Hand or template tha tis the question

[Anonymous]

Hi all

Finally got in the garage after 3 weeks of working (for my employer) all weekend.


fitted my new vice and played with some lovely hard Oak. After a couple of hours hacking away with chisels and hammer (hammer) I realised that my lovingly cut piece could have been cut with a router afterall - if I had made a 3D template/jig of some sort.

Much preferred cutting by hand but wondered how others tackle these things?

Make a jig/template and route it or reach for the hammer and chisl/saw/plane :?: :?:

Cheers

Tony

 

[Gill]

Hi Tony

I suppose it all depends what you're making. I often make house nameplates and it's impossible to cut shaped ones (especially ovals) freehand. So I ordered some blanks from a craft supplier which I use as templates. It makes the work much quicker and more accurate.

Incidentally, I realise you can buy oval-cutting jigs but they're so much more expensive than prefabricated blanks.

Some things need the human touch, though, even lettering. You might think that templates would suffice for letters but I often find that I need to distort them slightly in order to create the effect I want. For example, when a thin letter such as 'i' follows a block letter such as 'M', the 'i' is difficult to read and needs to be slightly enlarged. There's nothing quite like a fretsaw for that sort of detail.

Hope that helps.

Yours

Gill

 

[Alf]

Tony,

My personal preference is for using a saw/chisel etc if at all possible (surprise, surprise ) mainly 'cos I dislike the noise and mess the router makes. But if I wanted to make lots of the same thing then I might well consider using a template. For me it boils down to deciding which will be quicker, and by the time you've made the template, set up the router, hooked up the dust ex etc it usually seems to work out faster by hand.

Cheers, Alf

 

[Anonymous]

Tony,

My personal preference is for using a saw/chisel etc if at all possible (surprise, surprise ) mainly 'cos I dislike the noise and mess the router makes.
Cheers, Alf

Me too Alf, and boy do I need the practice with the hand tools :? Athugh I am definitely slower with the hand tools, I feel so much better after a session with them than with power tools

Cheers

Tony

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[Anonymous]

It's odd that Gill mentioned house numbers.... When I made one last year I decided to make a template first in a scrap piece of hardboard rather than try to freehand it with the router. That way if the jig (well, template) came out wrong I could make another without wrecking my nicely smoothed blank. Guide bush on the router once I was happy with the shape and it looks great up on the wall.

More useful to people making lots of something in some situations, but for me it was an interesting exercise and test of using the guide bush.