Toddler Bed - Templates

The first step in making the toddler bed is to build some templates for all of those rounded corners and cut-outs.

I chose to use 1/4" thick MDF for the template material because it's relatively cheap and easy to work with.  The router setup is a 1/4" spiral router bit with a 3/4" template guide.

Template guide protrudes about an 1/8" from the router base

This is important because it means the template edge will be exactly 1/2" away from the true cutting edge so the templates need to be sized slightly differently than the corresponding hole.

In all cases I chose to make the templates based on the off cut rather than the keeper piece.  The main reason for this was clamping.  Having to clamp templates in place would be a challenging task.  Often times it's difficult to clamp the piece in such a way that the router won't hit the clamps.  When you can't guarantee that, you have to do a partial cut, then re-clamp, then finish which takes considerably more time.  By creating a template based on the off cut I could take advantage of screwing the template right to the wood with counter-sunk screws and not worry about having to re-clamp (or ugly screw holes in my keeper piece).

Here's my first test with the ladder hole template:

The pieces around the hold only serve to keep the router level, I did not use them against the template guide.  I clamped them where I could but otherwise relied on double sided or blue tape to hold them roughly in place.

First pass - notice the cut is offset from the template

Finished cut with the template removed

When figuring out the dimensions of the top edge templates I had to think it through closely before I got it correct.  For all of the holes it was relatively easy, just subtract 1/2" from every side and 1/2" from the radius of the rounded corner.  However for the top edging there's pairs of opposite curves.  I made a quick model in SketchUp to get it clear in my head.

Since there will always be exactly 1/2" between the template and the finished edge the convex curves actually have a radius 1/2" larger while the concave curves 1/2" smaller.  Once I had that figured out I went and created all of my templates.

Next will be cutting out all of these holes for real.