Bravo's Pantorouter - By BRAVOGOLFTANGO @ LumberJocks.com ~ Woodworking Community

Bravo's Pantorouter - by BRAVOGOLFTANGO @ LumberJocks.com ~...

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Bravo's Pantorouter Pantorouter Project by BR BRAVOGOLFTANGO

posted 26 days ago

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imag im agee im imag agee im imag agee im imag agee im imag agee The journey of a 1000 Mortise & Tenons, begins with a single Pantorouter… Drop the pebble in the pond they said, the ripple will reach far they told me, ahh, y es but when building an ark like Noah, I them, keep your chisels and wood m allets. Fact is I really do love handmade mortise & tenon joinery, or “Noah woodworking” as I like to call it. But while I enjoy the approach to a point, I’m not out to compete with Noah, fact is I like to build my projects accurate, unique and brutally s tro everything I’m told. So after quite a bit of researching several venues for accomplishing M/T joinery, I couldn’t quite find what I wanted. I want M/T joinery, Leigh (great), Trend (blah, mediocre reviews), EZ-Pro (typical General T ools junk in my opinion), Jessem Slo handrill?), few others, but you get my point. Leigh came out on top but they nickel & dime you for the little plastic template limited to workpiece height for tenons to your bench…of course the room and step-ladder was an option and with the roof lol..kidding. Finally came across the pantorouter created by Matthias Wandell, procured the plans and got started. Gathered all the har ourney began. In his own words (it’s just cool). My goal was to b uild this in a couple weeks in the evenings cradle to grave.


Day-1 Progress Sun-Jan 20th – all hardware procured, all wood pieces cut



Day-1 Progress Sun-Jan 20th – all hardware procured, all wood pieces cut




Day-2 Progress Router assemblies completely built and ready for router assembly base setup. NOTE: The router hold-down caps are specified to b uild from plywood (anti-warping, etc), at least use good plywood, bette Home Depot plywood that I used. I’m going rebuild mine from plywood, using hardwood. I noticed on one of my plywood r spreading slightly on tightening near the screw hole on one end, so rebuilding both of them from fr om hardwood (take about 30




Fits like a glove and perfectly 1/4” p in alignment



Haha can you say clamp overkill?











Day-3 Progress Pantorouter sub-assembly built this evening






Day-4 Progress (in progress today 1/31) DRAWER SLIDE BEARINGS Major progress today, Lowe’s carry’s the bearing guides in the pic below, $5 ea. Returned the full extension type I original s they will not work due to the necessity to have a flush mounted bearing base that the bearing guides do not hit, those would due to that. They have no play and the best part is buy a total of 4, pull the bearing rack & bearings from the 2nd set, cut th (inner/outer guides), add the second rack which is 28cm (plans call for about 30cm) and it makes it even more stable. UPDATE: If anyone does use the same guides, while it says 35 lbs, the steel framing is the same as the double-tiered and it’ additionally the bearing cages and bearings are identical and with the full 29cm of b earing guides in this puppy now it’ll ho double-tiered + some.





This is about how far the guides will extend (roughly 4”) and there was no play with this set out of the pkg, adding the new 2nd set make it even more stable and there is no cutting required for the b earing guides, just a tiny bit on the inner/outer g stuff).



All cut & laid out per the plans, you can see the 2nd set of bearing guides (no cutting required) ready to slide in. There is jus guide you knock down with a hammer & punch to slide out the bearings to work on everything.



Each guide required just one (1) hole along with the other 3 holes that were already in place, drilled out the holes for the 3/ to fasten and used my carbide rounder to make the flush bevels.




Finally smooth down all the worked areas for burs




Now back to mounting the main fulcrum pieces to the pantorouter base plate and adding the main router assembly, getting Well color me purple & call me Prince, made some major progress (yesterday technically, but never went to bed, off work t Plunge base is completely done, everything lined up fantastic and feels smooth. Guides are all mounted on both pieces. Fee was pretty fun, albeit tedious. Few pics below.





Figured out a cool way to hold the router table @an angle to feed the bearings into the cages using my Erwins.





On my dry-run fit of both table sections with the guides, everything feels smooth so far, adding the dust shields right now.





Day-5 Progress Mucho progress today, ~Modified the dust guards for the guides in the back to somewhat follow the guides without hitting them. The dimensions i guides and their placement with the dust guards in place hit the guides, so they needed modificaiton. Maybe I’m expecting was fine, has plenty of travel now I guess.


Semi-completed




I couldn’t find the springs at the dimensions required (4-7/8”), but found the right thickness and had to cut them, wow cut first cut a piece grenaded 30 miles an hour through the shop, after that cut I decide d to suit up for warfare, fun making the A NOTE on springs: With my router in place on the assembly the springs still lift the entire assembly. Now this is explained lift the router assembly (without) the router, but it should rest down with the router in place and springs attached later on. too much spring pressure, although it works fine.



Dry fit of the template holder & workpiece tabletop. Decent fitup of the finger joints for a rookie, but I should have built my Jig with the plans I procured. That’s my next project after I build a rolling stand for the pantorouter. A NOTE on finger-joints: For the experts out there, you will notice (especially with the nicer pics) that I do finger joints and also I’m leaving the plans top piece off the template holder exposi ng the top-edge of thos That’s intentional and the reason is I love exposed joinery and these imperfect finge r-joints serve as a re humbly started with expanding my woodworking knowledge through the years. Kind of a battlescar if you



Doggone mortises kick my butt every time! The template base, table-top and router base guide stops all require slots. I setu drill-press which works perfect, there is barely a tiny bit of sanding required. Iron ic the pantorouter will do these slots easil to build the pantorouter. I oh, and he sloppy mortise piece in the pic is just scrap, actually used Lowes General Tools dowel piece of junk obviously.


Slots came out decent, little bit of filing and those ar e done.






Decided to woodfill Lowe’s Birch plywood pieces (the edges) with wood filler in order to apply oak edging & their subpar pl times. Figured it’d look pretty nice. Debating once I build it, tearing down the router assembly (just pull the pins which are sanding everything followed by hand rubbing Cherry Danish Oil and maybe the hand rubbed poly. Update! Screw handrubbing danish oil, too impatient for that nonsense and this high-end tool throws too many router sha love that by the way. Yeah so I stained it English Chestnut and clear coated it. Look forward to making the custom plunge handle vs the straight one and a custom (non-lathed) router assembly handle. Finally, should be checking alignment tomorrow hopefully, maybe make a mortise template for starters. Day-5 or 6, I lost track haha!



I can’t decide whether or not to leave the top piece on over the finger jointed template h older, I like that the box joints/fing looks cool and no further strength is needed. The piece isn’t really needed in fact. It’s just a 7/16” hardwood top-cap is all, but I like exposed box joints.



All that’s left is dismantle and staining, well need to check alignment first. Still have to make a template for trying it out, bu at all, hour tops. The table feed handle has to go, interferes with the router motion handle, I had the pieces already cut when I came across L here on LJ) version whereby he changed it to a curved version, nearly hits the other handle at points in certain position, so a modified extension for that, 30 min job. The full sized router handle is something else I need to finish, albeit it has the litt the plans called for. The springs need attaching but that’s a 30 min job, I’m not using the string, have stainless 1/16” cable cut & ready. Finally I clamping methodology, I don’t care much for the homemade clamp, albeit works, probably going with some Bessey jig cla Day-7 Progress Mounted the router in, fits like a glove, springs are on, the stainless cable for the cam springs worked ok, but the string was going back with the cable once I determine final sting length which is easier to tweak, but the springs work as the plans stat router mechanism and router weight. I ended up using a cut 1” coarse wood screw, the string stays centered perfectly in t he slot


Nice router fitup






Workpiece top mounted, still need to drill the fence holes in it, but the fence is done. Very nice design on the fence plans, it design as a squred-edge pre-set fence to use on any of the four corners.



I recommend countersinking the two 5/16” bolts on the underside of the adjustable rou ter base slide stop section, you can benchtop that way without the carriage bolt smooth head protruding causing wobble, etc. I’m going to build a stand for my this tool to build that stand with mortise & tenon joinery, so needed it wobble free for my workbench while building the sta !http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e50/BrettGabriel2006/Home%20Projects/Bravos%20Pantorouter/20130203 14450



Power went out @superbowl, so I had 20 mins to play a bit more. All that’s left is applying the oak-stripping on the plywoo check, stain, clear-coat, apply my standard brass “Handcrafted By” plaque and build a tenon & mortise template then time Few progress pics from Sun evening.


The new table-sled feed handle works much better than the “stick” I called it.






Took a big solid oak table leg from a dining room table given to me from our church, cut a 4” piece, it started out as a 3”x3” bandsaw, squared it, octagoned it, thew it on the drill press (bluecollar lathe haha), then started with 80 grit, stepped down 320, double tapered 4” handle was the goal…accomplished!




Looks nice!



Compared to the original from the p lans.




. . . Mon 2/5 ~ PROJECT COMPLETE Had to bring it inside for some good shots with the Nikon, shop lighting is subpar @night. My wife suggested just using my table when needing to make joinery with this tool, pretty good idea vs building yet another roll-around cart for it. So I slid fence and it fits rather well. My 2-car garage is filling quick with rollable tables. The jig clamps are just sitting on the fence, for ideas, may or may not mount them there. Thinking of a movable separate cl auto-adjust version of these I just ordered. Also, the string from the guide-bearing to the router was just to hold the assemb spring tension to take the photos.











. . . . Bravo’s Pantorouter Build Review Plans & Drawings – (4 of 5 starts). Pretty thorough drawings for $18, only found one (1) dimension on the cut-list which ne for thicknesses, but no real complaints for a humble $18. This dimension anomaly was communicated with the designer w change in the plans. Drawing Review - The cut-list dimension finding I came across was on the cut-list-Hardwood Cutting Diagram. It states to use 1.5” (36mm) you will find later that the 2mm difference affects the box-joints (finger style) fitup due to the 1:1 printable templates in the exactly at 36mm. If it stated to “plane” your hardwood to 36mm or add 2mm to the finger joint depth if using 1.5” thick ma things easier up front, minor drawing fix which has been taken care of by the designer. - I like to lay everything out as you can see in the pics, it’s just how my brain works I guess. I made my own Cut-List parts d mapped pieces to the assembly plans, this made it so much easier for me and bit closer to how we did things in the Navy & Aerospace industry. Assembly Review - The plans are pretty detailed here and overall get the job done. Alignment is the BIGGEST thing with the router mount su made very clear in the plans. - I read through the entire plan pkg but didn’t follow the assembly methodology completely. For example, I used 1/4” rod v



custom fit the router pieces to my particular router, which is mentioned in the instructions albeit the 1:1 templates are at be approach). - During assembly of these critical alignment sub-assemblies, I used either 1/4”-20 n uts/bolts to align said assemblies or t perfectly aligned. The instructions will get you there to alignment, but I used a simpler equally accurate method. - The fence system for this tool and the plans for it were well thought out and it’s a multi-use capability tool actually. Pantorouter Use Review I’m going through my learning-curve with the templates at the moment, but it seems to be a small curve, it’s new is all. My first stab with doing 3/4” stock with a through-tenon (love these)





First stab with a blind M&T, the cuts are incredibly clean and not too tight to prevent a glue surface, yet it still makes the ni sound (nominal fit)







Almost midnight Thur 2/7 & I have a fully functional 1” mortise & tenon template that works fantastic. Thanks to Mathias on LJ for the tips.



My first Pantorouter quick project. Sea-Trials went well for this little picture fram e. Once you setup your templates and ma I took the 1” M/T template I made last night and threw it on the panto, just wanted to see how close it’d be without micro do initially to build templates). Very satisfied with the results. It’s western red cedar scraps, handrubbed with cherry Danish oil. Nothing fancy, but a cool test run.







The possibilities are near limitless with the panto. What’s really cool is I now have a super fast and simple way to make slot system I used to build this rig. -- "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead"

47 comments so far I wish I had room for one of these They look like they do a great job Bill_N 163 posts in 361 days #1 posted 26 days ago

-- I have the Saw Dust Fever



Oh man I barely have room in my 2-car garage, but it’s a dedicated woodworking shop, our truc vehicles now haha. BRAVOGOLFTANGO

-- "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead"

223 posts in 86 days #2 posted 26 days ago

I’m jealous, this is awesome!

Ben Simms

-- I played with Legos as a kid and I never had the part I thought I needed, so I learned to impro engineer with a woodworking hobby.


Looking forward to see how this turns out. I would build several of Matthias’ inventions but my and my wife wants to park her car inside. Julian

-- Julian


What do you think it cost you total (minus the router)?

Zinderin 90 posts in 215 days #5 posted 25 days ago

Ben – don’t be jealous, it’s just a guy-toy, you know the drill lol…

BRAVOGOLFTANGO 223 posts in 86 days #6 posted 25 days ago

Julian – I hear you on the garage thing, we gave up on the garage parking once we sold ou 4-dr JK Wrangler RUBICON and I had a 2-dr JK RUBICON I built myself for rock-crawli garage top by 3/8” Haha…37” BOGGERS take up some room. She was scared of rock-cra it, we got tired of fixing mine, ditched them both and her Yukon and my crewcab do NOT anyway unless it was empty all the way up to the sheetrock…screw that! :). On the bright s is cheaper than JEEPING ~, well wait…no no..I’m incorrect..those fancy wood planes for yesterday indeed compete with JEEP upgrade costs. Zinder – I’m roughly $100 – $120 in hardware parts & lumber. I bought a Porter Cable 9 1-3/4hp router ($129) from Lowes, it’s body dia measured 3.5” (89mm) which is exactly called for.




I’m looking forward to see how this turns out as well. I have had the drawings for some time bee insperation. Thanks RCT 72 posts in 1834 days

-- "Ya but what does he know anyhow?"

#7 posted 25 days ago

RCT – it’s a fun project that’s for sure. It’s intimidating looking at first, but I’ve built other comp up there mind you, but it’s no more complicated, albeit more complex than the wooden-router-li more parts! BRAVOGOLFTANGO 223 posts in 86 days


#8 posted 25 days ago

I forgot Mathias loves to use metric I don’t want to convert and am lacking metric measures Bill_N

-- I have the Saw Dust Fever


You are going to like this tool. How do I know? I built one. Be prepared to figure out some kind o collection. I am still working on that part myself. luv2learn 593 posts in 386 days #10 posted 25 days ago



-- "If the women don't find you handsome, at least they ought to find you handy" Red Green

Bill kind of thought the same at first, $6 android ap Measure Master pro from Calculated Indust conversion simple really, but I understand what you’re saying. BRAVOGOLFTANGO 223 posts in 86 days #11 posted 25 days ago

Luv2learn, thanks for sharing that bit of intel, inspiring to get me b ack in the shop, taking a brea handle right now, thinking of changing it from straight though to curvatured like someone else who). Still debating whether to build the clamps, just not sure I’m crazy about them, was considering s jig clamps. I first thought all the 3/8” holes were bench dog type holes for the clamp plans, but s -- "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead"

Thanks for the info I will check it out -- I have the Saw Dust Fever Bill_N 163 posts in 361 days #12 posted 25 days ago

Hey Brett the curved handle modification was me. After I had it all together and put it though its didn’t like how close the two handles were. luv2learn 593 posts in 386 days #13 posted 24 days ago



-- "If the women don't find you handsome, at least they ought to find you handy" Red Green

BRAVOGOLFTANGO

Ahh ok thank you sir, well I have some scrap oak dining table legs scrap I’m considering buildin handle out of, figured I’d get it all assembled first though then go back, didn’t care for the closen either. Nor do I care for the tiny little 1” dowel handle that’s being changed out to something oak long.


trasner


With that device, who needs a CNC machine. This is probably the best review I have read of one plans. The guy is extraordinary, albeit probably a little eccentric. I mean, who builds a wooden b reminds me of a woodworking version of Dr. Emmett Brown (Back to the Future). I love his web some picture of some of your creations with your pantorouter.


-- Todd

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