Router Magic: Jigs, Fixtures, and Tricks to Unleash Your Router's Full Potential

The subtitle says it all. This book can unleash your router's full potential. There are jigs for everything in this book -- routing circles, mortises, all types of edge joints, dadoes, etc. An excellent resource. There are lots of detailed instructions for construction and use of all the jigs and router tables. The author is very readable. It's a pleasure to read, and extremely helpful. If this is your first router book purchase, look at "Woodworking with the Router" by the same author. That's a better first purchase. This is a good companion book.

This is fun to read. The drawings are detailed and the writing is very well written. There are so many things that I learned by reading this book. It will make you say..."Why did I not think of that before." I have a very good amount of wood working experience and was pleased by how much knowledge this book dropped on me. It will open your mind up to possibilites not just limited to Routers. Even if you have no plans to build any of the jigs, you will certainly learn to think about fabricating other things in your shop to make wood working more accurate. At less than $12, its hard not to cough up the money for the many hours of reading and brainstorming you will get back from the book- Jason

This book contains lots of helpful information and plans for making jigs and using your router as a superior workshop MULTI-TOOL.. The last "jig" in this book is by far the most creative use of a router I have seen so far. Its a router lathe built with bicycle parts, that turns your router into a "mini" turning machine capable of handling any length of stock and creating beautiful spiral designs. I don't know much about turning, but I do know machines capable of creating spirals are either extremely expensive, or are moderately priced ($300) and cheap, with far less options as the homebuilt version.

While the jigs do require attention to detail to get the most use out of, certainly most of them could be made a bit sloppily and still be worth an attempt. I've made about 6 or 7 and use them regularly. (No, I did not make the turning jig at the end...and I'm positive I never will...although, I keep saying I don't want a lathe and that might be a solution!)The book does not cover things like "what kind of bits should I buy at first" and "what do I do if I run my router bit through my aluminum t-slot". It's a book about using jigs to solve your problems and to make using a router safer and more effecient. If you own a router and know how to make even bad cuts with it, you should read this through and find ways to make your life easier.Anyway, just keep in mind that you don't need to make all of the jigs here to get started. Just make the 2 or 3 basic ones (all of which take less than a weekend to make--usually 4-8 hours once you have the materials) and make the others as you need them. Again, it may be a bit intimidating at first read, but all of the details are there and after a second read of a jig, they will come to life for you.He hit the router table design right on the head. Great design, I stole some components and added them to my existing clunker to make it more useful. When I accidentally run over it with my truck in a few months, I'm planning to build his almost exactly as detailed.(No I don't know the author...I'd have to pull my copy off my workbench to check his name.)