Shop Made - Teardrop base with template collar opening for Bosch Colt

glenn bradley

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So while making the first thing I've made of any consequence in a year and a half I realized a plunging, template guided router of lighter weight would have been nice. I had some material that dad had passed along to me. Some quick You Tube browsing on how to cut complex shapes out of plastic got me through cutting out and shaping the blank. Drilling the holes to mount the plate to the router was no big deal. I just used the factory plate as a template.

The scary part was the stepped hole for the template collar.
Colt Teardrop (1).jpg . Colt Teardrop (2).jpg
Having survived that I drilled and coutersunk a hole for a handle.
Colt Teardrop (3).jpg
And there we go.
Colt Teardrop (4).jpg . Colt Teardrop (5).jpg
I'll give it a whirl on the next cutting board.
 
Sweet Glenn. I want to make a larger base for my Dewalt 620. I guess you used quite a low speed when making the hole and cutting the shape. I made a transparent lid for the reservoir of my mini cyclone sometime ago and avoiding melting the plastic was really difficult. I ended going at very low speed and light passes to be able to cut a circle with a rabbet. I even put some water on the groove to cool it down. Or did you use a different plastic? I used plexiglass.
 
Sweet Glenn. I want to make a larger base for my Dewalt 620. I guess you used quite a low speed when making the hole and cutting the shape. I made a transparent lid for the reservoir of my mini cyclone sometime ago and avoiding melting the plastic was really difficult. I ended going at very low speed and light passes to be able to cut a circle with a rabbet. I even put some water on the groove to cool it down. Or did you use a different plastic? I used plexiglass.
I believe this is also plexiglass. My drill press only goes down to 250. I would love it to go down to 150. I try to go with short periods of slow speed cutting and did pretty well. I did foul one hole by melting things a little when I became hypnotized by the slow repetition.

For the curve I used a technique off of a You Tube video; cut / grind just proud of the line with a Dremel to score it about half the thickness or more. Then use a metal cutting blade on a jig saw in short, quick, bursts to complete the cut little by little. The plastic sanded to the line on my edge sander with a very worn 60 grit belt quite easily. A little touch up with 150 and 220 on a sanding block and I was done.
 
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