Cool Tools: Pin Router
We have a lot of nifty tools in our shop, and I'm going to start showing some of them off. The tool for this week is our pin router. A pin router is basically a router table with the spindle above the table rather than below. The table itself has an option to hold a pin which you can use to follow patterns on the bottom of your material to be cut.
A short video showing a mountain dulcimer being trimmed. I'm using a 1/2" flush trim bit, and watching the grain very carefully so I can avoid getting chip out.
Our pin router (left) with a dulcimer player (right). Seriously though, I took this picture of Richard next to the pin router so you can get a sense of scale. This really is a pretty big tool. If you look carefully at the very middle of the table, you can see a small hole. That is where you would mount a pin if you were wanting to use patterns to make a cut. Until we started using our laser cutter to make tone holes, Folkcraft cut tone holes using this tool. If you have an older Folkcraft dulcimer with a heart that has a rounded point on the bottom, it was probably cut on this tool.
Even though this is an older tool, it is in really great shape. We still buy Onsrud bits for several of our tools.
The big foot pedal on the bottom is used to raise and lower the table. It makes it easy to keep your eye on your work piece and still control what you are doing.
Extra chucks and bits.
