- Today, we're looking at two methods
to quickly and accurately center your router base.
Now, before we look at how to center a router base,
let's quickly talk about, why centering is so important.
Centering a router base is important
because it ensures that the router bit is exactly center.
Which means that, no matter how you use your router,
each cut will be identical and repeatable.
For example, if the base was off center,
the distance from one side of the base to the bit
would be one measurement,
and the distance from the other side
of the base to the bit would be another.
Therefore, if you use one side of the base
to reference off the straight edge to make a cut,
and then you needed to reposition
and use the other side as a reference,
your cut will be off.
More importantly, router jigs, router bushings,
and inlay kits require that the bit be exactly center
in order for them to work properly.
Bottom line, the accuracy of your projects really depends
on the center of your router base being correct.
Now that you know a little bit more about why it's important
to center your router bit,
let's look at the first method.
The first method is to use a centering cone,
which looks like this.
It has a main shaft with a quarter inch
or six millimeter end
and a half inch or 12 millimeter end,
which can be used with both a quarter inch
and half inch collet sizes.
For example,
because I have a quarter inch collet in my router,
I'll simply insert the half inch shank into the cone
and then, install the quarter inside into my router,
from there, install the base,
making sure that the cone is well below the base
of the router to start.
Next, loosen the screws on the base plate
and then lower the base plate slowly into the cone.
What will happen is that,
the cone will force the base to find its center,
and you can verify this by looking for gaps
around the edge of the cone.
If you don't see any gaps between the edge of the cone
and the base, everything is good.
And as long as you have all the screws
loosened up on the base plate,
the cone will center itself quite easily.
From there,
tighten your screws and your base is now centered.
Now this does work well,
and for most basic routing operations,
the cone method works well.
However,
I personally don't feel a hundred percent confident
with this method,
especially when it comes to more intricate work like inlays.
That's why companies like Whiteside sell an inlay kit
that includes a centering pen to center your router
before you use the kit.
And you can see how precise this pin fits
into the router bushing,
making this an extremely accurate method for centering.
Let's take a closer look at how this method works.
The bushing I have here is made by Whiteside,
but it is a Porter Cable Style Bushing.
There are a lot of other bushing styles out there,
for example, like Festool and Bosch,
and you can easily tell the difference between a Porter
Cable Style and a Bosch or Festool style.
For those of you that don't know,
router bushings get installed into the router base plate,
and they act as a guide,
to guide the router through a jig
or alongside a straight edge.
In the beginning of this video,
I showed you an example of the router base acting
as the guy, but here the router bushing acts as the guide,
which slides along the edge of a jig or a straight edge.
Porter Cable Bushings like these can be used
on Porter Cable, DeWalt, or other router manufacturers.
However, Bosch and Festool only work with their own routers,
but they do provide adapters,
which we'll be using for today's example.
Now, because we already centered our fixed base,
let's center our plunge base,
so that we can use it to make an inlay.
In order to get the white side inlay kit
to work on our Bosch router.
We need to use the Bosch's adapter,
simply install and tighten up the ring
on the Porter Cable Style Bushing,
and then snap the whole unit into the Bosch router.
Again, if you have a Porter Cable or DeWalt router,
there's no need for an adapter,
the bushing will fit perfectly right into the base.
Now that the bushing is installed correctly
into the Bosch plunge base,
it's time to install the centering pin
and the quarter-inch collet,
with that done, install the plunge base
and loosen the base plate screws.
Now, carefully and slowly lower the base,
and align the centering pin so that it fits up through
the center of the bushing.
And as you can see,
because of the tight tolerances between the pin
and the bushing,
you can achieve a really good center using this method.
Now all you have to do is tighten the screws down
and you're ready to work.
What's nice about this system is it can be
used on all routers.
Unlike the cone method,
for example,
where you're gonna need one for the Bosch router
and then if you have a DeWalt compact,
you'll need another one for that.
I do wanna remind you that
if you're not using router bushings or an inlay kit,
you can most likely get away with just using the cone method
to center your router base.
However, if you'd like to be more precise like I am,
and you're planning on using bushings and guides,
and inlay kits,
then the second method is gonna be your best option.
Let's finish out today's video by looking
at what an inlay kit can do outside,
Of course, centering your router base.
Inlay kits are used for inlaying wood shapes
into other projects like installing bow ties.
For example, because we already centered our plunge base,
all we have to do now is install our inlay router bit
and install the bushing collar,
with the use of some double-sided tape
to hold the pattern down,
run the router along the pattern,
firmly holding the collar tight to the pattern.
And then, once the edges are done,
remove all the remaining material
in the middle of the pattern.
Then install the pattern on another type of material,
remove the collar
and carefully plunge the router down,
keeping it tight to the edge of the pattern at all times.
With a piece cut out on the tables saw,
sand the edges round and install the inlay.
Once the entire project is sanded down,
you can finish your project, however you'd like.
As you can see, inlay work is pretty amazing,
the sky is the limit.
But no matter what you find yourself doing,
router project wise,
the first thing you always need to do
is center your router base.
Well, I hope this video has been helpful.
If it has, please hit the like button,
drop me a comment below.
It does help our channel grow.
If you need specific help,
as always, you can reach out to me on Instagram,
send me a video or some pictures or a message.
Thank you so much for watching today's video.
I look forward to seeing you all in the next video.
(cheerful music)