Make: Projects - Router Trammel - Make: Make: Projects - Router Trammel - Make:

Make: Projects – Router Trammel

Woodworking
Make: Projects – Router Trammel

This attachment mounts in place of your router’s factory baseplate and is used for cutting circular disks from, or boring circular holes in, sheet stock. It pivots about a small pin rotating in a blind hole drilled in the center of the stock to be cut. This one is based on a design from Bill Hylton’s excellent book Router Magic.

As much as I like Hylton’s project, I wanted to design a DIY trammel that did not require any table-mounted tools or expensive router bits for its construction. My version is laminated from three layers of quarter-inch stock, and replaces Hylton’s custom-milled T-slot and matching arm with a short piece of aluminum 80/20 rail, which is inexpensively available. The arm can be reversed in the slot to cut small radii, and Hylton’s dimensions have been slightly modified to provide a continuous range of possible diameters of about 2-22″.

More:

What will the next generation of Make: look like? We’re inviting you to shape the future by investing in Make:. By becoming an investor, you help decide what’s next. The future of Make: is in your hands. Learn More.

Tagged

I am descended from 5,000 generations of tool-using primates. Also, I went to college and stuff. I am a long-time contributor to MAKE magazine and makezine.com. My work has also appeared in ReadyMade, c't – Magazin für Computertechnik, and The Wall Street Journal.

View more articles by Sean Michael Ragan
Discuss this article with the rest of the community on our Discord server!

ADVERTISEMENT

FEEDBACK