i have started a series how to make hybrid pantorouter on youtube
all the dimension gonna be free of cost.

 

The book "Router Magic" by Bill Hylton (Router Magic: Jigs, Fixtures, and Tricks to Unleash Your Router's Full Potential: Bill Hylton: 9780762101856: Amazon.com: Books) contains enough jig plans, descriptions, uses and good info to keep you busy for years. Most are built of wood, but could easily be adapted to an aluminum base if you chose to go that direction. Great investment in my opinion.

This forum alone probably has many times the number of jig plans as found in Router Magic--so i often see something in the book, find another way someone did it on here, then meet it somewhere in the middle.

Best wishes!!

 

I will definitly look into both asap thank you both

 

Jigs for aluminum and routers?
This one is for sizing to length, to the nearest .001".
Its cousin, not shown, sizes bandsawn samples to a net width, also to + or - .001"
Would I try this with a Sear's tool? I might but working aluminum is only for those with priors & hands-on instruction. I would not venture into this without somebody showing me. A big router is better; the cutter traction in Al. is high and requires a lot more power than cutting wood.
The sizing and machining of aluminum is quite manageable with woodworking tools but doing it is full of surprises. The end cut, e.g. was done in a climb cut!

 

Welcome aboard. If I want jig plans I usually go to the library and borrow a book. Seldom follow the plans, but it give me a starting point. I make all my own jigs and templates out of 1/2" plywood, then another layer of 1/2" plywood. Suprising to a lot of people just how accurate I can make these. But I also need to make a lot of minor changes to get the results I want/need, so often wind up making two, three, or even more, before I get what I want. I think I've got an example of what I mean I can show you. They can get intricate at times. The one on the left is tacked down to the piece being routed. The two on the right, the piece being routed is held in by finger pressure. And any special instructions I make sure to mark on the master.

 

A lot of woodworkers use 1/4 to 1/2" ply or mdf for jigs. My favorite jigs are the ones that are simple and cheap (often made from scrap) so that when I am done I just take apart and reuse what is good and toss the rest. Many jigs only get used once or very rarely and to keep them clutters your shop eventually. Many only cover a narrow range of sizes. I would wait until you know what you want to build before you have any jigs made and the ones you have a machine shop make would need to be used often to justify the cost.

 

thank you all for your inputs so far, and an update! while asking prices on the stock from my boss and then explaining what it was for he informed me that if i could find what i needed in the scrap and end cut bins then i wouldnt have to pay!!! so i looked around on lunch break in the bins and smiled. so from what im seeing and haveing my machinist friend look as well im looking at anything from 1/8 to 3/4 inch aluminum and from 2" to around 24" lenths some where up to 12 feet long but like 1/2 inch wide as they are shear cut offs!! for free i got excited then i thought uh oh i bet these scraps are warp or something. so back to machinist friend of the three test pieces from scrap i brought him he looked then checked level then tested around with calipers. the scraps he said where as good as the stock setting in the machine getting cut right then! so im happy about how that turned out, and i know i will make one time jigs from scrap woods i started one today in fact, but for jigs that will be used several times or more this sounds good for free i was looking at some of the jigs i couldnt afford and they are made mostly of machined aluminum. thanks agian and ill keep updating!

 

thank you all for your inputs so far, and an update! while asking prices on the stock from my boss and then explaining what it was for he informed me that if i could find what i needed in the scrap and end cut bins then i wouldnt have to pay!!! !

OHHHHH the envy....
yur killing me here...

 

im hoping i will be able to build a router table in the coming months. any help would be greatly appreciated thanks in advance for inputs

If I had this kind of opportunity, I would be asking him to make a table top and fence, after all the router table is the best router jig. I am so jealous

 

Yes it hit me thursday night about the table. so i have researched various brands of aluminum plate inserts. from that and info i have gathered here from you guys i have drew up a table plate insert. do you think i should make the whole table top aluminum too? and i had the thought on the fence as well but wasnt sure if aluminum would be better. thanks for inputs

 

Okay that sounds great, thanks alot guys ill have a conversation about this as well he seems more than happy to help plus ill owe him a few favors back its like currency in the shop haha. I think 3/4 maybe as thick as i can find maybe 1 inch ill look tonight. Thanks again