Router starting pin

[garethharvey]

I have lost my starting pin for a UJK Router Elevator. Have called Axminster but they don't stock them. Have had a good look on Google but can't find them anywhere.

Any suggestions where one can be bought?

 

[iNewbie]

Contact Brimarc

http://www.brimarc.com/news/Introducing ... ogy-53.htm

 

[sunnybob]

I've stopped using one. Just anchor the piece firmly to the table with your right hand, about where the pin would be, and then slowly swing the wood into the cutter with your left hand as normal.

If the piece is small enough for your fingers to be dangerously close, then use something like a Gripper to hold the piece firmly down on the table.

 

[williams1185]

why not find a machine screw or bolt the same thread and put washers and a nut on leave enough thread exposed to screw in

 

[Peter Sefton]

Contact Brimarc

http://www.brimarc.com/news/Introducing ... ogy-53.htm

I am afraid Brimarc are Axminster so no more help for you from there.

Cheers Peter

 

[CHJ]

What diameter and length of post required and what thread, not exactly a difficult task to knock you one up if I understand what it is you are after.

?

 

[n0legs]

Buy a shoulder bolt of the correct thread and cut the head off.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Socket-Should ... O9K8L6Yzmg

 

[CHJ]

+1 for that suggestion, easiest and cheapest solution if the spares box does not have enough washers to make up the other suggestion from williams1185.

 

[AES]

+1 for the CHJ suggestion, although I did use my lathe to knock up a "posh" one - cut the head off a suitable bolt, then turn a piece of thick-wall brass, then bore out to run smoothly on the bolt. Nice little chamfer on top and Robert's yer Das bruvver!

AES

 

[garethharvey]

Thanks, but doesn't the starting pin revolve, wouldn't a bolt leave a mark on the piece?

 

[sunnybob]

Nope, the starting pin should not revolve.
Its purely a rest that allows you to start wood without it jumping from the first impact of the cutter. As soon as youre cutting, the wood does not touch the pin again.

 

[AES]

Well sorry Gents, but we'll just have to disagree. And though my routing experience is undoubtedly less than yours, I do know what a starter pin is for, and how to use it. My starting pin DOES revolve, and it works just fine (for me at least, and doing the odd toy, I do have some quite small pieces).

And Yes, I guess the all-threaded shank of a bolt (that's called a machine screw actually, not a bolt) would mark the job, so mine is made from a "real" bolt where the threaded part just screws into the router table and the rest of the shank above the table is plain, not threaded. So it can be used without the brass "roller" without marking the job if the part is really small.

For smaller pieces I also picked up a tip somewhere on the net - stick the work piece to a bigger piece of Perspex with a bit of double-sided tape. The job then becomes MUCH easier and safer to handle 'cos the fingers don't come close to the revolving router bit.

AES

 

[sunnybob]

if you type in "router starter pin" to google, check how many fixed pins you can find as opposed to revolving.
I've never yet seen a revolving pin. What make is your set up?

 

[paulrockliffe]

A revolving pin would work perfectly well, though I can't see that there would be any benefit. A revolving pin may be the easiest to make though as you could then just use a bolt and a couple of matching bearings.

Drop a washer then a few bearings over a bolt, then a nut that's smaller than the bearings, screw the bolt into the table, then when the nut just touches, use the nut to lock the bolt in place. That'll give enough slack for the bearings to rotate freely without being pinched by the bolt. That's as easy as going on eBay and placing a few orders and waiting for them to be delivered.

I often don't use the starting pin as it limits your ability to rotate the pieces around the table if you're routing a profile around 4 edges of a piece. I think the risk is as much burning the work by not starting quickly enough, but that becomes easier to manage if you start the cut on an edge rather than trying to start at a corner.

 

[AES]

@sunnybob: You asked, QUOTE: What make is your set up? UNQUOTE:

QUOTE: (from my initial post on this thread): +1 for the CHJ suggestion, although I did use my lathe to knock up a "posh" one - UNQUOTE:

Both the table (and the pin) are home made, and the router is a very cheapo DIY Emporium 1200 Watt 12.5 mm thingy (called "Matrix" if I remember correctly).

When making the above pin I guess I didn't "know any better" (I still don't to be honest, sorry!) and it just seemed like a good idea at the time. As said, it works fine for me, particularly when finish-shaping small toy pieces, and/or rounding edges over.

I tend to use a router bit with a guide bearing for small stuff (which is what I mostly do). I just run the work piece against the router bit with one end of the job against the (rotating) pin and the other (the part where the cutting's actually being done) against the (rotating) guide bearing.

As I say, it works fine for me, and most important to me, it feels as safe as I think a router table is likely to be, in that my pink meaty parts are as far away from the rotating cutter as it's possible to be (without standing on the other side of the shop that is)

I should think paul's idea (post above) would work fine too, but his is a little more complex than mine - as said, mine has no washers and no bearings. It's just a piece of brass rod bored out to be a nice "slippery fit" on the (plain) shank of the bolt, with the bolt screwed into a blind nut under the table. (BTW, after cutting the head off the bolt - it was a 6 or 8 mm coach bolt as I remember - I did saw a slot into the top so I can use a screw driver to tighten the bolt down into the table). And (purely for looks I thought), I did machine a small chamfer on the top of the brass rod.

As a last point, perhaps I should add that I sited, I think, 3 blind nuts under the router table at various points. That's so I can place the starter pin in whatever position best suits the size and shape of each individual work piece.

So sorry if I've been "doing it all wrong" folks, I didn't know any better, and as said, "wrong" or not, it works fine for me. And in my own mind anyway, it's pretty safe too - IMO, by no means a small consideration when dealing with router bits wizzing round at 20,000 rpm!

P.S.
Sorry about the "I thinks" and the "as I remembers" in the above. Presently my shop is being "re-built/re-arranged" after upgrading the wiring, etc, and the router table, router (and lot's of other stuff) are all packed away in boxes at the back of the garage for a while longer.

AES

 

[sunnybob]

Not so much "wrong" as "over complicated". If it works for you and you feel safe, then thats all there is to it. But you got so much advice about a single pin because thats what all (the very vast majority) of us use.
I've stopped using the pin now as I have done a lot of work freehand and can feed the wood straight to the cutter bearing without any chatter.
If the part is small or thin I now have the GRIPPER set. At full retail this is ridiculously over priced, but at the price I paid it was merely )%£*( expensive. I like this a lot.

 

[AES]

Well sunnybob, personally, I wouldn't call (in slang terms) "drilling an 'ole froo a big lumo o brass" exactly "over-complicated" (which is all my pin really is), so like the idea of a rotating pin (or not), I guess we'll have to agree to disagree again mate!

I'm not familiar with the GRIPPER set. Can you describe or pic it please?

As per my previous post I did find somewhere the idea of sticking the job onto a piece of Perspex (obviously, dimensioned large enough so that it's bigger all round than the job itself) and that works on really little bits very well for me so far.

And on one of the US Scroll Saw sites I did see the idea of using a bigger wooden version of the small parallel tool maker's clamps (I'm sure you're familiar with those) being used to hold small parts on a scroll saw. But I haven't tried that idea yet (on scroll saw or router).

AES

 

[Bm101]

Sometimes I shouldn't browse UKW as an amateur while my kids eat their tea and I get 5 minutes to myself. Its like self diagnosing serious medical problems on the internet.
I have a tickly cough. *googles Minor tickly cough, had it for 3 minutes.
OMG I'm either dying or I'm already dead. :shock:

Step 1: Read the thread, "Wait. What? WTF is a router Pin?!?"
Step 2: Have a horrible sinking feeling I'm doing something badly wrong with my router.
Step 3: Try really hard to remember why I can't remember seeing a router pin thingamybob anywhere on my router. I do this without knowing what a router pin is of course.
Step 4: Spend 10 minutes trying to think what bit it could be.
Step 5: Sod this for a game of soldiers. Google Router starting pin.
Step 6: Realise I don't have a router table. Therefore no starting pin.

Step 7: Phew! I think, I got away with that one. Look round to see if anyone noticed.

 

[Lons]

Sometimes I shouldn't browse UKW as an amateur while my kids eat their tea and I get 5 minutes to myself. Its like self diagnosing serious medical problems on the internet.
I have a tickly cough. *googles Minor tickly cough, had it for 3 minutes.
OMG I'm either dying or I'm already dead. :shock:

Step 1: Read the thread, "Wait. What? WTF is a router Pin?!?"
Step 2: Have a horrible sinking feeling I'm doing something badly wrong with my router.
Step 3: Try really hard to remember why I can't remember seeing a router pin thingamybob anywhere on my router. I do this without knowing what a router pin is of course.
Step 4: Spend 10 minutes trying to think what bit it could be.
Step 5: Sod this for a game of soldiers. Google Router starting pin.
Step 6: Realise I don't have a router table. Therefore no starting pin.

Step 7: Phew! I think, I got away with that one. Look round to see if anyone noticed.
:lol: :lol: :lol:

that's more like it. Some of these threads don't half go on a bit. Roller pin, fixed pin they both do the job.

:lol: :lol: :lol:

That's more like it. Some of these threads don't half go on a bit. Roller pin, fixed pin they both do the job.

 

[sunnybob]

http://www.woodpeck.com/gripper.html

Expensive birthday present to me from me.