Hand routing sign shapes

[Signed Out]

Looking into cutting sign shapes in house for ACM, lusterboard, sintra and cedar mostly. We have access to a cnc plasma cutter, so I want to start cutting templates out of steel to use for a hand held router. I don't have mush experience with using a router so I have a few questions I'm hoping some light can be shed on.

What type/brand of router would be good to use for this?

What thickness steel should I cut the templates? I was thinking 1/4", but that might be a bit heavy.

What type of bits would work best for this? We want to be able to place the steel template on top of the substrate, clamp down, and rout.

Any advice, tips, or expierence doing this is greatly appreciated.

 

[Techman]

why so thick of steel?
USe sheet metal 040.

Any name brand router will do it. USe a bearing bit.

 

[Signed Out]

I don't know. I figured the bit would need some meat to guide it. But that is good to know.

 

[J Hill Designs]

yes you would need some meat for the bearing bit to ride along. any handheld router with any flush cut bit would work IMO. I think steel is overly expensive for this however, unless you are making 1 jig for 1000 or so blanks. when I need to, I jigsaw MDF and use that for a flush bit template

 

[signage]

[video=youtube;_clnigntn38]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_clnigntn38[/video]

 

[Salmoneye]

I would make a pattern and cut your blanks with a jig saw or bandsaw out of plywood or mdf.... look at your router guides that you are going to use and see how deep they are, let that determine what thickness of material to use.

 

[Hicalibersigns]

You will need a top bearing bit also known as a pattern bit. The advice to cut first with a saber saw is good for a number of reasons. Depending on what material you are routing you may find cutting the whole pattern out with a router bit to be slow going. Cutting close with the saber saw and just trimming with the router will be faster. Also consider the diameter of your router bit. If it is 1/2", then the smallest you will be able to cut into a corner is 1/2". Sharp corners will require trimming. As far as which router to get, you are correct in that you will need a beefy unit. I would buy one of the 3 - 3 1/2 hp units. I am partial to Bosch, but Porter Cable and Dewalt would be good too. Also, I can bet that you are not prepared for the amount of chips you are going to generate. Get a really good shop vac too. I don't know how big your patterns are going to be, but 1/4" steel is going to be heavy!

 

[Signed Out]

Thanks for the advice everyone. The reason I want to make templates out of steel is becasue I have free access to a cnc plasma cutter and some scrap steel from my fathers welding shop. I set the cnc plasma cutter up for them years ago and know all the ins and outs of that. So it will be cheap and easy for me to make the patterns out of steel. The tought of cutting templates by hand seems daunting to me. My plan is to make the templates as I need them and start a collection and eventually ending up with a nice set of "standard" sign shapes to offer.

As far as the thickness of the templates, is there any benifit to having a template that is 1/2" thick compared to 1/8" or thinner? I could make them with thin guage sheet metal, but I just picture an uneven cut from possibly tipping or tilting the router becasue of not having a taller surface for a guide. In that video that was posted they recommended 1/2" mdf for templates. I could also cut the templates on thin sheet metal with the plasma, and then use that template to make a template out of 1/2" mdf... But I'm hoping 1/8" thick steel templates would do the trick.

 

[J Hill Designs]

I would go 3/16 minimum - there is always a gap between the bearing and the start of the cutting part of the bit - go look at one and see

 

[Pixels Are Bad Mmmkay?]

I'm a Porter Cable guy, personally, when it comes to routers. Good quality stuff.

 

[Pat Whatley]

Any good step router. Buy more horsepower than you need. (said by a guy who has used and abused the same $99 Ryobi router table combo for 10 years and thanks to gorilla glue it's still going strong).

The steel will work for your template but you're going to need to put a spacer between it and your finished piece. I've got a steel oval template that I do that with. I stuck the steel template on a piece of masonite, traced around it, then cut about 1" inside the line. I glued the two together. When I go to use it I just stick it on with the masonite spacer between the two pieces and it works like a charm.

 

[skyhigh]

yes you would need some meat for the bearing bit to ride along. any handheld router with any flush cut bit would work IMO. I think steel is overly expensive for this however, unless you are making 1 jig for 1000 or so blanks. when I need to, I jigsaw MDF and use that for a flush bit template

Techman why so thick of steel?
USe sheet metal 040.

I guess all professionals say something "really dumb" from time to time. That ranks right up there with the "mill finish" aluminum thread a while ago.

 

[CanuckSigns]

We use 0.25" thick MDF, I wouldn't recommend anything much thinner as there is a space between the bearing and the cutting edge of the bit, we've used 0.125" thick material in the past and it messed up 75% of the time.