Taunton's Complete Illustrated Guide to Routers (Complete Illustrated Guides) [Paperback]

Lonnie Bird (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 3, 2006 | Series: Complete Illustrated Guides

This book, in the "Complete Illustrated Guide" format covers one of the most popular tools in woodworking and home improvement in a step-by-step, highly visual presentation. The router is so popular because it can do an amazing variety of tasks. Bits and cutters can shape hundreds of profiles for edge treatments and moldings. Routers (especially the plunge type) can cut joinery from simple tongue and groove to interlocking and decorative joints. Mounted under a flat surface and guided by a fence, the router becomes a versatile shaping machine capable of safely spinning large bits for making large moldings and raising panels as well as more accurate joinery and shaping operations. Router users have developed hundreds of clever jigs for repetitive and dedicated operations. New bits, accessories, and enhancements for the router are constantly under development extending the use of this machine even further. This book covers all the practical router techniques as well as router table choice, construction and use and the techniques for popular jigs and fixtures.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Lonnie Bird, a professional woodworker specializing in period furniture, was a contributing editor to American Woodworker. He taught woodworking at the university level and now operates his own school in Dandridge, Tennessee.

Product Details

• Paperback: 233 pages
• Publisher: Taunton Press (October 3, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1561587664
• ISBN-13: 978-1561587667
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 9.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #19,549 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Lonnie Bird, a professional woodworker specializing in period furniture, was a contributing editor to American Woodworker. He taught woodworking at the university level and now operates his own school in Dandridge, Tennessee.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Real good introduction to routers, December 22, 2009

By 

Bob Champoux - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Taunton's Complete Illustrated Guide to Routers (Paperback)

Overall, I liked this book. It's right on and serves as a great introduction if you are new to routers. It's well laid out and has great chapters on the different types of routers, what to look for when purchasing. etc. It gives a nice comparison to aid you in determining which of the three basic types of routers is for you (If you haven't bought one yet). The book has super chapters on Basic Operations and the Joinery section is quite good, too. If you are completely new to routers or if you have garnered information piecemeal from reading posts in woodworking forums, this book walks you through the basics very nicely and completes the picture on topics like motor options, adapter sleeves for collets, guide bushings, how much wood to take off for the first cut, how to plunge, etc.

He provides great insight that only an accomplished router user and woodworker can: Variations in bit shank diameters, horizontal versus vertical panel-raising bits, using woodworking double-sided tape instead of carpet tape and safety. I truly like how he routinely brings safety to the forefront and doesn't just have it set off in a chapter by itself where it is presented and then forgotten. He also shows how to make easy safety devices and jigs without much effort.

A couple of caveats about the book so that you won't have any surprises if you decide to pick this up: The author expects you to have some basic knowledge about woodworking. There are sentences such as this one in the first chapter, "The plunge router is the best choice for routing mortises..." He doesn't explain what a mortise is as he expects you to know. So, if you know what mortises, beading, rabbets, bird's-mouth joints, drawer lock joints, finger joints, coreboxes, stiles and rails are, or if you don't mind looking them up as you read, then you won't be put off as you read. I hasten to add that this terminology is pretty much thrown at you in Section 2, when he introduces different types of bits and what they do. For some of these joints, he provides page references to sections further into the book where he explains how to accomplish these joints/items so, you can glance ahead to see what he's writing about. After this chapter 2, the term-slinging disappears and he wholly explains each topic and provides descriptions and diagrams for new terms right then and there. The only term that is not explained anywhere in the book that needs to be is, "climb cut." The extent of this discussion was "Don't do this!" but it is left to the reader to interpret what a climb cut is. A more through presentation of this is a must in any introductory router book. I should hope that in the next edition, a more obvious description and the requisite cautionary notes are discussed.

There is also some contradictory information. For example, Bird mentions a couple of times that bit with a skewed flute will cut more cleanly. He states this on one page and on the same page has a photo of a non-skewed rabbet bit with the caption, "This large rabbet bit can make smooth rabbets..."

The photography was all professionally done and is equal to that of other Taunton publications. There are numerous photos and captions for each topic. Diagrams were nice and clear. I will probably be taken to task on this, but I didn't always understand what I was supposed to be seeing in each photo. Some photos, I thought, were taken from too far away and others were zoomed in too close to understand what the author was trying to convey. I wish the pencil had made an appearance in more photos, pointing out what I was supposed to be seeing. After reading a confusing section, I just went through the photos and captions again, which aided in digesting it.

So, this review may seem a tad harsh but I did enjoy the book. I definitely got a lot out of it and I truly enjoyed how Bird really explained things well and made all the jumbled pieces I had floating around in my head fit together and solidified my knowledge base. It's a very good read and an excellent intro book. Even if you know a bit about routers, I bet you can breeze through this and glean a little of Lonnie's knowledge. I'm glad to have it on my shelf.

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book, April 5, 2008

By 

James L. Fuqua "Jim" (Hendersonville, TN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Taunton's Complete Illustrated Guide to Routers (Complete Illustrated Guides) (Paperback)

This book has the best illustrations I have ever seen in a book of this type. I probably own about fifteen books on routers and jigs that use routers. Most have similar content. This book has most everything the others have with better illustrations.

What sets this book apart is the quality of illustrations and that it has some information that none of the others cover. The issue covered here and in none of my other books is how to use the router as a prelude to hand woodworking.

For dovetails, no router jig can match the versatility a skilled woodworker can obtain by hand with a Japanese saw and a good set of chisels, but even a person making hand dovetails can save time and do some prep work with a router for some, but not all, dovetails.

I took a class on woodworking essentials, including hand dovetailing, at Lonnie's woodworking school in Dandridge, TN. Many of the time saving techniques he taught in his class are in this book. In his class a router was not used to make dovetails, but but was used to remove excess wood where convenient so that time was not wasted in getting down to the hand work. I might add that I had a week to read and look at the book at his school before buying it. I added it to my collection of router books because of the quality of the book. I have no other relationship to the author or publisher of this book.

I strongly recommend this book and also Lonnie's school. He makes museum quality work by hand but knows how to use machines where they make sense. Although I was not one of the best students in his one week class of seven students, the dovetails I made were better than some I have seen as illustrations in books on how to hand cut dovetails. That he could teach me is a testament to both his patience and skill as a teacher. He is an equally good author.

Machines can take over and make pieces for you. Every book on routers seems to teach that approach to woodworking. This one goes beyond and teaches things useful to those of us who want to learn fine hand woodworking also.

When I buy a book on woodworking I want to learn skills that will last and not information that will be outdated in a short time. It bothered another reviewer that this book did not cover routers from other countries. The features offered by manufacturers of woodworking machines change so frequently that no book could be up to date for long about such matters. Reviews of the relative merits of one router over another can best be obtained from magazines. Even then by the publication date the information will likely have changed.

In summary this book is complete and well illustrated. If you will own but one book on routers this one is as good as they get.

Jim Fuqua

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not sure who this book is aimed at..., May 16, 2010

By 

D. Oliver (SF, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Taunton's Complete Illustrated Guide to Routers (Complete Illustrated Guides) (Paperback)

There is some good info in here and certainly lots of nice photography, but it's not clear to me who would really benefit from this book. The topics are not covered in enough detail to really be useful to a beginner, but they also don't feel advanced or complete enough to be appropriate for advanced users or reference materials. It could probably be useful as a supplement to a more complete book (Hylton?) but I don't think it stands on its own very well.