Quirk router questions

Re: Quirk router questions

Darrell in Oakville

>Scott,

I have not had opportunity to use my quirk router on a real project yet; just some playing around on scrap wood. I just honed them (carefully!) following the original grind. Gor my cutters from Inchmartine. Just plunk inchmartine into Google and it should be right at the top. Fast efficient service, and not too expensive.

Darrell

Google Is My Friend

Re: Quirk router questions

William R. Duffield on the Cohansey

>Tony Murland also sells the blades for the Preston quirk router. Start at http://www.antiquetools.co.uk/tools.htm, select "Antique Tools" and then "Parts/Accessories" and search for "Quirk". A set of three is $35 U.S.

When sharpening, treat the front cutter like you would a pair of nickers on a rabbeting plane, with a small inside angle, and sharp on the front and bottom. A very slim slip or a ratttail will work to get a semicircular channel on the front and bottom. For the cutter, the same geometry as a router cutter works. Make sure you provide a relief angle of at least 5� to 7�. I would suggest the same angles as a low angle block plane, since you will probably be cutting both with the grain and across the grain.

Don't touch the sides, except to hone and polish them, unless the cutter is too wide for your application. In that case, flatten the sides like you would flatten the back of a plane blade, or the face of a scraper.

The tips of the nickers should extend just slightly deeper than the cutter that follows them. Note that you don't have to be really precise with the relative deptsh, since you can rock the router forward or back to control the relative depth.

Thanks but ZOOMMMMMM....

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond CA

>Oh Boy! I'm in WAY over my head here. I get the rabbit part here doc, but...

Sir William, please educate the meek (mainly me;). Relief angle on the cutter? Nevermind...

How does one use this crazy thing? Push me pull you?

I need a little less red wine & some more sleep.

Scott, Going to watch a cat documentery on the discovery channel.

Re: Thanks but ZOOMMMMMM....

William Duffield on the Cohansey

>I was afraid it was going to be complicated. I have some photos on the other computer that might help. I will have to upload them when I get back to it.

The blades are designed to cut both sides and the bottom of a groove or dado, usually for inserting string inlay. With your quirk router, you can also cut a rabbet, for example the inlay (called a quirk) that goes on the corner of a guitar, at the intersection of the top and side, by setting the fence right up against one side of the cutter.

The sides of the groove are cut first, using the front part of the cutter with the semicircular groove down the middle. This works like a pair of nickers on a dado plane. Immediately after the scoring is done, in the same pass, the flat blade removes the wood from between the scoring cuts. If you hold the quirk router flat against the surface of the wood, the scoring cutter should naturally cut just a smidgen deeper than the flat cutter.

Relief angle is the angle the downward face of the cutter makes with the surface of the wood. If it's negative, you can't cut, because that face of the blade pushes the cutting edge up out of the wood. Even if it is just a little positive, you can't cut, because the wood has a little spring back or resiliance, and it actively pushes the cutting edge up and out of the wood. On a bevel up plane, the relief angle is the bedding angle. On a bevel down plane, the relief angle is the bedding angle minus the bevel angle. On a quirk router blade, it is a little harder to describe.

If this is still as clear as mud, I'm going to have to go draw some pictures with annotations (circles and arrows).

Re: Thanks but ZOOMMMMMM....

Dan Donaldson

>Is that the glossy black and white photos with the circles and the arrows and the words on the back that are of Alice fame;-))

not just 'words'

Clay Craig in Miami

>Not mere words, but a "paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each one wuz ... to be used as evidence against us."

Clay

Who is still cracked up by:

"We thought that one big pile (of garbage) was better than two little ones, so rather than bring that one up ... we threw ours down," followed (upon discovery of Arlo's name on an envelope at the bottom of the half a ton of garbage) by "I cannot tell a lie. I put that envelope under that garbage."

Re: Thanks but ZOOMMMMMM....

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond CA

>OK, I'm starting to see through the murky water. It makes a little more sence now. Thanks!

You can get anything you want

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond CA

>... 'ceptin Alice. Funny it's still around, right up the road from me.

Re: Thanks but ZOOMMMMMM....

William Duffield on the Cohansey

>Can you wait a few weeks? Maybe we can get together next month and sort this thing out? Do you have the Preston quirk router like mine, with the cutters that look like the jaws of a woodchuck, or something different? Should I bring mine with me?

TSA will just love your quirk router!

Don Thompson, Cutler Ridge, South of Miami FL

>

Thanks for the offer...

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond CA

>William, I may take you up on it.

I think I got it pretty well figured out now for the most part. The blades that came with it are pretty shot, and mutilated. That's why I was having a hard time figuring them out. Pam had an extra set and offered them to me. I took her up on it, should see a nice new set in a few days.

I know I don't speak alone here, when you come out here, maybe we can orginize a group get together somewhere. Thanks for all your help, Scott

Re: TSA will just love your quirk router!

William Duffield on the Cohansey

>I once got stopped for a block plane in my brief case. That was pre-case-cutter=WMD, so once they figured out what it was, I was deemed "mostly harmless."

Re: Thanks for the offer...

William Duffield on the Cohansey

>Two out of three that I got new fell into the typical, and acceptable, "needs some honing" class. But it appeared that the wrong size tool was applied to grinding the widest one. The semicircular channel between the cutting tips was a bit too narrow, and the front, curving down to the bottom edge, which was supposed to be sharp, had about a sixtyfourth flat. They should have used a larger diameter stone to grind it. It's easy to fix, once you understand the principle, and if you have a stone of the proper geometry.

Joel carries medium and hard Arkansas stones that will do the job.