Kerf Jig 2.0

So I've been spending my idle moments envisioning how to finish the camper, step by step, bit by bit. I'm fairly confident that I know exactly what to do and in what order, so there should be no mistakes as I move forward.

My ever-present hurdle, though, is that I can't get my hands on wood that can finish the curved sections of the roof.

I honestly didn't think it'd be this hard. My kerf jig was good, but lacking: the final product was too thin, the guide pins got hung up in the slots constantly and the saw itself HATED the work. It was really rough going and altogether exhausting. There must be a better way to do this incredibly difficult thing.

So while tossing that idea in my head I considered: ok, the circular saw hates this because: A. As the wood became flexy, it would pinch the non-toothed part of the saw blade and create a lot of drag and B. The saw blade isn't really meant for slotting- it's meant to cut all the way through. Slotting is the most difficult thing to do with a circular saw and I added up a need for about 30 8 foot slots.

That's a lot.And that's only on one side. The solution would have to get rid of those problems, but how?

Well, I can replace the pins with a fence. That'll make running the kerfs smoother and more straight, which is a great start. However, this doesn't get rid of the whole circular-saw-hates-this-bullshit problem. Ok, it won't play. Who will?

This Guy

ok, but how? Kerf Jig 2.0 is how, duh!

Commence rapid fire discussion:

Start by tracing a suitable chunk of 1/2" oversize 6061 aluminum plate.

Cut said chunk out on the bandsaw

First up, mark the approximate center of the plate and then zero out the mill- that is, the  marked center of the circle is  (0,0) (Cartesian Coordinates, folks). I then made a bolt circle- a pattern of hole equidistant from the center and each other to match  the router face plate.

Somehow, my phone didn't keep the photos I took. Anyway, a lot has happened here: I clamped up my favorite slab of sacrificial stock and made a second bolt circle. I threaded the holes to #10-32 and bolted my workpiece to it. I then milled it out. I even milled off the screw heads.

And here's the new face plate for my router. The mounting holes still need to be opened a little to match. I left them super tight to the #10-32 so that there'd be less (none at all) wobble during machining.

A little jitterbug action later (it could use some more, though) and the plate is done. I went back today and shaved an additional 0.10 from the guide fence so that it's just shorter than 2 plys of my 4 ply plywood. The fence is .875" from the center of the router which will sport a solid carbide 1/8" bit.