Bought a Router

[Nick]

Ear protection!

Face/nose protection (filter) too - essential. Eye protection should be goggles that wrap round, not just glasses...

Many materials, especially MDF and many many woods etc., give off toxic (sometimes SERIOUSLY toxic/carcinogenic) dust when machined - routers are the top guilty party here as they typically generate large quantities of very fine dust which flies everywhere. Please note that this is not an imaginary or "safety-gone-mad" risk - its very real...

Look at http://www.wood-database.com/wood-articl...-toxicity/

Get a decent mouth & nose mask with replaceable filters. Never use a router (or any other significant dust-generator) without one... If you can, connect the dust-extractor nozzle of your router to a hoover or similar - this is really really helpful in controlling, but not eliminating, the risk.

The other (obvious) thing is that routers make a real mess of human flesh and bone, in an instant. Be careful when starting it as the torque with even a small hand-held router can be surprising. Either the work-piece or the router MUST be very firmly clamped. Never try to take too much off at once - if the bit "catches" it can get messy very quickly... Be very very careful... if your stomach can stand it, search Google Images for "router accidents" or read http://www.routerforums.com/shop-safety/...pened.html (and that was using a table, but no guard).

Brilliant tool, though !

[Mark Hennessy]

Good point. Doing it outside helps to an extent, but a good face mask is really useful. Note - the white paper things don't really help, so if possible get one of the rubbery things with the round filter cartridges.

[Yorkie]

Wise advice Nick.

As to air filters, those daft paper jobbies that look like a bra cup have only one puprose in life - to con our wives into beleiving that we're taking sensible precautions when we're not. They're not even P1 rated - the lowest filtering standards and are described as 'comfort masks'. European standard EN 143 defines the following classes of particle filters that can be attached to a face mask:

P1 Filters at least 80% of airborne particles
P2 Filters at least 94% of airborne particles
P3 Filters at least 99.95% of airborne particles

I'm reminded of what was said to me about motorbike crash helmets many years ago - 'if you're got a ten quid head, buy a ten quid helmet'. A typical P2 mask which gives protection against fine dust and fibres, including MDF, costs less than £20. Hardly a big outlay. As to toxic timbers, most woodturners would put yew, laburnum and iroko at the top of their list. All of them turn well and take a nice finish but the dust from them is the very devil, and if anyone tries to sand these timbers without face protection they soon feel the effects. As well as a mask, I have a powered microfilter suspended from the ceiling of my workshop which comes on each evening for a couple of hours to keep the dust down, and a woodturning drum type dust extractor which is in use when I'm sanding.

I've always worn ear defenders for as long as I can remember when using any power tools and even when mowing the lawn.

I think Rob's first task will be to find some decent 'birch through and through' plywood to make his radio cradle as you can't 'make a silk purse out of a sow's ear'. The plywood sold by large DIY stores is mostly construction grade ply for flooring and shuttering - good enough for such tasks but useless for such things as furniture, jigs, etc. The wood used is course grained, often has thick plies in the core, sandwiched between two thinner surface plies. It has many volds and defects, and poorly patched holes on the surface, which is usually a red wood rather than birch, and wouldn't cope well with being routed. 'Birch through and through' is what it says - thin layers of tight grained birch - the sort of stuff we always used to think of as 'plywood'.

I've attached two pics of construction grade ply (ex B&Q) showing the end grain, voids, and surface defects, and in contrast, a pic of 'birch through and through' ply. The thinner closer grained even plies of the birch plywood should be evident.

Hope that's of interest.

[Nick]

Not that I'm paranoid about routers & workshop safety, but I've seen two extraordinarily messy and unpleasant accidents in my time, and one of them was with a router...

We've covered dust, and clamping, but there are basics around tooling...

Please make sure you cut AWAY from yourself and with the edge of the tool biting first, i.e as the tool rotates clockwise (looking from the tool's shank or motor end), if you are cutting the left edge of the work-piece you'd be pushing the router away from you - this is also the reason you should cut circles etc. anti-clockwise when using a hand-held router. (The rules change when using a table because the router is upside-down and may have a fence, but that's not appropriate here)

Always use TWO hands to hold the router FIRMLY - be warned if holding the work-piece in a workmate or similar - if the cutter grabs, it'll happily chuck the workmate around or try to rip the router out of your hands. Either clamp to a bench or if using a workmate, use two hands firmly on the router and kneel on the workmate to anchor it. This is OK-ish for 1/4" routers, but 1/2" are beasts and should be treated with utmost respect.

Keep the power cord well out of the way - I generally keep it behind me and run it over my shoulder so it doesn't snag on anything - you don't need distractions...

Whatever happens, remember you have an unprotected razor-sharp tool spinning at up to 20,000 or so RPM with no "dead-man's-handle" - i.e.. generally, if you let go, it doesn't stop - be careful... Good routers have a "soft-start" that reduces the turn-on-torque but after switch-off they are still dangerous for a good few seconds as they spin-down. Also, after a cut, the bit may be VERY hot for several minutes - always be careful.

Never, ever, try to use a 1/2" router and/or big bits hand-held (unless you really know what you are doing) - that's when you need to get a proper table (or to make one).

Practice with some scrap wood first, gently... if cutting thin stock, use a sacrificial bit of scrap under it to provide support and to limit tear-out.

Apologies if this is all unwelcome ramblings or "teaching Grandma to suck eggs" - I just hate to see people get hurt!

[Skywave]

A lot of good advice in that last post, Nick: thanks.

Al.

[singlepentode69]

I would not be with a router now such a versatile bit of kit .I remember my grandfather who was a carpenter with his many types of moulding planes all the jobs they could do has now been replaced by e handful of bits. I would strongly recommend making a table for one too .
Robin