substrate.



Here's the Woodsmith jig mounted to my PC-690 router with a 1/2" piloted flush trim bit installed. The base that the router is attached to is much heavier in my version than what Woodsmith used. I built their design as they show it, but found the 1/4" Masonite they used for the base allows too much flex for my liking, so I changed it to a piece of 1/2" plywood and countersunk the mounting holes needed to mount the router so the screws would reach. No flex issues now.





I adjusted the jig when I first built it so that the trimmed edge would still be a few thousandths proud of the substrate. I bring it flush after trimming with a hand plane and sand paper. I've never had to change anything since I built it. Just install a bit in the router, mount the base to the jig, and go.

Here's how it looks part way through a trim cut. (It's clamped onto the plywood just so I could take a photo.)



After trimming it looked like this.



If you need to trim solid wood edging very often you might want to consider building this jig. It's easy to build, simple and safe to use, and does a great job.

John

[cputnam]

Nice jig John! I use one from Pat Warner that also does a good job. I have a PC trim router dedicated to it and, like you, have it set about 1 paper's width high. Also great for trimming box joints ar dovetails.

[jteneyck]

Boxes joints and dovetails? I was worried about tearout. I take it it's not a problem for you. Are you using a typical straight piloted bit or a spiral one?

John

[YSU65]

I do it the other way. I put on an auxiliary base that hits about 1/2 way through the mortise bit. This allows me to use the flat top as a reference surface, very stable. Then I get two pieces of blue tape on a flat surface, like the table saw, and use that to set the depth. The bit should just clear the surface without any contact. I have done this with walnut edging on walnut ply, no issues. I have to flush everything up with a card scraper but it get great results. I may try and shape the auxiliary bit a bit for the next project because it does not do the corners very well.

[cputnam]

Don't what I've got but it is not piloted. It's appx.. 3/4" wide and looks like a standard flat bottom bit to me. Pat's jig holds everything up in the air and the bit trims away. as you move the jig around. Picture a shallow raised platform at the end of the acrylic. Router is mounted on raised portion and is held in that cantilevered position by a large knob firmly held by the off hand. It's a basic offset router base with the router's portion raised up 1/4" or so. Works a treat.

[MichaelMouse]

Looks good, and seems to do a nice job. Other possibilities include http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/page.as...&cat=1,230,41182

[rwe2156]

My question is why a jig for a couple cabinets?

A scraper and a few strokes and you're done. Its quite satisfying and no dust, no mask, no noise.

But nice job on the jig I hope it gets good use.

[jteneyck]

As I said, there are lots of ways to trim edging. I was just showing one approach, and one I like because it works well and was free for the hour it took to build it. But whatever works for you is good, too.

Why use a jig at all? Because even two cabinets had 14 pieces that needed to be trimmed on both sides.

John

[John Mihich]

They made an updated version in the past couple of years. I bought a trim router just for it but just haven't made it yet. The new one has the router upright. I made one similar but without the stop - mistake. I will go the route of doing it exactly as drawn. To me this is an important step. Very easy to cut through the veneer. I have done all sorts of ways to do this; planes, scrapers, sanding. They all work but I think the router will be faster. Of course speed isn't always the way to go in ww'ing. The new one you can adjust the height of the bit so you can leave a portion of the edge and then finish off with a scraper. I think the plans are free on this site.

[YSU65]

rwe2156 said:

---

My question is why a jig for a couple cabinets?

A scraper and a few strokes and you're done. Its quite satisfying and no dust, no mask, no noise.

But nice job on the jig I hope it gets good use.

---

I had to build two 35" x 60" tables. Lots of linear feet to scrape. I have used scrapers exclusively in the past but this was wore work scraping than I wanted to do. I did have to finish up with scrapers

Also, I was working with walnut ply and walnut edging. I used hide glue because it would take stain than TB-I. Worked out fine....Tom