Has anyone made the PantoRouter ?

[samurai]

neat work!! i have also made pantorouter though its made from steel.

 

[mpooley]

Made from steel ... nice
pictures please

 

[samurai]

Made from steel ... nice
pictures please

 

[mpooley]

wow it looks good. does it work well?
how hard do you find setting up a template for a job?

 

[samurai]

wow it looks good. does it work well?
how hard do you find setting up a template for a job?

actually i made this pantorouter using welding and drilling jig made by japanese cnc milling machine so everything was so precise and allign that there was no problem setting template.i use template method from leigh fmt jig.i use bushing for bearing guide.you can check this machine fuction on youtube, search pantorouter made from steel
or check on woodgears facebook page.if you have any question please ask me.i would be more than happy

 

[marcy marc]

No i hav'nt in fact this is the first time ive seen one and looks intriguing , and very impressive .
I shall look forward to reading and seeing more .

 

[Benchwayze]

Wealden tools make special Router drill-bits.

If you have some way of using the router overhead, then this might be a more accurate alternative.
Problem is, once you've used a router overhead, (the way it was designed to be used) it kinda spoils you for anything else. :mrgreen:

The old 'stand-up and beg', round bodied routers that Bosch used to make will come away from their plunge mechanism, and the 43mm collar means they will fit into a drill-stand such as the Record. (Trend still make a router of the same design. I have used mine in the drill-stand in the past without any wandering problems. Using proper router-drill bits, you get accurate and clean holes. Superb for morticing too.

http://www.wealdentool.com/cgi-bin/sh00 ... 04#aDA1004

HTH

 

[siggy_7]

I'd love to build one of these one day; I have so much other stuff to do first - like building a router table around my table saw, and building a work bench. I've also hankered after the Woodgears' slot morticer, but I had a brainwave last night. Functionally the Pantorouter can do everything the slot morticer can; what the morticer adds is a precise height control via the winder. So my plan is to build the Pantorouter but to add in a height adjustment mechanism similar to the slot morticer onto the template mount. That way, I can fit a template with a horizontal slot to match the guide bearing and adjustable width stops, which would give the same capability as the slot morticer, and then just use a different template for cutting any other joint. I think from the specs that I might wish to enlarge the size of the pantograph from the Woodgears design so that I have more movement. I'd also like a bigger table and a removeable centre insert in the table so that I can lock the router in place and use it like a more conventional horizontal router table with the bit well supported, for example to use with horizontal panel raisers.

If I do get round to building this, I would be tempted to change the design over so that it uses a plunge base router, setting the cut depth via the plunge mechanism (thinking of using the Triton at the moment as that's what I have and it seems a great tool) and then build the cut-depth axis movement into the table rather than the router, which would allow a large cut to be taken in stages when in use. I guess the main reason that the Woodgears design doesn't do this is the desire to use a fixed base router as that is more common in North America and cheaper - what are other's opinions on the advantages/disadvantages of changing to this configuration?

 

[samurai]

if you will tempted design to plunge router then it's mean you have to use much longer and wider as well otherwise you will get too much error in mechanism. you have to make much higher table base but this way you don't need slide table i guess which i would say is good idea. i like your idea of removeble table insert which i gonna put in my new hybrid pantorouter.why i m saying hybrid coz i will use plywood and maple for table and base but steel for pantograph mechanism to give it more strength.i could find THK slide pack from nearest used machine shop cost me 1500 yen for 5 slide.these slides are dust proof so i don't need to worry about getting it stuck with wood chips.soon i will share my pix of pantorouter.
i also tempted the tamplate design of matthias.this way i don't need two template for tenon and mortise.one template can make tenon and mortise.please have a look of my youtube video of Demonstrating steel pantorouter making mortise and tenon joint(HD)
i made this pantorouter in india for my friend with very poor quality raw material

 

[samurai]

just finished my hybrid pantorouter.please have a look on http://youtu.be/7zUch0BYiak

 

[mpooley]

just finished my hybrid pantorouter.please have a look on http://youtu.be/7zUch0BYiak

Very nice job

I'm interested in the way you fit the templates. In my opinion this is the big weakness of the Panto router as designed. It looks wonderful but Mathias never shows it in a real life use. it is easy to get a tenon and a mortice that fit but getting them in the exact position you want is not so easy.
I have developed a way of adjusting the vertical and horizontal positioning of the template using spacers bars. Its still awkward but i get good results unless I do the math wrong and put the wrong spacer in. which i do a lot
I have not used it over the winter so I was going to put some more thought into a better system.
You say your template runs in a parallel guide. How does this work please? I'm assuming you mean that it always stays parallel with the table?.

I love your idea for the adjustable bearing so that you can have 1 template for both tenon and mortice! very good

Mike

 

[samurai]

well mpooley!! you are absoulutely right.major fall of pantorouter is template setting but i could decode this problem.well my template plate is parallel with table.so how i can make it parallel each time?it's very easy,just buy measure tape with glue on.cut it and paste both side of the template holder,so whenever you raise or down the template plate it will go parallel as you can see exact numerical number on the measure tape.well i will make another dedicated video how i setup template as my english is not good so difficult for me to explain in english.
well about exact measurement of template,first i made it from wood and found it was very cool idea to just change bearing location but there were some little bit error so i made it from steel which cost me 1200 japanese yen but it was worth paying for cnc millling machine.
well if you wanna make the same way what i did so exact measurement for 1/2 x2 inch tenon and mortise is outerdia 32mm x 109mm for tenon and 96.5mm for mortise.bearing size 19mm and router bit 1/2 inch,i will make more template and post here exact dimensions.
best regards
singh

just finished my hybrid pantorouter.please have a look on http://youtu.be/7zUch0BYiak

Very nice job

I'm interested in the way you fit the templates. In my opinion this is the big weakness of the Panto router as designed. It looks wonderful but Mathias never shows it in a real life use. it is easy to get a tenon and a mortice that fit but getting them in the exact position you want is not so easy.
I have developed a way of adjusting the vertical and horizontal positioning of the template using spacers bars. Its still awkward but i get good results unless I do the math wrong and put the wrong spacer in. which i do a lot
I have not used it over the winter so I was going to put some more thought into a better system.
You say your template runs in a parallel guide. How does this work please? I'm assuming you mean that it always stays parallel with the table?.

I love your idea for the adjustable bearing so that you can have 1 template for both tenon and mortice! very good

Mike

 

[Templatetom]

http://youtu.be/V9JV4qddMNA Routing Tenons

Congratulations on your achievement I too have been looking at producing tenons (Mortices are quite easy) and I have developed the Super Jig from material that was not so complicated to produce. Not only will I be able to rout the srtaight forward Tenons I can produce the tenons on a mitre I doubt if I would be going to the expense of producing the pantorouter Jig
Tom

 

[adzeman]

I am very interested in Matthias Wandel's projects and look forward to a new item every Monday I am not suprised this long thread only attracted a dozen contributers and only a couple having actualy made one, which was Mikes original question. Mike Pooley who must be congraulated in his persiverance.in competing a difficult project.

Matthias Wandle is unique, the type of bloke you need with you in a post apocolypst or shipwrecked on a desert island I give him three weeks to generating electricity and another three to watching footy on Sky

I am building up courage to send off for his router table lift

My question is "would there have been a greater responce if this thread had been posted in the General Forum?

 

[mpooley]

hard to answer that one! and not many people will reply cos no one is reading it lol
shame though
I'd prefer it if more people had made it. It would help to exchange ideas about improving it.

I did ask Matthias why he hadn't got any forums but he said it would be too much work!

BTY do send off for the plans they are very well done and certainly the best I have ever seen.

Mike

 

[RogerBoyle]

hard to answer that one! and not many people will reply cos no one is reading it lol
shame though
I'd prefer it if more people had made it. It would help to exchange ideas about improving it.

I did ask Matthias why he hadn't got any forums but he said it would be too much work!

BTY do send off for the plans they are very well done and certainly the best I have ever seen.

Mike

The answer is simple
Most don't want to build one as they do not believe that they are capable of the precision that it requires and/or they think it's outside their comfort zone.
But they do like to see WIP on things (nosey buggers LOL ) :mrgreen: hence the very high view count In excess of 4K

 

[JakeS]

The answer is simple
Most don't want to build one as they do not believe that they are capable of the precision that it requires and/or they think it's outside their comfort zone.

I'd be interested in building one just because it's really cool, but I don't know whether I can justify the time and expense it would take in terms of utility it would bring! It's a neat machine, sure, but I'd probably just use it for cutting M&T joints, and I can already do those with a router on a workmate without building a giant frame and pantograph mechanism.

So to me, it's like - I don't know, having a robot arm to fetch me beer. It may be a high-precision beer-fetching device, but it's probably marginally less safe than doing it myself and it would definitely cost a lot more. But I'd still be utterly fascinated to see someone build one from scratch!

 

[adzeman]

I have to have a router table and the self build ones give good value the question is what system for height adjustement? Mr wandles is neat as well as sophisticated. Steve Ramsey made a router table but shied at the Wandle one and built one on a screw thread. Not bad, works but does not have that finess. I have looked at others, sliding wedges. car jacks but I cant get the Mathias Wandle one out of my head. A peice of kit I would like is the Bandsaw I have one which cost me very little (£50.00) from B & Q It was in a sale at a knock down price, I had some vouchers and bought it on a Wednesday and got my OAP discount. I bought new blades and it does for what I use it for. Does take a bit of time to tune but I would like a more profesional saw. The Woodgear No 3 home made bandsaw also really impresses me and I was impressed with his article comparing his machine with his bought one. Just amazing!
I have a morticer which has more than paid for itself and I cut tenons on the DeWalt radial but they do not go plop!
The peice of kit I am saving up for is a thicknesser and the truth is a peice of kit must earn its corn and I think a thicknesser would save me money I cant see me saying to someone, I have made your gate and saying these are good mortises and do you know, when you pull it apart they go plop.

I have bought a Makita palm router. I have bought micro vernier calipers and a dial test indicator h dear.

 

[JakeS]

The Woodgear No 3 home made bandsaw also really impresses me and I was impressed with his article comparing his machine with his bought one. Just amazing!

I'd have to say, if I were ever to build any of the Woodgears plans, the Bandsaw or the router lift are probably the ones I'd go for! Both things that would probably end up cheaper (and more satisfying, naturally!) to build than to just purchase or make do with an equivalent.

 

[samurai]

i just upload a new video of my hybrid pantorouter showing the best and easiest way to setup template for mortise and tenon.this way you can't go wrong.it's simple,easy,fastest and more important accuate.hope you guys would like my video please have a look.http://youtu.be/M7h-NKv7uas