Make a Router Copy Carver in 5 Minutes

The idea was to combine a table saw with a sled and a router with a rail .

What can you expect:

• You can make small inlays,
• carve letters
• copy different items

This instructable has two parts.

In the first part, it has only two steps, I show you how to setup the Router Copy Carver.

In the second part, I explain how to make a small inlay

you need

• a table saw with a sled on a rail
• a router with a rail
• a board
• 6 clamps
• 2 piece of scrap wood
• a little arm, that fits on your router with a pin

I know not everybody has this equipment, but if you know what a Router Copy Carver is and think about to built one, then you are probably a woodworker and you have all this stuff. In this case it cost you nothing.

Clamp a board with two clamps on the table saw

Place a piece of scrap wood on the table saw sled and one on the other side of the board.
The thickness of these two pieces must be thicker then your board plus the work piece you want to carve.
If you use thicker work pieces then use thicker support blocks

Clamp the rail for your router with two clamps on the support block on the sled. It should be perpendicular two the table saw but it doesn't matter if it is not exact.

Clamp the second support block on the router rail, so it can glide on the table surface.

Make a little arm as a follower and stick it on the router. The pin should have the same diameter as your router bit.

Put the router on his rail, mount your work piece and your template on the board and start copying.

That's all!

First find a template or draw one. Make sure it has no sharp corners. My smallest router bit has a diameter of 3 mm and therefor I can only use templates with round corners.

Print the template, cut it out and clue it on a piece of plywood.

Cut the plywood with a scroll saw. Try to follow the line so good as possible. Little mistakes doesn't matter you can correct them later. You get a positive and an negative part.

Glue both parts on a little board and mount it on the board of your copy carver.

Mount your work piece on the base board . Make sure the distance is the same as the distance from the router bit and the follower pin.

In a first step I use a 6 mm router bit, to remove all the wood in the middle of the template. I this case my follower pin has also 6 mm. In a second step I change it to a 3 mm router bit and the follower pin also to 3 mm to carve all the small corners and edges.

My 6 mm pin is a little tube and in the middle is the 3 mm pin.

To hold the veneer save in place I glue it with hot glue on a support board. Later you can separate it very easy with alcohol.

To carve it I use the 3 mm router bit.

I glue the veneer in the board, and filled little gaps with wood glue and saw dust.

After sanding I put a layer of linseed oil on it.

Instead of thousand words, please watch the video

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