Rounding over edge-how??

[TMC]

Recently a friend gave me some plans to build a piece of furniture for him, and I have run into a snag. Now, I'm not an expert woodworker but have made my share of sawdust in the past and am stumped by this. The plans call for a 1/2" thick piece of wood (actually 70 of them) with a 1/4 radius roundover on all edges. The radii need to be full so that each end (which is 1/2" in width) can fit into a fixture to turn a 7/16" round end on them (to fit into corresponding holes already drilled). If I cut the radii on one side, then the bearing has a narrower surface to ride on for the remaining cuts, resulting in a somewhat lopsided radius. I cannot use a fence to hold the correct distance as the parts have curves to them that need to be followed. Any suggestions from the gang here would be MOST welcome at this point. Thanks in advance!

Tim

[Knothead]

Guide pin in the router table maybe?

[Dr. Deb]

Would a dowel maker work. You know the kind that looks like an overgrown pencil sharpener. Checkout the following:

[TMC]

Deb, I wish I had seen those sooner..or at least realized what was to come. I've already drilled all the holes at the 7/16" required measurement, and the dowel makers there do not come in that size. Excellent tip for the next time though! Even after a call to the people who made the plans, their suugestion was the same as my own-double face tape a template to each piece and rout it with the standard bit!! Thats a lot of taping and un-taping as I have about

70 pieces to do...thanks for the tip though.

[Frank J. Vitale]

You could do it on a router table using the fence as a guide or the best way I think is to buy a bull nose bit.

[Hax Planx]

Unless you are making dowels, then there will always be a long side, right? The long side goes against the bearing, not the part already rounded.

[John Girouard]

Perhaps make a sled that has the same curves as your parts, and use a bearing that will ride along the sled.

TMC wrote:

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[Hax Planx]

Or if I wasn't picturing things right in my other post, you could use guide pins. But the pin setup would be different for the inner and outer curves and it would only work if the curve was a radius, not if it was elliptical. If it is elliptical, then you could do it with a pattern and bushing setup.

[Andy Dingley]

Use a fence. It'll work and you don't even need the bearing (although it doesn't hurt)

[Joe Gorman]

Veritas mini tenon cutter

[dadiOH]

Except his parts are curved, can't ride on a fence.

I vote for the bullnose bit suggestion...don't much like them because if the piece moves up/down any it gets messed up but that's about it other than attaching each of his numerous pieces to a template.

-- dadiOH ____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.06... ...a help file of info about MP3s, recording from LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that. Get it at

[Andy Dingley]

Use a suitable fence. The standard refs ought to describe this.

One way (for big curved parts) is a "horseshoe" fence. This is a C-shaped bracket around the cutter, with two projecting fingers that guide the workpiece.

The better way for this might be a "sunken fence". Fasten a thick solid false false to your existing fence, then feed it through the cutter until there's a narrow cutout fitting closely around the cutter.

Watch for cutter snatch when working around the ends of these bars. It's probably best placing a removable pin in the table too, ahead of the cutter, and using this as a fulcrum to control things.

[mel]

increase the diameter of your bearing for the second pass

[Randy]