Router Basics (Basics Series) [Paperback]

Patrick Spielman (Author)

Book Description

Series: Basics Series | Publication Date: December 31, 1990

Hundreds of tips, backed by more than 200 close-up, step-by-step photos and drawings. “A good starter volume.”—Booklist. “Includes a useful glossary of bit types and a list of safety rules....Well-photographed instructions on how to make various cuts—straight, arcs, freehand routing—and includes instructions for a practical application for each of them.”—Woodworker’s Journal.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Sterling (December 31, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 080697222X
• ISBN-13: 978-0806972220
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 7.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #257,942 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #40 in Books > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > How-to & Home Improvements > Power Tools

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

62 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful introduction, July 18, 2000

By 

Kurt D. Fenstermacher (Westport, CT United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Router Basics (Basics Series) (Paperback)

I recently became interested in woodworking, when I received a table saw as a Father's Day gift. (Okay I admit that I made copies of the ad from a newspaper circular and left it lying around the house where my wife would surely see it - taped to the coffee creamer, in the bottom of a cereal bowl, on her pillow - but I was still a little surprised when it appeared.)

I didn't know much about woodworking, but I knew I needed a router. I bought the Freud FT2000E router (also from Amazon). Great router, lousy manual.

After reading the reviews of Spielman's other router books (The Router Handbook and The New Router), I settled on Router Basics as the best choice for a beginner. I have not been disappointed.

The writing is clear, as are the photos that illustrate the text. The most important quality is the thoroughness with which Spielman describes each router feature and operation. For example, he suggests using the router while unplugged, to get a feel for the weight and controls. Next, he recommends using the router while on, but without a bit inserted. Finally, he walks you through inserting a bit and using the router for real.

I think most authors and first-time router users would agree this is a good sequence, but I doubt few authors would take the time to outline it in the text.

After getting a feel for the router, you can work through a series of projects designed to develop your routing skills. For example, the first project is a workbench that uses mortise-and-tenon joinery for the legs and braces. (Mortises are cut-outs in a piece of wood; the tenons are the protrusions from a second piece that fit into the cut-out.) Other projects include building a router table (a handy accessory) and instructions for routing signs.

If you're just getting started with routers, I heartily recommend this book.

52 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good book for Beginners, November 19, 1998

By 

David Green ([e-mail] - See all my reviews

This review is from: Router Basics (Basics Series) (Paperback)

This book is a very basic book - good for a beginner new to routing and woodworking. A person more experienced with general woodworking might find it a little too basic. This book does make an excellent primer to Mr. Spielman's book "The New Router", which goes into much more detail on routers and router bits.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Saved me a lot more grief & money, September 5, 2002

By 

Robert D. Marquis (Havertown, PA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Router Basics (Basics Series) (Paperback)

I am somewhat experienced with router operations, I thought!
I bought a Freud FT 2000EP last year, my first hgh powered plunge router. After several weeks floundering about trying to figure out how to operate the 2000 based on my experience with my lower powered fixed base router and the piece of garbage Freud packs in with the tool as an owner's/instruction manual, I decided I had to get some help, before I chopped up any more wood or myself.
I bought this book and The New Router Handbook, by Spielman also. After reading almost half of Router Basics I can now operate my Freud router safely and know how to make some of the adjustments properly. It's sad that one has to buy an "after market" publication in order to be able to safely & effectively operate an individual power tool purchased from someone else. The operating manual sent with my FT 2000EP meets only absolutely minimum standards when using the tool (MAY keep them afloat in a product liability court room). This book is a necessity if you have never operated a plunge router before and/or have the misfortune to get one with an operating manual as inadequate as mine had packed with it. Spielman saved my bacon and his book is a very enjoyable read to boot.
I have picked up a lot of new pointers on general router operation I thought I already understood, I didn't. I've been woodworking for most of my 64 years and it sure feels good to be taken back to the basics. Wished all learning (or re-learning) could be this enjoyable. Read this book before you "light off" that new router for the first time. It'll save you a lot of money for the destroyed wood, grief from your damaged ego and maybe even a finger or two.