This machine is my Pantorouter. It's for
cutting tenons and other types of joints
using a router. A frequently asked
question about this machine is
"where do I get my router?" And, it's very simple.
You need one of these routers with an interchangeable base.
Pretty much any of that style will do.
The problem is, outside of North America
this style of router is hard to get
and expensive if you can get them.
And, what's more commonly available
is a router more like this one.
With a built-in plunge base.
And the problem with this style of router is
with the built-in handles and all it's just far too bulky
to try to fit it into the Pantograph mechanism.
So, I've come up with the larger design.
And I made a one to one print-out.
And this one should be big enough
to hold a plunge router in.
Mostly I made the Pantograph larger but
that also required a taller table.
And a taller template holder. And, while I was
at it, I made a few other minor design changes.
And I used my big print program to
make a big one to one print-out of
a whole lot of the parts in the machine.
I'm gonna start by making a
Pantograph mechanism for the router.
And some of those parts I have as one to one here.
And some of the other parts are mostly rectangular
so, I'm just gonna work from the drawings for those.
The links are gonna pivot on some fuel rod like this.
And I need to make sure I get the position
for the hose exactly right.
It's really important to get a fairly
tight fit with the steel rods.
So, I drilled some test holes. And this one
has actually got a little bit of
play on it. It slides too easily.
And I drilled that one with a 3/16ths inch brad point bit.
But, I do want to drill them with a brad
point bit initially because these drill
more precisely. They don't follow the grain so much.
So, what I've come up with is to use a slightly smaller bit
This is 1/64th down Drill a pilot hole and then use a
3/16th inch regular non-brad point
bit to kind of rim that out
to the final size. And that makes for a fit
that is quite tight.
I just cut the pieces of the
plywood for the Pantograph links.
So, now I can start gluing those together.
I'm gonna start by clamping this on the back dry.
Just to help me align everything else.
Now, this should come out flush right here.
Now, I'm gonna take the back rail off again.
And I'm using the same procedure to glue the short link as well.
While I'm waiting for the glue to dry.
I'm gonna make these front two layers for the Pantograph.
I have the cut-out in this part dimensioned here but you're
better off actually making sure that
this matches the base of your router.
And that will make it much easier
to position your router precisely.
And now that the glue has dried on this link.
So, now I can glue this part on here.
And what's really important is that these two are
exactly the same distance from the end.
My design originally had the operating lever as one piece.
But I've just changed my mind. I think it's better to
build it up the same way that I've built up
these links out of two pieces of hardwood and some plywood.
So, I've already started making this one and
just like I made these ones
I glued these parts on there and now I just have to make sure
this lines up precisely as I glue it.
The holes I drilled with a regular 3/16th inch drill bit
are a little bit too tight
to easily insert the shaft into.
So, I made a reamer out of another piece of shaft
by cutting a slot along here with a hacksaw.
And with that...
After we clear out the holes a little bit.
So that this goes in there without a any play
but it still slides.
We can now start to put the Pantograph mechanism together.
So, depending on what type of router
it may fit in here perfectly well with handles.
Or, for this one for example.
There is a bit of a problem
in that the handles are just a bit too large.
And let's see. That router goes in here.
But as I tilt
the handles start to hit the...
this part here. And even if I
flip this around and put it in the other way around.
I still start hitting the handle here.
So, I could either try to cut away some of the handles
or cut away part of the legs here.
So, I could have made the Pantograph bigger
to fit any router.
But it's pretty large as it is.
Playing around with this some more I'm realizing
that this is actually right now tilted at 45 degrees.
But I really only need to go to...
60 degrees to get the right range of motion.
And just checking that angle here.
That's tilted just a bit more than 60 degrees.
And at that angle
If I put this router in here I actually
still have room for the handles.
So, it's not as bad as I thought it would be.
Here I'm cutting out the base for the Pantograph.
And that has two corners cut out of it,
which I'm cutting on the table saw
and then finishing the cuts on the band saw.
The blocks that the Pantograph pivots on
needs to have holes in it that are exactly
perpendicular. And I figure by
rotating every increment of drilling.
That should compensate for errors in the drill press.
Despite all precautions, when I drilled the hole in this thing
and I put it on here.
I noticed that this was at a slight angle.
You notice there's a gap here. And then here.
And if I flip it around
the gap is here and not here. So the
hole is crooked in this part here.
So, I drilled another hole and this one was also crooked.
And I drilled another one. And it was also crooked.
And then finally I drilled this one. And...
this one is nice and perpendicular
like it's supposed to be.
I have to be very careful that the center line of the holes
lines up with the center of this thing and all three
blocks will be aligned here.
And now to get the screw hole locations.
I just put the screws in here.
And whack 'em.
Pantograph is going to go in between these two.
But there's gonna be a cam on either side of these.
For help supporting it So, that tells
me the front block needs to go
this far forward.
Until I make the cams for here I'm
just gonna use some scraps of wood
to keep that Pantograph from sliding back and forth.
For this Pantorouter, for now I'm gonna use this router
which has a broker on/off switch.
And since I have to switch it externally anyway.
And for mounting that
the way I figured is to mount that to a
piece of plywood that goes on here. So, it's
mounted the way people typically mount them.
I lose a little bit of depth of cut that way. I want the
chuck to be forward as far as possible.
So, I've got some shafts here that fit into the router base.
And I'm gonna mount it to those.
And that way I can bring that base forward as far as I can.
It's really important that the router
bit ends up exactly in the middle
between those two holes. So, to make
sure the alignment in this direction
is exact I drew a center mark
basically like here and here.
And that just needs to go on this center line.
And let's make sure this is also square.
So, if you go...
right here.
So far I've only got the router coupled to the front panel.
And with these holes and thin shafts
that doesn't give enough support.
It's going like this. So, I need to somehow couple that
to the part on the back.
And for that I made these things here and
that'll just screw to the front and back.
And then this part goes on here.
And that will give me plenty of rigidity.
Now it turns out that cut-out for
these handles was unnecessary
because these just unscrew.
But if you have a router where the
handles don't come off and you want to
be able to take it out you just have to
make this cut-out more like so.
The router comes out this way and
that would still be fairly rigid.
It turns out I put these things too close to the edge.
And so my range of motion is restricted by hitting those.
But, the minimum reach from here to the router bit
needs to be 18 centimeters.
And, I can actually fold it in almost that far.
So, I just have to round the corners
a little bit and I'll be ok.
So, this Pantorouter is far from done.
I still need a stock holding table.
Template holder. And punch sled.
But, I've rigged it up to try it out.
Here's my temporary stock holding table.
The template holder, just some boxes.
And no plunge function so I just have to full depth in 1 go.
Well, seems to work.
Well, I think this video is going
to be long enough already so
I'll finish this machine in my next video.
Or two, or three, or whatever it takes until its done.