Working with Routers (Fine Woodworking): The New Best of Fine Woodworking Paperback – 15 Feb. 2004

My partner inherited I workshop of woodworking tools. Amongst which was a router. He used it for 1 or 2 simple jobs but felt that it could do more. I saw this book on Amazon & bought it on a whim.The book has proved to be very interesting with plenty of pictures & easy to follow instructions. He has used it for more advenerous projects & plans to make a table to add to the machine's versatility.He thinks that this book would be of use for someone who has bought a good quality machine & wants to get the best use of their investment.

If, like me, you are an amateur with just a rudimentary knowledge of routers and want to develop your skills, you would do well to study this book from cover to cover. I was amazed to find how useful and versatile a router can be. Well written and well illustrated, it represents good value for money and I would recommend it to anyone with a serious interest in woodworking.

Overall this is an excellent book, but it is now a little dated (pub. 2004, written before that). The text & pictures are excellent. But in todays safety-conscious work environment, a mere four pages on safe working is not enough really. Obviously routers nowadays come with their own safe working instructions - READ THEM CAREFULLY, as badly handled routers can inflict terrible injuries in a twinking of a blinded eye.Also, the routers in this book are well dated - most routers now come with a comprehensive selection of bits, guards & accessories which it doesn't cover.

This is a great series of books, clear and simple. It does take you to some fairly advanced techniques as well. If you get them second hand, for workshop use then all the better. A word of caution though, these are american books, but anyone with an ounce of 'nouse' will easily work out what they are on about.

If you read routing books such as the excellent, Routing for Beginners, you immediately notice that all of the measurements are given in both metric and imperial units. This is true for most of the non-US produced books I have read. Not only is the exclusive use of imperial measurements, in this book, irritating but because of the typeset used, fractions are reduced to tiny symbols, which have to be peered at, in good light. Using it in a workshop, where the difference between 1/8" and 1/2" is significant, is, in my opinion, an accident waiting to happen.Whilst most of the photography is very good, there are one or two chapters where the picture of the author seems, constantly, to be more important than the router, the cutter, or what it is actually doing.I personally disagree with suggesting the use of, 'climb cuts', but that's just my opinion. It does however have lots of useful information, tips and projects and you will come back to it regularly.Could somebody please suggest to US publishers that Imperial AND Metric units be used in books such as this?

Arrived on time excellent condition one small bend in cover. slightly worried by one picture of man using router in tight white shorts but got over that well written book.

This is how to write and present an instructional and educational manual. Full of simple explanation and experience gathered by the authors over obviously many years has produced a very valuable handbook. This book will enable woodworkers new to routing to get a great headstart and avoid the pitfalls first-time users usually encounter

Bought in conjunction with my first router. Very glossy, excellent illustrations and as far as I can tell at the moment (not yet having read it all) it looks to be quite informative. However, it is American so some of the descriptions are not the same as the UK (splines instead of biscuits for example). In addition, a list of bits incorporated in the book are priced in dollars (and are probably out of date pricewise anyway). Nevertheless it is a quality book but only gets four stars 'cos it's American.