The Router Book: A Complete Guide to the Router and Its Accessories

by Pat Warner

There is no more complete guide to the most versatile tool in the woodworker's shop than this book. The Router Book covers it all -- from the tool's wide range of uses to tips for maintaining it in the best condition. Router expert Pat Warner sorts through the great variety of tools on the market and offers sound, practical advice on choosing the right router for every woodworker's needs. Ideal for anyone who owns, or is thinking of buying, a router.
-- Covers bits, accessories, and a wide variety of routers.
-- Surveys the router's many uses -- from edgework to cutting joinery.

Genres: Woodwork

192 pages, Paperback

First published August 31, 2001

Reviews

[G · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you're in the market to buy a router but can't decide which model to get, this is probably the book you want, although the author is clearly a Porter Cable fan, and, for the most part, only endorses their products. Maybe this is fair, maybe it isn't; in any case, there isn't much information here with which the expert won't already be familiar, and it's too jargon-filled for the beginner who hasn't used a router somewhat extensively already and is looking for information to get started with woodworking. A glossary might have helped enormously, but this is really more of a shopping guide than anything else.

Here's a representative paragraph:

The power of the router is in its joint-making capability. Nearly all of Western joinery is possible with a router, with the addition of its cutters, jigs, and you. It has its limitations, like bridle joints and deep skinny dovetails, but it can address an enormous number of both ordinary and special joints. But the router isn't perfect, and there are many occasions, due to fixturing, cutter design and so on that a joint is compromised. You may not exceed or even meet the capacities of a hand joiner, but do expect to make mortises and tenons; tongues and grooves; laps; glue joints; through, blind, and sliding dovetails; splines; lock miters; cope and stick; box joints; and various combinations.