Pantorouter build

[DennisCA]

I bought these plans in 2017, I printed a lot of it out in color in folded and stapled book form because I have access to a very good printer at work. I started on it in 2018 and I got the linear glides mostly done as well as the holders for the router body. Around that time I took on a project that wasn't completed until 2020, the renovation of my milling machine so it got put on hold.

Well I'm starting it back up now. Last time I cut the outside of the three templates and drilled the holes. I used double sided tape to tape them all together so I could drill and cut them all as one part, in order to make it easier to keep the parts accurate.

The big piece of plywood is the base. Not sure about using this film plywood but it's all I got. Still gonna have to buy more.

Moving on the long links, I am going to use my most accurate tool to lay out and dril the holes. My milling machine and DRO. I am going to make two links but I will do all the work on a single overly thick piece, then I'll rip the part on the table saw into two thinner pieces. That way I should get two identical parts. The accuracy of the links in the pantograph is the most critical part. I have an endmill that makes a little too tight of a fit for the 8mm shafting I am using, but this is good, that means I can ream to size using a reamer made from the shafting I will be using.

Long link assembled without glue:

Matthias updated his plans in 2018 and made refinements to the machine. I am working from the original plans, but I will include the updates he made since they are gneuine improvements, I also have ideas of my own modifications. This part above has been simplied in design in the newer machine but functionally it's the same, I made it according to the old design.

Gluing up parts, doing it in stages or the parts will move and it will be impossible to get straight.

When I glue up the last component of the links and router holder I put the shafting in to properly orient everything. I then rested the links on two pieces of wood that is the same height before clamping up. That way all the links would be planar to each other and I avoid twist. Unfortunately this part must have moved anyway and it had a lot of twist (0.2mm). I mounted it in the mill and corrected the hole, but now it is oval:

After that the twist was only a few hundreths which is good enough

But the hole cannot be left oval so I fill the gap with epoxy and let it dry in place. I waxed the shafts so the epoxy doesn't stick to them.

After that I made the handle and test fitted the pantograph mechanism

And that is how far I've gotten.

 

[DennisCA]

Bought an 18mm sheet of birch plywood and made the base (agzin) and plunge base. I also not to use the film faced plywood for the base that I had already, don't care for the look and how the router holder part of the pantograph turned out. I might try masking & painting it later to make it less noticeable, like white.

Installing the drawer slides.

Under the years I've had the project on pause I lost some of the ball cages for these drawer slides so it's not as stiff as it ought to be at certain places in the motion range. I've bought another set that should be identical so I can cannibalize it as well for more ball cages.

Started on the dust covers next.

 

[Doug B]

Interesting build @DennisCA I follow a couple of Instagramers who use pantorouters & find them fascinating, I look forward to seeing your finished machine.

 

[DennisCA]

Made some more parts for the main shaft. Some fettling to do yet and also washers and the like to be added to the pantograph mechanism.

 

[Yosarian]

How are you getting on? I'm in the process of building one and struggling a little with accuracy and stiffness of the pantograph, but I think I am getting there.

 

[DennisCA]

It's the usual, I get distracted and start doing something else (or am forced to because of circumstances). But yes the work has been progressing, but at a slower pace since I finished the assembly of the pantograph. I glued up most of the parts of the template holder today, tomorrow I hope to start on the table.

 

[DennisCA]

Here's an update. Template holder is basically done, started working on the table now.

Laminating some pieces for the cross member for the table right now. Reusing as much scrap as I can for this build.

 

[DennisCA]

I had to remake the template holder for the pantorouter. The old 12mm plywood I used was too skewed and caused the whole thing to bend so the template did not sit square to the pantograph follower. I rebult it using 18mm new plywood instead. Much beefier this way too. Moved it 6mm back to compensate for the added thickness of the thicker plywood.

Box jointed the table frame too using the screw advance box joint jig. Started varnishing some parts.

 

[DennisCA]

Spent this week varnishing most components and today I reassembled it and also made the plunge lever. Gotta say I really hate water based varnish.... Only good thing about it is when cleaning the brush.

I remade the dust covers too and went with the newer design.

 

[Yosarian]

Have you tried it out yet?

 

[DennisCA]

No it can't work yet, the bosch router means I will have to make my own start circuitry first, like this:

 

[DennisCA]

And here's my own attempt at the same, still need to make a new switch I can mount on the pantograph handle:

Also made this part;

 

[Yosarian]

Is there much flex in the pantograph mechanism? I.e. as you move the handle left and right without the sliding mechanism moving, does the router cutter move much?

 

[DennisCA]

There is some flex I have noticed at the handle, but not a lot. Not sure what it translates to at the router cutter. I am using thicker shafting than the originalbuild so it ought to be stiffer. I still have some washers to make things fit more tightly as well so they might remove the final amount of flex, but I think it's pretty good right now.

 

[DennisCA]

Installed the switch on the pantorouter, now I can start it without having to remove my hands from the controls, this is very slick.

Let's cover that up.

Need to make a cover for the router body switch too so it looks cleaner.

 

[DennisCA]

The pantorouter is now complete, finished the last parts which where the spring counter weights and the traveling stops.

Last night I made my first template took the first test cut. I got the math wrong, or I didn't use any math for the mortise slot rather, just used gut instict, didn't work well.

The text on the woodgears site and videos mention how to size tenons and followers, but did not mention how to set the length of the mortise slot when making the integrated tenon and mortise templates.

Tenon formula is, for both height and width:
Tenon = 2 * Tenon + (2 * Cutter - Follower)

I thought about it and got this formula, I inverted parts of the formula because the tenon is cut from the outside in, while the mortise is cut from the inside out.

Mortise = 2 * Mortise - ( 2 * Cutter + Follower)

In my case I made a 119mm tenon to suit the test stock I had (should've rounded to a more even 115mm), I have a 19mm router bit and the shaft is 6mm:

206mm = 119*2 - (19*2 + 6)

I believe I am right about this formula, this yields a mortise length on the template that makes it a little longer and my original mortise was a little too short. You get the same result if you take the tenon template length minus the follower size and add the shaft size. So that's an easy way to remember it.

So now I ought have the formula for making mortises as accurately as tenons. Gonna try making a new template later and show some results.

EDIT: Fixed a typo in the formula

 

[DennisCA]

Latest mortise and tenon template, made with the math above.

You know it's a good fit when it goes *plop* when you pull it apart.

 

[AES]

Excellent WIP posts and pix Dennis, thanks.

 

[DennisCA]

A little followup. I've been learning to use SolidWorks and I figured I coud use it to also create template geometry for the pantorouter. Using formulas and relations I can get a template scales perfectly when I change a dimension such as the width and length of the tenon, or the router bit size, or follower size.

I made a sketch for a double tenon template and then I made one for the template. Nice thing is everything is now related to each other so if I change the size of the follower, or the router bit, or size of the tenons or the spacing of the tenons, the template adjusts properly. I can just get the dimensions and write them down, or print a 2d template to cut out from.

I don't have CNC or a 3d printer but that would really be the last step in this, I'll just make mine by hand however.

Template scaled up:

 

[J-G]

If that's the way that SolidWorks does things, I'm pleased that I don't use it! Not only is it poorly dimensioned, it's also inaccurate !! How can the end radius be 18.95 when the width is 38? Most of the dimensions are superfluous and badly located making the drawing difficult to read and confusing.

Here's a drawing that tells you all you need to know - though again actually more than necessary (you don't really need either the 150 or the 38) - but more importantly the 112 is much more useful and that isn't given at all in the original.