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An easy way to make precise templates.

By Carl Duguay

Kurvenlinfix Flexible Curved Router Template Guides

Templates can really speed up your woodworking. They enable you to make identical convex or concave shaped parts with relative ease. One of the most common ways of laying out a curve is by using a thin strip of wood or plastic. You secure the two ends of the strip on top of your template material (such as MDF or Baltic Birch ply), and then manipulate an intermediate point between the ends to lay out the curve. Then it's off to the bandsaw to rough cut the template. Next you need to fair (smooth) the bandsawn edge – this is the most crucial part in making the template – typically done with some combination of hand plane, spokeshave, rasp, and sandpaper. The edge of the template has to be smooth and square to it's surface. For some, the process of fairing an edge can be arduous and frustrating.

The Kurvenlinfix Flexible Curved Router Template Guides offer a quick and easy way to make precise templates that simplifies the fairing process. Rather than doing all that smoothing by hand, it's done on a router table.

Kurvenlinfix guides comes in five configurations

The Kurvenlinfix guides are made from a hard, flexible plastic compound. They're available in five sizes. The 'blue' coloured guides are approximately 3/4" thick, and come in 1m/39", 2m/78", and 3m/118" lengths. There are two 'red' guides – a 1/2" thick guide that is 1200mm/47" long, and a smaller 5/16 thick guide that is 600mm/24" long. I tried the 1 meter blue guide and both the 600mm and 1200mm red guides.

A series of evenly spaced mounting holes run the length of the guides, enabling you to attach them to your template. Mounting screws are supplied. If you loose the screws you can substitute any wood screw of comparable size.

Clamp the guide in place before attaching

There are two ways to use these guides. You can draw a curve directly on the template using a thin flexible piece of wood, and then align the guide along the drawn line and screw it in place. I find this method works best for complex curves. For simple concave and conves curves that aren't too long I find it quicker to align the guide with clamps (see top photo above), and then secure it with screws. For longer curves I first draw out the curve on the template, and then, starting at one end of the guide, screw it in place.

Watch out for kinks

One of the issues I found is that it's easy to inadvertently misalign the guide when you're sinking screws (predominately at the points indicated by the black arrows in the photo above). Even the slightest misalignment will result in a slight valley or hill along the edge of the finished template. Make sure you use a low torque/speed setting on your drill/driver, and maintain firm downward pressure on the guide as you sink the screws.

Bandsaw the waste

Once you've attached the guide it's off to the bandsaw. There is no need to remove the guide in order to bandsaw the waste – simply bandsaw to about 1/8" from the guide. Slow and steady.

Rout the template flush to the guide

Using a template bit you can then rout the template flush to the guide. If you were careful to bandsaw to within 1/8" of the template, you can rout the template in one pass. Otherwise, take multiple passes to remove the waste. The result is a clean, smooth, curve. Mount your clamps to the template and it's off to the races.

Templates are quick and easy to make

I find the Kurvenlinfix guides quick and easy to use – noticeably quicker than fairing the curves by hand. I use curves on almost all my furniture, and these guides certainly reduce the time it takes to make new templates. I find the 1/2", 1200mm red guide best suited for the work I do. The 5/16" guide would likley be a better choice for short or compound curves. The 3/4" guides are more suited for architectural woodworking that involves long sweeping curves. They're also a better choice if you use a shaper rather than a router table.

If you only use curved work once in a while, then these guides probably aren't for you. However, if you do a lot of curved work in your furniture, then a Kurvenlinfix guide is a great time saver, and will consistently give you perfectly clean, smooth curves.

KEY FEATURES:

• Manufactured from a hard, flexible plastic compound.
• Hold their shape well without too much spring back.
• Available in lengths from 600mm/24" to 3m/118").
• Attached with screws (supplied).

Author: 
Carl Duguay