Jig Saw and Thick Stock

[Jim Summers]

Hello All,

I am working on a homegrown router table. For my top I glued together a piece of .75" BB and .75" MDF ending up with a top that is 1.5" thick. I went that thick because most of the commercial tops are anywhere from 1" to 1.375" thick, so I thought what the heck. Next step was to cut the hole for the router plate. The power tool I used was a jig saw with enough blade travel to barely make it through. Seemed to work, until I knocked the cutout from the table and saw that the blade, while cutting had angled itself and basically made a bevel cut, fortunately the hole / top are useable just kind of a ugly cut.

So I was wondering what / how to cut a hole in something that thick? Is there a jigsaw blade that is specifically designed for this? Maybe I should have used a skil saw and slowly dropped into the cut and cut as much as possible and then finished the rest with the jig saw?

Thanks

[Bob Aquino]

Hello All,

I am working on a homegrown router table. For my top I glued together a piece of .75" BB and .75" MDF ending up with a top that is 1.5" thick. I went that thick because most of the commercial tops are anywhere from 1" to 1.375" thick, so I thought what the heck. Next step was to cut the hole for the router plate. The power tool I used was a jig saw with enough blade travel to barely make it through. Seemed to work, until I knocked the cutout from the table and saw that the blade, while cutting had angled itself and basically made a bevel cut, fortunately the hole / top are useable just kind of a ugly cut.

So I was wondering what / how to cut a hole in something that thick? Is there a jigsaw blade that is specifically designed for this? Maybe I should have used a skil saw and slowly dropped into the cut and cut as much as possible and then finished the rest with the jig saw?

Thanks

Probably the only way to clean up the hole now would be to make a template out of some quarter inch material and use a router with a guide bearing to clean up the edges. Jigsaws vary in quality of cut, a bosch with a good blade or the equivalent will give a nice clean cut with straight edges.

[Dave MacArthur]

Another good method would be to use a plunge router with a template, probably making several passes to cut that deep. Making a template out of 1/4 " hardboard with the jigsaw would be pretty uneventful, then use that with the router.

[dan moran]

Making a template out of 1/4 " hardboard with the jigsaw would be pretty uneventful

provided the work is held down in a stable way..

[Chris Friesen]

I am working on a homegrown router table. For my top I glued together a piece of .75" BB and .75" MDF ending up with a top that is 1.5" thick. I...So I was wondering what / how to cut a hole in something that thick? Is there a jigsaw blade that is specifically designed for this?

Shouldn't be a problem for a decent jigsaw and blade. Bosch has side guides right down near the surface but even my older Makita does a reasonable job. You can get extra-long blades for thick materials...you don't want the bottom tip of the blade coming up into the wood.

Lastly, for sharper curves in thick materials a router with a long bit works great. I've got one bit with 2" of cutting depth. For long bits like this a 1/2" shank is preferable.

[Jim Grill]

Probably the only way to clean up the hole now would be to make a template out of some quarter inch material and use a router with a guide bearing to clean up the edges. Jigsaws vary in quality of cut, a bosch with a good blade or the equivalent will give a nice clean cut with straight edges.

This is the method I would use. I have a 2" flush trim bit that sees this type of work pretty regularly.

[Jim Becker]

Relative to your jig saw question, cutting in thicker stock is much more workable with one of the tools that have blade guides. These machines are built better in that respect and they also handle longer/thicker blades better. Examples are the Bosch and Festool jigsaws. The machines that don't have the guides tend to have more "wandering" issues.

I agree with the comment about using a router to clean things up with a pattern bit...it works very well.

[Jim Summers]

Thanks everyone. I wish I had posted before I did the cutting. Now looking at all of the suggestions I am pretty sure I could have easily modified the template I have, which was setup to cut hole to the size of the router plate. I could have easily added some .5" stock to the inside of it to give me the proper lipsize. Live and learn!

Thanks again and take it easy.