One of my favorite tools happens to be a shop-built tool from Woodsmith. It’s the mortiser seen here from issue No. 217. I made a slight improvement that you see in the photo above, it’s the addition of a clear safety shield in front of the router.
Formed acrylic. Molding a piece of acrylic into a shield is pretty straightforward. I started with a flat piece of stock, and drilled the end locations for the mounting slots. Then, I routed the slots at the router table. After rounding the corners, I sandwiched the plastic between a pair of wood blocks and used a heat gun to soften the plastic enough to form the shape. Then, it’s a simple matter of mounting it to the router clamping block.
Heat. After clamping the acrylic in between a pair of boards, use a heat gun on low heat to slowly soften the plastic along the board.
Bend. When the plastic starts to droop, use another board to bend the warmed plastic down, making an even bend.
You can find the complete step-by-step plans for this Mortising Machine build at WoodsmithPlans.com.
