From choosing stock to cutting joints

Routers can be used to cut a wide variety of joints quickly and accurately. In this video, professional woodworker Gary Rogowski demonstrates router joinery techniques that can be mastered by any woodworker. You'll learn why correct setup and good stock preparation are essential to accurate work, and you'll see how to cut common frame and carcase joints using a hand-held or table-mounted router.

You'll see how to rout:

• rabbets, dadoes and grooves
• half-laps
• mortise-and-tenon joints
• loose-tenon joints
• half-blind and through dovetails
• sliding dovetails

Get the most out of your router

Woodworkers of every skill level will find something useful in this DVE about the most versatile power tool in the shop. For router expert Pat Warner, the basic idea is to use the router as a "finishing" tool: do all your rough-cutting and hogging with other power tools, then remove the last 1/32 in. of wood with the router, in a clean, surgical stroke.

Warner shows you how to rout clean circles and holes; how to make half-lap joints at the ends of boards, and laps in the middle of boards that cross each other at any angle you choose. There's a section on the anatomy of a fixed-base router, another on the use of the collar guide for precise template work, and a lesson on getting two different shapes from the same decorative-profile bit.

Get the most out of the versatile router

Discover dozens of ways that the router can be used to increase your productivity -- and creativity -- in the shop. In this video, you'll learn basic router joinery and how to rout the subtle shapes necessary to create a handsome hand mirror (plans for the hand mirror are in the accompanying booklet).

You will learn about:

• making spline edge joints in boards with the router
• routing mortises and tenons that fit
• routing sliding dovetail mortises and tenons
• a variety of jigs for the router
• cutting to a pattern, tapers, roundovers, under-cuts, decorative covers and routed cavities

The router is the heart of any woodworking shop, and for new woodworkers learning to use this indispensable tool, The router - A Beginner's Guide is your ticket to building handsome furniture.

Using a router and just a starter set of cutters, the former editor of Router Magazine, Alan Goodsell, demonstrates the techniques, tools, and accessories needed to unleash the full potential of woodworking's most versatile tool. You'll learn the basics of router use, maintenance, and safety.

Study The Router - A Beginner's Guide and even a beginner will be armed with the skills needed to build things they can be proud of.

Topics Included:
Basic techniques
Router safety
Holding a workpiece
Projects for the home

Mark Eaton has a tremendous history working as an educator and expert in the woodworking community. Now Mark shares his expertise with routing and router tables with the rest of us through an incredibly educational 25 chapter DVD.  In the sample chapter above Mark discusses a tip for perfect radius corners.