Draper router bits

Not especially.

Trend, Freud and CMT are the main good quality manufacturers.

My 2" long trimmer bits cost over 30 quid each and have a 1/2" shank. I use it in a Freud 2000 router, costing around =A3150. It's long rather than wide, so I do use it freehand and not just in a table.

I wouldn't use another bit of comparable size without similar investment in quality. I wouldn't expect good cut quality otherwise. For sheer safety, not just results, I wouldn't use a cutter of that size unless it was a 1/2" shank.

What the other two said. If you're using a 1/4" router for this bit? suggest you do several passes for safty reasons moreso and minimize wood scorching.

If I am using my router on end X and I am stood at position Y, the router bit is going clockwise (when looking from above). Do I push or pull the router to avoid scorch marks? My instructions say something like "allow the bit to cut towards the workpiece"

------------------------| | | Top Face | X | |

------------------------| Y

Thanks

John

Scorching doesn't necessasrily mean its the feed direction that causes this it is also combined with crap cutters or idling of the router ie pausing along the cut. The cut has to be made in one fell sweep of the routers direction. Another scorching problem is using a cutter without a bearing.

That's what is confusing me. As the cutter is going clockwise do I go around the work clockwise i.e. PULL or anticlockwise i.e. PUSH the router?

Thanks

John

P.S. I'll have a good read of the link you sent later tonight as I am going out now.

Why confused? think of the router blade as a electric planer ie there's only one direction you can with it.

You work against the direction of cut, anti-clockwise if you like (but as previously mentioned you do the end grain sections first so that you cleanup any tearout when you do the sides.

A few more points:

- One other way to be sure about this in a given situation is to offer the router up to the work with the bit stopped. The conventional feed direction will then be the one where it will be the same as the direction of the cutting edge of the bit against the work.

- For a handheld router and working around the *outside* of a piece, this means anticlockwise traversal.

- For a handheld router and working *inside* a piece - e.g. trimming a hole cut for a sink in a worktop, the router will be traversed clockwise.

- For a router in a router table, the feed directions will appear reversed, because the router is the other way up.

- After a while, it becomes second nature, but until that happens, if unsure, offering up the router while stopped will do the trick to clarify the point.

- It *is* possible to cut the opposite way. This is known as climb cutting. However, it can be dangerous because if the bit digs in for any reason, the router will be pushed in the direction of feed, climb into the cut and run dangerously away, possibly at the operator. Therefore, in general it should not be used. The exceptions are small in number such as in certain cases with a small laminate trimming bit with very light passes.

One to watch here is the fence position. If you place it such that there is a gap between the fence and the bit (as it it were a table saw), it can be very dodgy trying to edge profile that way - since the feed direction is reversed again - get it wrong and it will snatch and launch your work at high speed.

Can help polish off any tearout on a final pass in some cases (crap pine usually!)