Router guide apparatus with securing means

#This invention relates to a router guide apparatus having a securing means for securing the apparatus to the sides or edges of boards and panels, and particularly the sides or edges of doors and windows.

#When routing the edges of boards and panels, such as a recess for a door hinge, it is desirable to provide a stable working platform on which the router can rest.

#In the prior art, a number of designs have been proposed for templates and devices which can be used for routing recesses for door hinges. One such design is shown in Spielman, P., The New Router Handbook (New York: Sterling Publishing Co., 1993) at pp. 181-183. In illus. 14-13 and 14—14, a template guide for door hinge mortising is shown. The template guide shown in illus. 14-13 and 14—14, provides two parallel supporting rails on which the hand-held router can rest. However, the two supporting rails form a relatively narrow gauge track and the hand-held router has a substantial overhang, with the possibility that the hand-held router could easily tip during use. On p. 182, in illus. 14-17 to 14-19, another door hinge template is shown attached to a clamping block. While the apparatus in illus. 14-17 to 14-19 provides a wider platform, it is still possible for the hand-held router to tip if brought close to the edge, as shown in illus. 14-18. Furthermore, the area to be mortised is fixed by the fixed rectangular hole cut into the fixed platform.

#For a better understanding of the present invention, and to show more clearly how it may be carried into effect, reference will now be made, by way of example, to the accompanying drawings which show a preferred embodiment of the present invention, and in which:

#FIG. 1A shows an isometric view of an apparatus according to the present invention having a working platform mounted on a securing means;

#FIG. 1B shows an exploded isometric view of the apparatus of FIG. 1A, with the working platform shown spaced above the securing means;

#The apparatus of the present invention is, at some points, referred to as a “smartguide”.

#Referring to FIGS. 1A, 1B, and 2, a platform area 1 has a large rectangular hole 2 near its center in which all routing activity will take place. The base plate of a standard hand-held router sits on the platform area 1 and slides around in the middle of the platform area 1, where it is limited by each of three inboard adjustable fences 11, 12 and also by an outboard adjustable fence 21. Located underneath each of the two inboard adjustable fences 11 are a pair of slots 9 cut out of the platform area 1. Similarly, underneath the other inboard adjustable fence 12 is a pair of slots 10, also cut out of the platform area 1. Each of the inboard adjustable fences 11, 12 has two flat-headed machine screws 13 passing through it and aligned with respective pair of slots 9, 10.

#Now referring to FIGS. 3, 4, and 10 screwed onto the bottom of each flat-headed machine screw 13, and underneath the pairs of slots 9, 10, are T-nuts 14 having square shanks to prevent them from turning inside wide slots 30 running along and underneath each slot 9, 10.