The Technique of FURNITURE MAKING

OVERHEAD TABLE ROUTERS

Although these are used for general light moulding, grooving, rebating and slot mortising, they are far less efficient for this purpose than the spindle moulder/shaper or the horizontal borer and slotter in the case of slot

mortising. They are, however, excellent for recessing and cutting out complex patterns and shapes in thin material. They are ideal for following a template, and therefore for repetitive operations, but they are nowhere near as versatile in use as the portable router which can be taken to the workpiece itself at various stages of construction.

The overhead router has an additional disadvantage in that the workpiece is brought up to the cutter, unlike the portable version which runs off the surface, so any variation in the thickness of the material results in similar variations in the depths of recessing or mould­ing. Much will depend on the type of work you do; this is an ideal machine for quantity production work, but, for the smaller shop, a spindle moulder/shaper doubled up with a portable router would be a better combination.

DRILL-PRESS

The drill-press equipped with 1/2 hp (0.373 kW) motor has a range of pulley speeds for wood and metal, graduated feed, locking handle to the feed and swivelling table which can also be tilted for angle drilling. Its V2 in (12.5 mm) capacity chuck will accommodate all types of machine bits and drills, and it can be used not only for all vertical drilling operations to any preset depth, but also for veining, shallow grooving, light hollow-chisel mortising, drum sanding and polishing, etc.

Illustrated is a five-speed bench model, but these machines are also available floor- mounted with crank-up tables. Both floor and table models can have up to 12 speeds, making them even more versatile. Many imported 12- speed bench machines are surprisingly inexpensive and quite suitable provided that they are not used continuously or for very heavy work.