Good morning,
I was using a bearing guided roundover bit (is there any other kind of roundover bit?) to round edges on some white oak. I read in a couple of books (I'm new to this, but learning...) that you should do the end grain first then the sides to avoid breakout.
However, on the first panel (I'm making 3 the same) I did it this way and experience quite a bit of breakout.
On the second panel I did the opposite of these instructions, did the sides first, looped from the side just slightly round on to the end grain each time and at each end of the side, then did the ends. Perfect result.
I used the thumb and forefinger method to remember which way to pass the router.
Can anyone share their experiences on edge routing panels? Have I committed a major sin? Was I just lucky this time that my experiment paid off? Was the router on too slow (using a steel bit unfortunately, on speed 3 out of 5?).
This was using a handheld router, not a table.
Cheers,
Andy
P.S. Thank you to all who advised me on sorting out the lip after gluing up, planing followed by sanding worked best (although on the first one I got impatient and set the power planer to cut too deep. Anyway, I learnt patience after that!!!)