Shop & tools • Shop tool

CNC-made router sled

CNC-cut panels became a tool for the woodshop. Sometimes making things starts with making the tool.

Documented October 2020Build story

The need

The workshop needed a router sled without waiting for the referenced kit.

The response

Adapt the Lee Valley reference and fabricate the panels on the CNC.

The result

A constructed shop tool made with another shop tool.

PART OF A LARGER COLLECTIONPrinters & machine work →

Professional notes

Contribution

Reference adaptation, panel fabrication and assembly.

Result

A constructed shop aid, with CNC fabrication feeding back into woodworking.

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I needed a router sled

I had been looking at a commercial router-sled kit, but I already had access to a CNC and could make the panels myself. I cut the support pieces and assembled the sled for use in the woodshop.

The CNC made the shop tool

This was a straightforward case of using one machine to build another tool. The CNC work was not the finished product; the assembled router sled was.

Starting from a useful reference

The idea came from the commercial kit I had been considering. I adapted that general arrangement to the material, machine, and hardware I had available.

Using the CNC to make another tool

I needed a router sled and had been looking at a commercial kit. Since I already had access to a CNC, I adapted the general arrangement, cut the support panels, and assembled the rails and router setup myself. The CNC work was only one step in the job. The finished result was another shop tool that could support later woodworking, which is why the assembled sled matters more here than the individual cut panels.

Credits & project notes

Reference concept: Lee Valley router-sled hardware kit. Adaptation and CNC-cut panels: Michael Pytlowany.

The record documents the constructed shop aid. Process benefits are qualitative; no measured productivity increase is claimed. The reference-product image from the original post is not reproduced.

Sources

Router-sled project account
24 October 2020

Tools used in this work 3

Milwaukee M18 drill/driver ↗Milwaukee M18 batteries ↗BobsCNC Evolution 4 ↗