I love my router!

Actually both of them. But this time, I’m talking wood, not computers.

When we moved into the house, we discovered a kitchen drawer that needed fixing. 

Well, it didn’t look like this. Actually, you see the little support beam going across? There’s a notch out of the back of the drawer that glides along that, and this drawer’s notch had … enlarged. Big time. It had broken from the notch all the way to the right corner. So…the drawer didn’t glide, it skewed.

I can fix that, sayeth I. But I need a router to do it right. (I’ve always wanted a router.) We have a garage now, with a workbench. Oh, joy! As a housewarming gift, Carolyn gets me … a router!!!! Only one problem…the workbench was beyond filled with boxes of … stuff. No room to use my beautiful new router.

No router. No drawer. Enter OSGirl and the upcoming Visitation. In some ways, I’ve never quite outgrown the College Student mindset. It takes a visit from Mom (or in this case, several really nice new friends) to get me to Get Things Done. In addition to the mural, I’ve been trying to take a room a day and do the things I’ve been planning to do for two years. There’s no way I’ll get them all done, but I can get the most aggregious.

The acquisition of the two small sheds into which I’ve put my garden chemicals and tools, and the garage sale, have given me space to move in the garage. So, yesterday, I took a day off from the mural and began to make order out of garage chaos. My reward for a successful day was putting my router table together and fixing the kitchen drawer.

It was all fun, until this morning, when I tried to actually use the router. Now understand, I’ve never used a router. I know how they work in principal, but I’ve never used one. I was just following the directions. I put the table together, attached the router and blithely screwed it to my newly cleaned worktable. As per the instructions, I tried to remove the motor in order to put in the cutting blade. Only one problem. The motor is longer than the table is high! It couldn’t possibly come out.

Mind you, this table and router came as a set! The real kicker was, I tried calling the Skil help number…and after being told to wait for an operator, it dropped me! Three times!

Aw, well. In the words of the immortal Kiyrstin, I made do. I unscrewed the legs from the work table, mounted them on some scrap boards and clamped the boards to the work table. To remove the motor, I just unclamp and lift. And it works fine. After a bit of futzing and, viola!  A brand new back board for our kitchen drawer! A couple of coats of minwax, and it’ll be good to go. YAY!

Ja ne!