[Job and Knock]

Firstly I don't see what is wrong in making a curve template in 12mm (1/2in) MR-MDF using the router with a straight 2-flute cutter and a home-made trammel guide. A trammel guide is little more than a piece of 12mm MR-MDF with the router screwed to one end and a screw or pin through the other to act as a pivot point. You'd need two pieces. If those two pieces were then fixed onto another piece of 12mm MR-MDF the two straight end cuts could be made on a table saw or mitre saw and the radius edges routed using a top-bearing straight template trim bit in the router. That would give you the template for copy routing - again the top bearing bit would be used for that. In all cases it is highly advisable to hog away the majority of the waste using either a jig saw or a bnd saw to reduce the load on both the router and its' cutter. Personally I'd be leary of using spiral cutters in the RT0700C because they have small collets and I'd be concerned about cutter pull-out/push-in on 18mm (3/4in) deep copy routing passes. I'd also turn the speed down to about 25,000 rpm

 

[Job and Knock]

Woah, hang on there a minute Horacio. According to the specs on your router, it uses 1/4 inch shank router bits. Whatever you buy needs to have a 1/4 inch shank. I am not sure where the 3/8 inch came from. Maybe you fat fingered the typing like I do sometimes, or got confused.

The RT0700/0701 in several markets is supplied with both 1/4in and 3/8in collets (certainly is in the UK). Documented in the manual. 6mm and 8mm are also available

Your router is a compact model and may not work with large diameter cutters.

The collets are actually very small so that really limits you to a cutter of no more than about 12mm (1/2in) and to avoid excessive vibration on bigger cutters it is highly advisable to reduce the running speed to about "5"

 

[Job and Knock]

Regarding my jig saw [discontinued Bosch 1584 AVSK] I think that I have been using 0 as the wrong orbit setting. According to the owners manual I should use setting III for soft materials such as wood or plastic [my project uses 3/4" Baltic Birch plywood]. Blade is a Bosch T101AO. Let's see how it goes.

The T101AO is designed for thinner materials and my experience of it is that 18mm (3/4in) is kind of pushing it and that adding high orbit (III) is only going to make for a poorer cut and give you lots of breakages. I'd say better to go for a T244D with zero orbit as that will give a faster cut on even extreme curves, albeit a little ragged at the edges - not that it matters as you are only roughing out and the router cutter will smooth the rest

 

[Job and Knock]

I found a T144D in a drawer, tried it and it worked perfectly. Nevertheless, per your suggestion, I will order a package of T244D.

If it isn't broke, don't fix it. If the T144D works for you then keep going with it.

In '85 had a top of the line Craftsman, I do not remember the model, and made perfect circles using a Craftsman trammel point. There is one for sale on ebay but the distance between the rods that attach to the router base are too wide [5"] for my Makita. Festool sells a simple trammel unit [483922] for $27 but I am not sure it will fit my router. I will need a trammel to cut the drivers' holes [loudspeakers] at 277mm - inner circle. Please see template.

Looking at the CX3 kit it appears to have the plunge base. That plunge base uses a 8mm fence rods (I have the RT0700 kit over here complete with all 4 bases) which is the same size of fence rod used by Festool (for the OF1010), deWalt (DW613/DW615/DW621/DW622), Trend (T5), etc. So a trammel point such as the Trend BEAM/005 (see attached pic) will work on one of your fence rods or a complete trammel arm and point such as the Trend BEAM/001 or the deWalt DE6905 will work on one of your fence rods. Personally, being a cheapskate, I'd tend to opt for an offcut of thin plywood with the router screwed to one end and a veneer pin or thin screw driven through at an appropriate distance from the cutter to do a "home-baked" trammel. Don't really know about the Festool - the only one I've seen is a sort of guide rail adaptor/trammel head which requires two bars in the router. If that's the one you are referring to it won't work because the fence rod centres aren't compatible with the Makita. Personally I prefer the separate trammel head as it is more flexible - want a longer rod? Just buy a piece of 8mm diameter silver steel rod and cut to length

Edit: Just found the Festool SZ-OF 1000 and that should also work

 

[Job and Knock]

I'd be trying to leave a little less waste than that for the router, however, what speed are you running the router at? Also do you have any dust extraction on and how fast are you feeding the router? I suspect that you may be spinning the cutter too fast and without dust extraction and that your feed speed may be too low

 

[Job and Knock]

I'd try reducing your cutter speed to more like 25,000rpm ("5") and increase the rate at which you feed the router into the work a little to see if that helps. 1/8in waste is fine (sorry, couldn't see how much it was).

 

[Job and Knock]

I think you need to get a bit which is configured for plunging entry. These often have a small piece of pointed carbide brazed in the very bottom of the cutter, For trammel work I'd use a 2-flute straight cutter. A lot of ordinary 2-flute straight cutters are plunge-type cutters these days