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I see many of you use a drill press or have jigs you use with a laminate trimmer to route the saddle slot in your bridges. I have a great router table with an Incra fence setup that would probably work. The fence has some nice stops, and I could probably make a carrier with a built in wedge to get the correct slot angle. I worry a little about getting the wood down on the bit without making a big entry point.

If any of you use your router table for cutting slots, care to share your approach?

Thanks,

Ken

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http://www.casperguitar.com

starting and stoping a closed end slot could be a bit of a problem to overcome. If through slotting then no issue at all.

I worry a little about getting the wood down on the bit without making a big entry point.

Yes that is a problem-try to use a pin router for perfect slots.
OR-setup a Plunge router jig.
I have and I get no more weird looking slots.
Mike

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Mike Collins

Michael, I am making the bridge of your design for the SJ, so I'll be using closed end slots. I was trying to avoid making more jigs, but I may have to resign myself to it. I spent an hour today searching through the forum, reading how others are cutting these slots. I only saw a router table mentioned once in passing. Maybe it is for good reason. But folks using laminate trimmers must have similar issues plunging the bit into the wood. I swear, there are evenings when I spend more time making jigs than I do building!

Ken

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http://www.casperguitar.com

I do it on the router table using the small parts router jig from Lee Valley. I route a closed end slot with no problem, there is a line on the table showing where the bit is (since the bit is buried), and a pencil mark on the bridge blank showing where to stop.

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&p=41780&cat=1,43000

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David White, Toronto

"All my favourite singers can't sing."

on a new model it is the same for me but they are one time jobs. I use a inlay base and my Foredom on a fence system that holds my bridge in position via pins and I have edge stops at each end of my fence for the start and stop position. The fence and edge stops are on a raised platform 1/8" higher than the bridge that the inlay base rides on.

I slot my bridges on a shop made router table (an extension of my 8" Delta table saw) and I use the table saw fence.
I CA a wedge shaped scrap on the bridge (I rout it off later), mark entry and exit on the blank (the bit is marked on the fence) and rout in two passes.
No problem so far, and it's pretty fool proof. I am also not enslaved to one bridge design.

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Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/

ken,

i'm with laurent. i use a home made router table, and make sure that the bit is marked on the fence. i also use a wedge but rather than gluing it, i just use masking tape to keep it in place. that wedge runs the whole length and is the whole depth (9mm) of the blank.

i do it in one pass. dropping down on the bit isn't that tough. nor is picking it up. you just need to remember to keep a bunch of pressure against the fence. the results look great.

if you're a bit nervous, it's easy to take a bunch of scraps and practice your technique. good luck.

phil

not to hijack the thread, but stupid question: do you who use a laminate router in a jig all use some kind of plunge base with it? or is it a start the router then tilt it down in the bridge blank deal?

Matt

Thanks for the input, everyone. I'm going to try the router table with some scrap blocks, and I'll see how well it turns out. If I feel I can get the bridge block down on the bit, I'll go with it. I do have the small piece holder, and a very nice fence. I should at least give it a shot. If I'm not happy with the results, I'll have to figure something else out. I'll let you all know, but it may be a week or two until I get to it. I won't have much time to work on the git over the next couple of weeks.

Ken

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http://www.casperguitar.com

Make sure you don't start the slot at one of the ends, but close. Also press the blank firmly against the table and fence when you turn off the router.

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Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/

I used to do them on the router table and had no real problems making perfect slots. Pretty much how Laurent describes. Since I started putting a back-tilt on my saddles, though, I've gone to a jig with a laminate trimmer.

To answer Matt's question, you can do it either way. I've been using a Bishop Cochran plunge base (with a PC 310 lam trimmer), but there's a smidge of slop in the plunge, so, to be sure I have perfect slots, I have to do a couple clean-up passes back and forth, with a little lateral/tilting pressure in each direction. I've been thinking about just setting the depth and tilting the router down into the cut (i.e. not using the plunge feature on the Cochran base) so I don't have to bother with this.

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Todd Rose
Ithaca, NY

https://www.dreamingrosesecobnb.com/todds-art-music

https://www.facebook.com/ToddRoseGuitars/

As Laurent described, but I will add a little fine point to it. I would cut to the depth you want in stages, usually 3 cuts for me , and use a smaller bit than the finished slot width you want. I like a 1/8" slot, so I start with a 3/32" bit for the first two depth cuts, then put in the 1/8th bit and cut to final depth and the slots come out right at .125'. When I was cutting the whole way using the 1/8" bit the slots always came about .005" over size.
It puts less lateral strain on the bearings to cut this way because the bit isn't working so hard so there is less slop in the cut. Also, raising the router can widen your slot if the router moves sideways at all when you raise it.
You can mark the bridge for the two ends of the slot, then transfer those lines around to the bottom of the bridge. Then mark the diameter of the router bit onto the fence beyond the height of the bridge so you can see it, one line for each edge, and it's as simple as routing until the pencil lines line up.