http://woodgears.ca/pantorouter/tenon_setup.

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Making tenon templates for the

pantorouter
I previously wrote about how to work out tenon templates in my large
mortise and tenon article. To those skilled in math, the easiest way to
express the calculations is with an algebraic equation, but it appears that
many people find that confusing. So I'll take another shot at explaining it,
this time, without equations. I will even use inches (because my router
bits are all inches) And if you prefer not to read, just watch the video :)

Making tenon templates for the

pantorouter
I previously wrote about how to work out tenon templates in my large mortise and
tenon article. To those skilled in math, the easiest way to express the calculations
is with an algebraic equation, but it appears that many people find that confusing.
So I'll take another shot at explaining it, this time, without equations. I will even use
inches (because my router bits are all inches) And if you prefer not to read, just
watch the video :)
The pantorouter cuts a tenon by tracing around the shape of it with a router bit.
Large router bits work best.

To get a
tenon shape
that is
rounded on
each end,
the router
bit needs to
trace a
semicircle at
each end.

The path
the router
bit takes
needs to be
offset by half the router bit's diameter on all sides. That makes the total size of the
path that the router follows one router-bit-size wider than the desired tenon. 0.5" +
0.625" = 1.125".

The
pantograph
has a 2x
reduction
built in, so
the template
needs to be
twice that
size. So the
path that the
guide
bearing
must take
on the
template is
twice as big.
1.125" x 2 =
2.25"
To get the
correct path,
the template
needs to
be smaller b
y half the
bearing size
on each
side.
Subtracting
half the
bearing size twice, the thickness of the tenon template now needs to be reduced
by the bearing size. 2.25" - 1" = 1.25"
And that's all there is to it.
So, in summary, we add the router bit size and tenon thickness together, double
that, then subtract the bearing size to get the template thickness. For the width of
the template (and tenon) the calculations follow the exact same steps.
If the guide bearing is twice the diameter of the router bit, the template ends up
exactly twice the size of the tenon, which makes things even easier.

Having worked out how wide the tenon template needs to be, I cut a strip of wood
that width on the table saw.

Next, I use
a compass,
set it to half
the width of
the strip of
wood and
mark the
rounds on
the ends. I
run the point
of the
compass
along the
edges and end of the workpiece to mark where the center of the semicircle needs
to be.

Next, cutting
the rounded
end on the
bandsaw.
A disk sander is great for getting right up to the line, but I just graze the edge with
the side of the bandsaw blade to finish up (that works better with a bandsaw blade
where the edge of the teeth have beenstoned)

I then screw the plywood template onto another piece of plywood to mount it on the
pantograph.
That way, I
can take it
off again if I
need to
tweak it.

Template

mounted.
Here, I'm screwing on the appropriate size guide bearing. The first tenon I cut
ended up just 3/8" in size, not the 1/2" it was supposed to be. Then I realized I still
had the 3/4" guide bearing on, not the 1" one that my template is designed for.
Oops!

To line up where the tenon goes, I line the bit up to be vertically centered with the
workpiece, then make sure that the guide bearing is at the same height as the
center of the template.

It's definitely
a bit more
work to set
up than
a tenon jig,
but once set
up, it
produces
tenons that
have the
shoulders
perfectly
cut, with a
round on both ends, all in one step. And if you cut around it clockwise (from the
view in this photo) the bit will always cut into the wood on all sides, so there is no
tearout.

The pantorouter is also

capable of cutting mortises,
but because I also have
a slot mortising machine, I
just use that to cut the

corresponding mortises.

If you use the same size bit for the mortise and the tenons, it may make sense to
mount the mortise template right next to the tenon template, so you don't have to
worry about realigning the templates when switching between mortising and
tenoning.
To calculate the track length for a mortise template, take the width of the tenon,
subtract the router bit size, then double that, and add the guide bearing size.

A nice fit!
I made this
tenon
template to
cut the shelf
supports for
someshelve
s for my
brother's
basement

How the pantorouter works

The "Pantorouter" is a template guided router for cutting shapes in wood.
The template is mounted on the frame above the router. A ball bearing on
the
pantograph
mechanism
is used to
follow the
template.

For those not

familiar with
pantographs,
the lattice
pictured at
left should
help explain.
The six
pieces of
wood are connected with pins at the corners. The four areas inside this
lattice each form a rhombus
of equal dimensions.
With the rhombuses all the
same size and shape, you
can see that the distance
between the point that I'm
holding and the fixed point
on the opposite corner will
always be divided exactly in
half.

The linkage shown

previously doesn't actually

need all those pieces to work. In a pantograph, the redundant links are
not present. Scalings other than 2:1 are possible with most pantographs,
but for the sake of simplicity, my pantorouter has the reduction fixed at
2:1.
With a pair of
markers in
the
pantograph,
a shape
drawn with
the red
marker will
be drawn at
half that size
by the green
marker.

On my
pantorouter, I use a ball bearing to follow the template in place of the red
marker, and mount my router where the green marker was. The router
mount is an odd shape so that the router's axis goes exactly where the
marker was.
The pantorouter is basically
the same linkage as this
but built much sturdier to
support the weight and
cutting forces of the router.

When I prototyped my
machine, I found that
pulling up on the handle
against the weight of the
router was tiring over time.

So I added some springs, string, and cams to counteract the weight of the
router.
The cams
are shaped
such that the
spring's
tension
profile is
matched to
the way that
gravity exerts
a larger
moment on
the router the
further it is
away from
the pivot. There's one spring for each arm of the pantograph, one
mounted behind, the other in front of the pantograph.

For routing internal cavities such as mortises, it's also necessary to

plunge with the pantorouter. I added a plunge mechanism by making the
whole back half of the machine move back and forth on a sled. A lever
attached to
the side
moves the
plunge sled.
The sled
moves back
and forth on
linear glides
that I
made from
drawer slides

I also added some depth stops to the plunge mechanism. These allow me
to limit how deep the router will plunge. The second stop on the left limits
how far back the router can travel. This is useful for locking the plunge
position in place. It can also be used for setup. I'll often use the tip of my
router as a stop for where to position the stock. I'll move the router all the
way back, and slide the piece against the router until it hits the bit. Then I
use the
plunge
mechanism
to cut the
desired
depth.
I should add
that this does
not involve
starting the
router with
the bit
touching the
stock. I can
always move
the router out
of the way sideways.

Making large mortise and tenon joints with the pantorouter

I wanted to explore making some really big mortise and tenon joints with
the pantorouter. I didn't actually have a project that needed such joint, so I
made some test joints just to demonstrate.
I decided to make a 25 x 75 mm (1" x 3") mortise and tenon. That would
be a good sized joint if one was using 2 x 4 lumber to build a traditional
workbench.

I bought a
1/2" (12.7
mm) router
bit with a
cutting length
of 2" (51 mm)
for the job.
This was
actually not
the longest
router bit
available, but I figured it should do. Fully inserted, the bit still stuck out of
the collet quite a ways. So I cut off about 1.5 cm from the back of it. It was
relatively easy to cut with a
hacksaw.

I used a 26 mm guide
bearing (couldn't find a 1"
bearing). I measured the
router bit's actual cutting diameter at 12.8 mm - slightly larger than
specified. Plugging my tenon, bearing and bit size into the formula:

Ttemplate = 2
* Ttenon +
(2*
Dcutter Dbearing)
Plugging in
my numbers:

Ttemplate = 2
* 25 mm
+(2*
12.8 - 26)
= 50 0.4
The term in brackets in the right worked out to -0.4 mm. So basically, my
template needs to be 0.4 mm smaller than twice the size of my tenon.
Easy enough. I cut the tenon template on the table saw. I used a 1"
washer to trace an arc on the corners. The actual radius I needed for the
corners was twice the 12.8 of the bit, minus the 0.4 mm adjustment, or
25.2mm. I figured the 1" (25.4 mm) of the washer was close enough.
If you don't like equations click here for another explanation.

I glued the template onto a thin piece of plywood for mounting. I also
glued a few strips of wood to another piece of wood for the mortise
template. The mortise template is much wider than the guide bearing so I
can move all around the inside perimeter of it to cut a rounded rectangle
shaped mortise.
The mortise template is twice the size of my desired mortise plus the 0.4
millimeters I worked out earlier. For inside templates, the adjustment
factor goes the other way around.

Aligning the
template for

a cut
I added a "setup bar" to reference from. This bar represents the level of
the table on the template side of the pantograph. I worked out the position
of that by placing a 1/4" shaft in my router and a 1/2" guide bearing on the
pantograph. With the shaft in the router on the table, the bottom edge of
the bearing corresponds to that exact position on the template side. I
made some pencil marks on the template frame for where the bar goes
so next time I only need to line up the bar with the pencil marks. The
setup bar can get in the way of the router, so I take it off after finishing the
setup.
My stock for the tenon is 36 mm wide, and I want the tenon to be
centered. So the center line of the tenon needs to be 18 mm from the
edge. On the pantograph side, that dimension doubles, so the template's
center line needs to be 36 mm above the setup bar.

Here's my cut tenon. The tenon is 6 cm long (2 3/8"), which is longer than
the cutter length of the router bit. I started the cut with the plunge carriage

pulled back, cut all the way around, and then plunged all the way in to
finish the cut. That way I can cut tenons longer than the actual cutter
length of the bit. If I hadn't shortened my bit, I could have made a tenon
about a centimeter longer. And if I had bought the longest bit available, I
could have
made a
tenon 8 cm
long!

The chips
sure go flying
while making
the cut there's quite
a bit of
material to be

removed.
The router motor blows air out the front, which really spreads the chips
around. On the plus side, at least this gets the chips out of the way.

That previous shot is a still frame from the video I shot. I set up my
camera a meter away, but it still got a fair bit of dust on it. It's of the
reasons I try to use cheap cameras in the workshop. I haven't had a
camera die of dust exposure yet. But what can happen is that dust gets in
between the lens groups inside the zoom lens. That dust is impossible to
get out.

The finished
tenon. I
always make
all the cuts
around the
edge with a
"climb cut",
basically with
the cutter
moving into,
not out of the
wood. This
eliminates any sort of
tearout.

I made some through

mortises on much thinner
stock to test the fit with. My
initial fit was too tight, so I
sanded the edge of the
tenon template down just a
bit. I also found my mortise
a little too wide, so I put a
strip of 0.25 mm thick
UHMW tape to one of the
inside edges of the
template.

This photo
shows the fit
after
adjustments.

Now cutting
the big
mortise.
Clearing out
chips for a
cut this deep
is a
challenge.
But
fortunately, with a mortise this wide there's plenty of room. For a mortise
that's just the width of the bit, it would be more of a problem. If I was
making a lot of deep and narrow mortises, I'd probably invest in a spiral
bit.

The finished
mortise

The tenon fits quite nicely, with just a bit of friction going in. When I pull
the tenon out rapidly, it actually makes a loud "plop" from the partial
vacuum in the mortise because air couldn't get past the tenon fast enough
as I pulled it
out (see end
of video).
You know
your mortise
and tenon
joint makes a
good fit if it
goes "plop"
when you
pull it out!

See also:

More about the

Pantorouter

Making a box
on the pantorouter

Making tenon templates

without equations

Mortise and tenon joint accuracy

mortising machine

You can buy

for the slot m

ome-made slot mortising machine for my mortise and tenon joints. My previous slot mortising machine was made po
But I had always wanted to be able to build a mortising machine from scratch using readily available materials. I hav
e, and this article describes how it works.

Building the
horizontal sliders
mechanism

able for the slot mortiser

ny C's slot mortiser

on LumberJocks.

tion on flickr.

also available in German

Building the router

mount and vertical
adjustments

Building a stand
for the
slot mortiser

Dave Tenney on making pantorouter

templates
After building the pantorouter I decided that it would be really sweet if I
had templates pre-made to make a wide range of tenons and mortises. I
like the way the template system works on the metal pantorouter, so this
is the
direction
that I went
in.
Rather
than
milling a
slot in the
template
the way
that Matthi
as did, I
glued the
template
together. I had used this idea last year when I made a template for my
tenoning jig and figured it would work well here.
All of my templates are made for using a 1/2" straight bit to cut the
tenons. I just change the bearing on the follower to make 3/8 and 1/4
tenons.
The first thing to do is make up a batch of template stock. I am using
19mm birch plywood for mine; its fairly hard and very stable.
We need some 1/4 stock for the slot spacer.

Then we need some slightly

oversized 3/8" stock with a 5 degree bevel on one side. My stock
measures about .405 (I need better calipers!) which is .030 over on the fat
end.

Now we
need to lay
out the
size of
mortise
and tenon
we want to
make. Our
slot length
is double the intended mortise size minus 3/4. In this example I am
making a 3/4 mortise. So doubling that would be 1 1/2 and taking away
3/4 would leave a slot size on 3/4. For another example, if I wanted to
make a 3 1/4 mortise my slot would be 5 3/4.

Next we
will glue in
the
spacers.
Make sure
the bevels
are on the

outside.

Once the glue has dried we can lay out the ends of the template. I am
laying mine out on the back so the radius of my circle is going to be .655
or so. I made a pattern for this that you can see above the template. I use
the caliper to check that the distance from the slot to the outside of the
arc is about .405

After
cutting it
out on the
bandsaw
and
sanding it
to the line I
glued it
onto a
piece of
Luan as a
backer board.

So how does it work? Perfect fit on the first try! Of course it helps that I
had already made a couple of test templates working out all these

dimension

And of course, if youre going to make one you might as well make a tree
full.

The Pantorouter

I call this machine the "pantorouter" because it's essentially a big pantograph
mechanism with a router in it. It's used to route shapes from 2x sized templates. I
originally designed it for cutting tenons, but the machine is very versatile and can
be used for all kinds of wood joints.
This version is optimized for use with routers with cylindrical bodies only. My
larger Pantorouter XL is designed to accomodate plunge routers.

Using the pantorouter

to make joints

How it works

Coming up with
the design

Cutting through
dovetail joints

Tenon templates
for the pantorouter

How to align templates

Cutting a large joint.

Dave Tenney on
making tenon templates

Making plantation
shutters

Making a finger joint

Cube in a cube in a cube

Pantorouter plans

You can also buy a

Pre-built all-metal pantorouter

Construction of the machine:

Building the
pantorouter

Router mount
for a palm router

Linear glides
from drawer slides

Holddown clamp

Improved pantorotuer followers

Specifications

Buy plans for the pantorouter

More projects where I used the pantorouter:

Coat hooks

Paper towel holder

Wooden hings

Scaffold build

Building a large
mirror stand

Quickie workbench

Ukulele neck mortise

Rolling under bed

storage drawer

Scarf splice joint to

fix broken chair legs

Needlessly complicated
axe handle repair

Half-blind dovetail joints

Clever 3-way joint

(Kawai Tsugite)

Double tenon with the metal pantorouter

Making pantorouter followers

When I did my pantorouter comparison with the all-metal version

thatKuldeep builds, I mentioned that I liked how Kuldeep made the
followers with a bearing on a shaft, but didn't have a way to attach a
bearing myself, so I'm keeping with the old system of mounting follower
bearings
on my
wooden

pantorouter.
I received many suggestions, such as using Locktite to mount the bearing
on the shaft. But my real problem is actually that shaft size and bearing
holes in the bearings I have don't match. But with so many suggestions, I
started thinking about how to make round followers on shafts for my
pantorouter.

If I cut a thread on the end of the

shaft, I could then mount various nuts on it, like this knock down nut with
a nice wide circular flange, so it already forms a round follower. You can
buy nuts
like that at
The Home
Depot.

Or I could put a hex nut on the end

of the shaft and grind that round on my bench grinder. With a bit of
sanding and polishing, that makes for a fairly easily sliding round follower,
and it
turned out
quite
precise
too.

1/2" bearings have smaller holes

in them, but using the same technique on the bench grinder I was able to
grind the shaft down so it fit in the bearing, though not tightly. But some
shims, cut
from
aluminium
cans,
made for a
tight fit.

Whenever
I take
something apart, I always keep the washers and other small hardware
that might be useful. So I have a whole drawer full of round bushings and
spacers, and I started to dig through those to see what might work.

I found some bushings that fit

snugly on the 6 mm shafts I was using. I used 6 mm to make it
compatible with Kuldeep's. I used one bushing as a follower directly and
ground another one down a little (again on the bench grinder) to fit the
hole of a 26 mm bearing I had. Again, with a shim from an aluminium can
to make it fit snug. I also found one bushing that fit perfectly between the
6 mm shaft and the 8 mm hole for another bearing.

You could
also make
your
followers
out of 1/4"
bolts,
which
already
have
threads on
them.
Combined
with a nut
with integral washer, as shown, all you would have to do is glue the nut
on and cut off the bolt
head to make a follower.

Going through my junk, I

made quite a lot of
followers of different

sizes.
But one
size I

didn't have was 1" (25.4 mm), so I decided to make one that size out of
wood.

I started by cutting a slightly larger

circle from Baltic birch plywood on the bandsaw. The hole I drilled is a bit
undersized for the shaft. I roughened up the end of the shaft and used
some Gorilla glue in the hole and shaft, then drove the shaft in with a
hammer.

After that, I spun the disk in a hand

drill, held
up to my
disk
sander to
make it
perfectly
round.
I'm guiding
the shaft
with a
piece of
wood, near
the end to
make sure
it's steady. I ended up sanding that one down to just under 1", then
applied some UHMW tape to it to bring it back up to size and make it slide
easier.
UHMW tape is also useful for up-sizing metal followers. Each turn of
UHMW tape adds 0.3 mm to the diameter of the follower. Just be sure to
have a whole number of turns on the follower so the tape is the same
thickness all around.

I ended up making a lot of followers, mostly from random bushings and

round plastic parts. I have no more than 1 mm of size difference between
most of them.

I made a
mounting
block to
clamp the
6 mm shaft
on my

pantorouter. I didn't have a 6 mm drill, but a 15/64" drill made for a hole
that fit the 6 mm shaft just snugly. The only change I had to make to my
wooden pantorouter was to drill a 17/64" (6.7 mm) hole all the way
through the operating lever, then mount the new holder. The orange knob
on the holder clamps the block together to lock the 6 mm shaft in it. That
knob came from a
broken Ryobi circular
saw.

Making tapered and

slotted tenon templates
Having figured out how
to make followers like on
the all metal pantorouter,
the next challenge was
to make the clever
templates with the slot in
the middle and tapered edges around the outside. The tapered edges of
the tenon template allow fine adjustments in tenon size to be made.

I set my table saw to four degrees,

then cut a bevel on a piece of 18 mm thick Baltic birch plywood. 18 mm is
perhaps a bit thick, but I figured more thickness is better, and the next
thinnest Baltic birch plywood I had was 11 mm.

With the
wide side
of the
plywood
facing up, I
set my
compass
to half the
width, then
use it with
the point on either edge to check the center of the mark, and draw an arc
from there.

I tilted the bandsaw to

four degrees, checking it
with a speed square,
because my homemade
bandsaw doesn't have

any angle
scale.

Cutting out
the

semicircles. I cut within half a millimeter to the line...

...so that I
don't have
to sand
away very
much
material
finishing it

up.
For my first tapered template, I drew the semicircles on the front (the
narrow side), but then realized the disk sander table doesn't tilt towards
the disk. Oops! That's why I drew the semicircles on the back this time. I
was however able to tilt the strip sander table towards the belt a bit, but
the disk sander is better for this job.

I cut the slot in the template on my

pantorouter, just using a straight piece of wood to roll the follower bearing
along to
get the
straight
line.
Despite
being very
careful, I
got the line
about 1
mm off
center
and, worse
yet, about 0.2 mm higher on one side. Arrgh! Sliding the template on a
router table to cut the slot could be iffy, but would avoid the possibility of
getting the angle wrong. I ended up "fixing" it by doing a plunge cut on the
table saw (with the template held down against the fence), then finishing it
with a chisel.

Gluing the template on a backer board, being very careful to keep the
template exactly flush along the bottom edge to make sure it's straight.

So I hope
this gives
you some
ideas for
how to
make
followers
and
tapered
templates
for
a wooden
pantorouter.

But if you haven't built a pantorouter

yet, I'd recommend starting out with just a bearing on a block and leave
these fancy followers for a later upgrade. You probalby want to start using
your pantorouter as soon as possible, and mounting a bearing on a block
is much easier.

Also, if you
attach the
follower
bearing on
the block
with a

countersink screw, if you back out the screw just a bit, the bearing can
slide the same amount in all directions. So even with the "old" method of
making the followers, you can still effectively adjust the fit, making the
tenon slightly smaller by loosening the bearing mounting screw.