Crate Handles

[Mark18PLL]

Afternoon all,

I want to make a jig so i can use my router to make crate handles. I have seen it done with a forstner bit and then cut out with a jigsaw, problem is i dont have a pillar drill or similar. I have had a google around but cant find anything. I could just rout out square openings but i would like it to be rounded at the edges, if thats makes sense.
Cheers
Mark

 

[GrahamIreland]

you'll need to create or mould your first template,

so ya a large diameter hole or foster bit in four corners, then slice the rest out somehow.

then you have a template.

 

[recipio]

Mount the router on a piece of ply and use it like a pendulum to rout a kidney shaped opening. Flat bottomed surfacing 1/4" bits are available but seem to be confined to 25 or 40 mm diameters. Personally I prefer the 25 mm. Obviously take several passes at a time.

 

[Sideways]

You might be amazed at what you can achieve freehand. Draw it out accurately in 0.5mm pencil, allowing oversize so that you can use a nice big guide bush like a 20mm with a smaller (12mm say) cuter inside it. Rout it out by hand. Clear the bulk first to full depth, then just carefully work outwards until you are kissing the inside of your pencil line.
You only need one template so you can afford to take your time. You are making a curved shape. As long as it is smooth, comfortable and looks right, all of your copies will be too.
There's a trick where you hold one of the two plunge handles of your router more or less stationary as a pivot and pull or push on the other handle to swing the router in an arc. Rest the heel of the "pivot" hand on the work, or your wrist, whatever. This is surprisingly effective at inside and outside curves and you can vary the radius by the way you hold the "fixed" side. The radius doesn't have to be exact, you sort of make a bunch of tangential cuts that gradually work up to your mark.
Turn the work, move yourself around the work, reposition to keep the best control as you work your way around the shape.
Do try it. It's absolutely achievable to rout freehand and deliberately "take the line" or "leave the line" with a 0.5mm pencil line.

 

[Seaside Donkey]

Similar to what @recipio says. I cut a strip of ply, attached one end to a router, measured out the radius of the finger pull on the ply and drilled a hole. Clamped another piece of ply to be used as a template then positioned the router over it and put a nail through the radius hole to act as a pivot. Routed a curve in the template then shortened the radius to rout a parallel cut to the first cut.

Unclamped the template and joined the router cuts at the ends using a Forstner bit in a hand held drill. It's not perfect but it'll do.

Remember to leave your template long enough so that your router doesn't foul the clamps when you use it DAMHIKT

I use it with a guide bush then put a roundover on to make the carry more comfortable. Like so.