Template Routing in the Shop
I used to spend an hour cutting jigs from 3/4-inch MDF for every single joinery operation. That changed when I started making proper Woodworking Template guides and pairing them with copy bushings. The first one I ever routed was for a pair of dovetail boxes. It saved me roughly forty minutes per box after the initial cut, which adds up fast if you are building in batches. MDF is cheap and machines cleanly, but it absorbs moisture and swells. I switched to polypropylene sheet stock after two templates warped in a humid shop. It costs more per sheet, but it holds dimensions better over years of use. For rough layout work where precision matters less, thin hardboard still works fine. For anything that needs repeat accuracy, do not skimp on the blank. The thickness of the template directly determines your cutter selection. A 1/4-inch template pairs with a 1/4-inch copy bushing for matching profiles. If you run a 3/8-inch bushing against the same template, your cut shifts by an eighth of an inch. That sounds small until you are trying to fit tenons into tapered mortises and wondering why everything is loose. I learned that the hard way on a batch of forty drawer fronts.
The Basic Process
Start by tracing your profile onto the template material. Use a sharp knife rather than a pencil when you can — pencil lines add thickness you cannot always account for. After that, cut the shape out. A scroll saw works for rough cuts, then you sand or route to the final line. I use a router with a straight bit for the cleanup pass because it is faster than hand sanding and more consistent. Once the template is ready, secure it to your workpiece. Double-sided carpet tape is the fastest method for flat surfaces. For angled or vertical work, clamp it down. I once skipped clamps on a curved template routing a crown molding profile and the bit grabbed the leading edge, lifting the template and ruining the piece. Now I clamp everything regardless of how confident I feel about the grip. The router setup is straightforward but easy to get wrong on the first pass. Set your depth so the bearing on the bushing sits flush against the template surface, not cutting into it. Make light passes — roughly thirty percent of the total depth per pass is the ceiling before your motor struggles and your edges burn. With a typical 3/4-inch pocket, that means three passes minimum. Rushing to two passes will leave tearout and uneven walls on softwoods like pine.
Edge Cases and Workarounds
The most annoying problem I run into is template deflection under load. When you are routing a long vertical grain pattern, the router wants to push the template away from the workpiece slightly. This creates a gap between the bearing and the guide edge, and your profile drifts. I solved it by routing a second parallel guide channel about three inches inside the main template edge. It gives the bearing a secondary reference point and cuts deflection error by more than half. It takes extra time to lay out and cut the second channel, but it eliminates the guesswork. Another issue is template wear. After about fifty passes with a carbide bearing, the inner edge of a MDF template starts to fray. Your copies get slightly larger each time. I stop using a template when the inner edge shows visible fuzzy fibers instead of a clean cut line. At that point I either laminate a fresh layer of thin stock over the worn area or cut a new template. Laminating works if the wear is minimal, but it adds thickness you have to account for in your depth settings.
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What Templates Cannot Do
They are not a substitute for good layout work. If your template is misaligned on the workpiece even by a sixteenth of an inch, every copy will be off by that same amount. Templates repeat errors; they do not correct them. I once routed an entire cabinet back panel with the template shifted and did not notice until the panels were already cut. I had to scrap six pieces. Templates also struggle with compound curves. A flat template pressed against a curved surface creates gaps that the bearing will bridge, producing inaccurate profiles. For compound geometry, hand layout or CNC is the better path. You can build a flex template from thin flexible plastic, but those lose accuracy past about a two-inch radius curve. If you are doing production work with identical parts, templates pay for themselves quickly. For one-off projects with complex shapes, the time spent making the template might exceed the time spent freehanding or using a traditional jig. Calculate the break point before you commit. For me, that number is usually around five copies of the same profile.
Where to Get Started
I keep a set of blank template sheets on hand in three thicknesses: 1/4 inch, 3/8 inch, and 1/2 inch. They cost about twelve dollars each for a 24 by 24 inch sheet at a plastics supplier. I also maintain a standard bushing set covering 1/4, 5/16, 3/8, and 7/16 inch diameters. If you need a reference layout for common joinery profiles, I uploaded my working drawings to a shared folder. You can find them under Woodworking Template Downloads on the project page. The files are in PDF format with full-scale prints included so you can verify your printer scaling before cutting.
