What is a Router?

Series Summary

A router is a woodworking tool used to hollow out an area in the face of a piece of wood. It is a tool particularly used by pattern makers and staircase makers, and consists of a broad-based wooden hand plane with a narrow blade projecting well beyond its base plate. Modern routers are often used in place of traditional moulding planes or spindle moulder machines for edge decoration of timber. Custom base plates, templates, or jigs (tools that help guide the router or the workpiece through a controlled motion) are usually needed for more complex cuts.

In woodworking, routers are versatile tools that can do many kinds of wood cuts and shaping of wood. In this free video series, a woodworking expert will teach you how to use and maintain a wood router properly and safely. From teaching what a router is to router safety and maintenance, this video has it all. You'll learn how to remove and install a variety of router bits, how to cut circles and straight lines, and how to use a router table. With these carpentry tips and techniques, you'll be able to start doing fine woodwork in no time!

Video Transcript

"Hi my name is Kevin, and on behalf of Expert Village, I'm going to be talking to you today about routers. For the small shop, a router is an infinitely useful and necessary tool especially considering the price. Routers start out about $120 and go up from there and come in a lot of different shapes and sizes and a lot of different brands. Ultimately, all perform about the same. The thing that you are going to be looking at is the power on the router and how many different functions it has. But essentially, they're all a motor that spins a router bit in one direction. So, they all perform the same, but some of them are going to have more bells and whistles and more power than the others. So you're just ngoing to need to look at your price and what your needs are and the more you are going to be using it, it probably makes sense to invest in one that is around $300, something like that, if your a production shop and are going to use one for the long run. But essentially with routers you can do almost anything. You can build jigs to operate these that cut circles, straight lines, detailing, joinery, template routing. It's really up to your imagination as far as what jigs you can build and use these routers for. So they're really, really infinitely useful in the amount they can do, especially for the price starting at about around $100, from there. So, very essential tool for the small or the big shop."