10 Expert Tips for How to Use a Wood Router

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Plane a Straight Edge

When you have a crooked board, the best tool for creating a straight, smooth edge is a “jointer.” When you want to shave down a door just a little — more than a sander can handle, but not enough for a saw — a handheld power planer is best.

If you don’t have these tools, try the second-best solution: a wood router with a “pattern” bit (i.e. a straight bit guided by a bearing). Just clamp or screw a straight guide to the workpiece. The wood router’s bearing rolls along the guide, and the bit cuts a straight, smooth edge.

Use plywood, medium density fiberboard (MDF) or a perfectly straight board as your guide. Inspect the edge of the guide before you rout. Any bump or crater in the guide will transfer to the workpiece.

If you’re shaving off more than 1/8-in. of wood, make multiple passes no more than 1/4-in. deep. Choose a pattern bit that’s at least 1/2-in. in diameter. The larger the diameter, the less risk of chipped, splintered cuts. “Top bearing” bits are more versatile than versions with a bearing below the cutter.

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Flatten a Bowed Surface

Whether it’s a cupped board or a panel misaligned during glue-up, the best way to flatten wood is to run it through a planer.

But even if you have a planer, you’ve probably encountered situations where it’s not wide enough to handle the job. Here’s how you can use your router with a straight bit to plane wide material:

Mount an oversized base plate on your router and screw the base plate to a pair of stiff, straight “stretchers.” Make your stretchers at least twice as long as the width of the workpiece, plus eight inches.

Make a pair of rails at least eight inches longer than the workpiece. The height of your rails depends on the length of your router bit. Plane the “crowned” side of the workpiece first. To do this, slide the stretchers back and forth across the rails.

This is a slow process. You may have to make several passes, lowering the bit about 1/8-in. after each pass. When the crowned side is flat, flip the workpiece over and flatten the “dished” side. Routers leave a rough surface, so both sides will need sanding.

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Smooth Cuts on Complex Shapes

Cutting shapes with a pattern bit has two advantages over cutting with a jigsaw, band saw or scroll saw. Because you perfect the pattern first, you won’t make mistakes when you cut the workpiece. And when you’re making several identical parts, a pattern saves time, since you do the fussy shaping work only once.

To make the bracket pattern shown here, we cut 1/2-in. MDF with a jigsaw and perfected the shape with a belt sander. We traced the pattern onto boards and rough-cut each bracket, leaving about 1/8-in. excess to be removed by the wood router.

We made the pattern and each rough bracket about an inch too long so we could drive screws through them rather than use clamps, which often get in the way of the router.

We cut off the screw holes when we cut the brackets to their final length. As with straight-guide cuts, you may have to make several shallow passes, then a final pass after you remove the pattern.

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