Cutting out small pieces using a router (or something)

[Croolis]

Hello, newbie question. I don't even own a router at this time, but I'm thinking about something:

Using a handheld router to cut out small pieces from a board. Say 80mm long, 50mm wide, 18mm thick board. Something like that.

Starting from the outside edge of the board is fine, but want to cut lots of these pieces from a single board.

The reason for a router is wanting to roundover the edges of the cutout. On both sides so it's symmetrical.

So small, fiddly and trying to do something which I guess is difficult. Particularly the symmetry.

Is this only in the realm of a CNC, or can it be done by hand?

Or am I thinking along the wrong lines entirely, and it should actually be done by cutting the pieces out with a saw and then using a router table with a, umm "double" roundover bit (sry dunno what they're called) to do the edges?

Pretty small pieces, is all, and to ignorant me that seems dangerous. Some kind of jig/carrier thing to take it to the router table bit?

I'm not planning on doing this with my very first foray with a router , don't worry, but it's something I'm thinking about and I may as well be heading that way with equipment purchases as I get started if I'm going to do it.

Thx for help .

 

[Sideways]

Think about method.
If you ripped your 18mm board into strips, then used a router table with a roundover bit to round the long edges.
Then a sliding mitre saw or chop saw to turn the sticks into fish fingers, and finally two passes each end again on the router table using a jig or mitre gauge to keep square so you round all the short edges.
Time consuming ish, but not too bad as a one off project.

Alternative is maybe to do it on a cnc router - easier, maybe a better finish, but you pay out rather than spend on tools that you then own, and the # pieces per board won't be any better than you can do my way.

I suspect I'd pay someone to CNC it by the way

 

[ChaiLatte]

As you have realised, the second most important word you need to learn after 'router' is 'jig'.

A close third is knowing when to move the router over the work and when to move the work over the router.

I know these sound frivolous, but with enough thought and ingenuity, you can cut almost anything with a router. Like a pig, where the only part you cannot eat is the oink.

For your double-roundover pieces, you can give the router an easier time by double-chamfering the edge when you cut them (leaving a land for the bearing if that is what you are using). The closer your raw pieces end up to 80 x 50 x 18, with no variation between pieces, the easier the jigging will be, so as much thought needs to be given to stock preparation as to the actual routing.

As above, you can think of the best way to proceed to suit your equipment: make a load of pieces 1200 x 50 x 18, round the long edges and then do the Captain Birdseye manouvre suggested on them. You could also make pieces 1200 x 80 x 18 and fillet them the other way.