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Ron Stewart

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Giraffe Bookcase #5: Routing the Tail

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This is part 5 in a 9 part series: Giraffe Bookcase

The giraffe's tail is is a compound shape formed by a circle, ellipse, and trapezoid.


I made a template and used it to pattern route the tail. I cut the template from 1/4" MDF, using a 1:1 scale printout from SketchUp to help with the layout.


I used a jigsaw to cut out most of the template. I used a guide board for the straight sections.


I cut the ellipse free-hand, getting close to the cut line.



I used coarse sandpaper to fine-tune the ellipse. To finish the template, I cut the circular part at the top using my router and Jasper circle jig. I used the actual workpiece as a backer. Both the template and actual tail needed the semicircle, so it was nice to be able to route both in one step.



I rough cut the shape using the jigsaw. Then I used carpet tape to attach the template to the workpiece (aligning the semicircles at the top) and used a bottom-bearing pattern bit in my router table to finish the shape.


I drilled two holes for alignment dowels in both the tail and the case and did a test fit.

 
pattern routing jigsaw template

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