second of two router questions.

[marc rosen]

Hello All, Okay, number two; Let's sayI want to rout a 1/4 groove in the edge of a leg or frame for doing frame and panel construction. I have already cut mortises with a hollow chisel mortiser and I want to plunge the workpiece onto a quarter inch straight bit on my router table. Regardless of which way I push my workpiece the router bit will be both climb cutting and (for want of a better word ) "regular" cutting through the lumber. Is it best to move the stock in the direction where the climb cut is between the cutter and the fence? (That is, I move the stock towards the left ) This is one aspect of routing that has always puzzled me. It is easy to reason which way to move the stock when only one face of a piece is making contact with the cutter but when the cutter is inside the piece for the first pass I'm confused. Thanks again in advance for your suggestions. Marc

[Jim Behning]

Maybe this article has some answers.

[J. Clarke]

If you move the piece from right to left then the bit will be pressing it against the fence, going left to right it will be trying to pull the piece away from the fence.

[DonkeyHody]

Marc, You should feed the workpiece in the same direction you would if the bit were not buried in the workpiece - right to left. When you feed the workpiece along the fence, only half of the circumference of the bit is cutting after the initial plunge. True, the edge along the fence is climb cutting, and the edge opposite the fence is not. Those forces tend to cancel each other out and the feed pressure is somewhat neutralized. But the important thing to remember is that the face of the bit that is 90 degrees from the fence should be pulling the workpiece toward the fence. If you feed the workpiece right to left, the bit will tend to pull the workpiece away from the fence.

DonkeyHody "Every man is my superior in that I can learn from him." - Thomas Carlyle

[Garage_Woodworks]

Think of it this way. After you plunge onto you router table and start to travel, half of the bit will not be cutting wood at any given time. The leading half of the bit that does the cutting determines which way the work is pulled (into the fence or away from the fence). If you push left to right the bit will pull the work into the fence because the trailing side (half) of the bit is not cutting any wood (no force pushing away from the fence to cancel out the pulling of the leading half) -No Cancelation of forces here, this is why the piece is pulled into the fence. The forces front to back (climb cut, normal cut) cancel each other out.

I have also noticed that the wall of the mortise closest to the fence will usually be uglier because that side is climb cut. This is important (IMHO) when routing a groove for a panel and you want the pretty side of the mortise to be on the outside.

[DonkeyHody]

Last sentence should read "If you feed the workpiece from Left to Right, the bit will tend to pull the workpiece away from the fence.

DonkeyHody

[George]

Confused yet? Router moves, piece moves, fence on router, piece on fence. Options abound.

You know that piece if scrap you use to check the setting of your fence and the depth of cut? Use that to determine which direction to cut. Don Quixote has the right idea, it's leading edge of bit rotating into the fence.

Oh yes, spiral bits are much more forgiving than two-winged ones at this task.

[marc rosen]

Wow, I appreciate all the comments, but two things never popped into my mind until now. Spiral bits- I've not used them yet - and slot cutters. I took a look at the catalog and their suggestion was to use a slot cutter for frame and panel. Anybody do this along with pre- existing mortises? Can you SAFELY plunge into a slot cutter? Thanks again, Marc