Nail Scrap Plywood Around the Workpiece to Make an Instant Router Template

The Problem

A bearing-guided router bit will faithfully copy any template you give it — the hard part has always been making the template. Cutting one from MDF means transferring measurements, cutting curves cleanly, and fairing edges, which for a one-off job can take longer than the routing itself. So one-off recesses and odd-shaped inlays get done freehand, with freehand results.

The Technique

This craftsman builds the template directly against the object he's copying:

1. Set the workpiece (in his case, a sink) in position, or lay it on the surface to be routed.
2. Take strips of scrap plywood and lay them against its edges, one at a time, tracing the outline physically — each strip butts the object's edge along one segment of the shape.
3. Brad-nail the strips to each other where they overlap, building up a closed frame that captures the exact outline where it sits.
4. Lift the object out; the nailed-together frame is your template. Fix it down and run a bearing-guided bit against it — the bearing rides the plywood edges and the cutter reproduces the shape below.

His demo job: he disliked how the sink's rim stood proud of the countertop, so he templated the sink's outline and routed a recess that dropped the rim flush — a countersunk sink, cut with a template that took minutes and cost nothing.