Using the Collar Guide, Making Circles and Holes, Lapped Joints
This is the first in our series of videos about the most versatile power tool in the shop. For Pat Warner, a clever router engineer, the basic idea is to use the router as a "finishing" tool: do all your rough-cutting and hogging with other power tools, then remove the last 1/32 in. of wood with the router, in a clean, surgical stroke. In this way, with the help of router jigs and templates, you can easily make almost any kind of joinery and edge work, in straight lines or curves, crisp and free of tearout.
Woodworkers of every skill level will find something useful in each of these videos. In Versatile Router 1 Warner shows you how to rout clean circles and holes; how to make half-lap joints at the ends of boards, and laps in the middle of boards that cross each other at any angle you choose. There's a section on the anatomy of a fixed-base router, another on the use of the collar guide for precise template work, and a lesson on getting two different shapes from the same decorative-profile bit.
