I need to make a couple of floor registers. I can easily make the blanks from pieces of the hardwood flooring that I laid, but I am not sure how best (and safely) to route the slots in the registers. They need to be in two groups of 5, roughly 4″ long. If they were vertical, that would be fairly straightforward to do, but they need to be at roughly a 30 degree angle.
How would you suggest I go about this? I have a fixed base and a plunge router.
Thanks
Anthony
Replies
maybe another way
Anthony,
Creating the necessary router jig may be difficult or impossible, and you can get there another way: Take your register blank and rip it on the tablesaw into 6 even strips, keeping them in order. Then use your router table with a temporary base angled at 30° and straight bit to remove 1/2 of a slot from each side of the strips. Then glue them back together in the original order. You will lose the width of 5 kerfs from the original piece. The whole thing is actually quite fast and gives perfect-looking results.
great idea!
David - thanks for the reply. That will definitely work and will be a lot more predictable than working on a full blank. I'll try it out this weekend,
Anthony
As David said.. But why not just rip the strips a 30 degrees and glue them together? Yes.. the angles may (will) be a bummer to glue up. Some wax paper and some cauls (set up in advanced to gluing) will do.. And then again.. Are the registers intake or output for the air? I only ask because I have seen some small floor registers as 'return air'.. No need for any angle I would think if they are return registers. But then again I am not a heating expert. Long ago I did some steam pipe welding between jobs!
Then again.. You could use a router table and a 'V' bit to do that. I use it often to make 'wooden Grills' for Shoji screen grills.. NO, I do not do the traditional Japanese Shoji grills using only hand tools! I use hand and power tools.
It is hard to explain how I do it on a router table. A 'run' of slots using a 90 or 60 degree V bit... I just break out of the wood surface using the' V' bit. I then run a spiral bit along one edge of the' V bit work' to make one edge 'square'... I use my router table that is on my table saw for spacing. I use my tablesaw fence and have a 'list' of numbers I use to move my TS fence for proper spacing.
And then again you could probably purchase some that would cost less than what you have to make.. but not as much fun!
Glue up can be simple
Just predrill holes cross wise through the piece before you rip it, and then use dowells to keep things aligned when you glue up.
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