Anybody have any insights on the best way to accomplish this....have heard of some people using routers...some with lathes. Any info would be great.

I'm fairly new at doing this, but I don't see how you could do it with a router. I have a Jet Mini lathe and it's great. I got a copy of Andy Dear's DVD and just did it the way he said and it turned out quite nice. I bought the wood from Andy as well. Either the Jet or the Penn State Industries Turncrafter are good lathes for reel seat inserts and grips. Some people like the variable speed, my is a five speed and I have to move the belt to change speeds, but it's really not a big deal to do. I didn't think the variable speed was worth the extra money.

Hi Joe--the router would only be used to cut mortised inserts for those skeletons requiring it like many REC seats, the Forecast/PacBay U3, etc. Contact Andy at Lamar for his DVD...it'll save you a lot of grief! :)

I use a router fixture from Bob Venneri cost is 350.00 . I have over 500.00 in my setup to make the mortise. Thanks Dave

Guys,


Thanks for the info......

As far as the router thing goes....I planned on using a lathe, the a router with a 1/2 radius bit (fingernail) for the mortise. Then I read a blurb from somebody on a bamboo rod building site about how he turned them on a router using some sort of jig set up....the spacer blank was mounted on a mandrel, mandrel ends into wooden blocks which would allow thw wood to rotate. This guy claimed it worked great...anybody heard of anything like that? in theory I could understand how this could work to cut a cylinder...but it seems a bit too complicated.

I will definitely check out Andy Dears tape.

That method not only sounds very complicated, but it also sounds like it would be more work than using a lathe. A lathe is easy as long as you take your time and pay attention. I would really like to make mortised inserts, but not for $350++.

Gerry,

I'm on the same page as you about the $$$$$. I am not going to make enough reelseats to justify that. You can get a fingernail router bit for about 12 bucks and I can make a jig easy enough to cut the mortise. I have very little experience on a wood lathe and am going to try this on my father in laws while visiting....how hard can it be I suppose!

He has some dried Walnut from a tree that sat in front of the family farm house for as long as can be remembered...I am going to make a reelseat for him out of that wood.

I looked up the JET mini lathe....I see one in my future soon!

Thanks
Joe

Take a picture after you make the jig and post it. Lots of people would like to know how to do that, including me.

I've used a wood lathe to turn seats, but I like my 7x12 metal lathe much better, the screw feed on the cross slide that holds the tool bit can't be beat for accuracy and repeatablilty.
john

I have made a couple of mortised seats on the wood lathe. Works fine for the seats that take a square mortise, like the Pac bay. Won't make the oval fingernail style without more work. I made a sliding plywood jig that slides back and forth on the lathe bed. The router (a small one, I used a dremel tool with a router attachment and 1/8" bit) is mounted at the height of the exact center of the lathe centers with the router mounted at right angles to the lathe axis. Turn the insert body and the ends to the correct diameter. Then mark the width of the mortise with a pencil mark or scribe. Then adjust the router bit so that it cuts almost, but not quite, to the depth of the mortise (the same diameter and the ends). Lock the lathe head and make a pass down the insert. then rotate slightly and cut again. repeat until the mortise is cut out. Then take a sanding block and some 220 and finish sand all the little flats out until it is smooth and the exact right height. Sounds like a lot of trouble, but after you build the jig and do the first one the rest take about 3 min to completely cut and sand. One beauty of this method is that it works on very difficult woods (I usually use burl redwood for these) with almost no danger of tearout or of ruining the seat. And it is a lot safer than the thumbnail bit and jig method. If my description is not clear, just look at a lathe book that tells how to make flutes on a leg. Exact same idea. You could probably rig up a curved guide for the sliding jig that would let it move in and out on the axis of the bit and do the thumbnail inserts this way too.

Sears used to sell tools that used a router to make lathe turnings. Router crafter and bowl crafter, I think. Not unusual to make round objects by using a jig that turns the work on center while feed in in to a router bit. Sorta like a commercial pattern lathe. Probably be a good way to make inserts but a lot of trouble to build. For just a few the lathe works good.