Router Tips

Did a bunch of routing, rounding over for safe handling, but the results we re a bit mixed. Routers are one tool I seldom use, so am something of a beg inner with them. I thought round would look better than planed corners for once. What happened was inconsistency of cut depth, sometimes too deep some times too shallow. The wood was uneven in places, and controlling router an gle consistently was just not doable on the 34mm wide timber edge. The cutt ing bit didn't move in depth and the router was locked so it didn't shift i n depth either. Any tips?

I used the 1/4" plunge router, a modern one with plenty of visibility round the bit. The 1/4" round was all done in one pass. The aim was safe handlin g rather than fancy finish, so came out adequately, but had I wanted someth ing decent I'd be saying oops.

NT

Reply to
tabbypurr
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Might have been better to work upside down, with a genuine or improvised router table, but if the wood is irregular and you have a bearing following it then the results are likely to be irregular.

Reply to
no_spam

Not an expert by any means, but was it a good quality tipped cutting tool? And did you take it gently, so the cutter 'did the work' You'd know if the router slowed down a lot. With a low powered one, you may need to make several passes, increasing the depth of the cut each time. Along the grain, you should be able to get a near perfect moulding.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Easier with a router table, but it is a somewhat unforgiving tool. I don't use them often enough to be able to get perfect results.

Reply to
newshound

If you are using an edging tool with a bearing then unless the edge is perf ectly square and straight the finish will be variable. Also using the fence to guide it particularly if close up to the tool can result in a poor fini sh, I never use the fence preferring to clamp a guide to the work and run t he router along. One major cause of poor finish is too deep a cut, the reco mmended max. per pass on my 2100W machine is 10mm and you should not be fig hting the machine, if you can hear it slowing then you are asking too much of it. Finally the quality of cutter is important as someone has already po inted out and wherever possible use the largest diam. shank tool your machi ne is capable of.

Richard

Reply to
Tricky Dicky

no, just a cheap kit job. The quality of cut was fine though. The problem was position.

It had no problem handling the cut in one go. Too much haste gives a rough cut, I didn't have that problem.

NT

Reply to
tabbypurr

rfectly square and straight the finish will be variable.

Yes. There's no way round that. And it was neither. Nor was the top surface of it at a consistent level, that was the biggest issue.

result in a poor finish, I never use the fence preferring to clamp a guide to the work and run the router along. One major cause of poor finish is to o deep a cut, the recommended max. per pass on my 2100W machine is 10mm and you should not be fighting the machine, if you can hear it slowing then yo u are asking too much of it. Finally the quality of cutter is important as someone has already pointed out and wherever possible use the largest diam. shank tool your machine is capable of.

Quality of finish wasn't a problem. Using a router table was unworkable, the assemblies were over 6' long. The problem mainly stems from the inability to feel when the tool is seated flat on the surface of the wood. With bigger wood it sits, on 34mm it just wandered about. I'm not seeing a solution short of clamping lots of strips of wood on before routing it, which would have taken too long. But I have seen people zip round wood with a hand held router, how come the y got a nice even finish?

NT

Reply to
tabbypurr

Gang up some other bits of wood beside the one you are working on so you make a wider platform to run the router one. Its when you let it tip on the edge you get the inconsistent results.

Alternatively screw a wider base plate to the router so you can have much more overhanging the flat surface away from the edge. (or stick it in a router table / clamp it in a vice)

Reply to
John Rumm

Having a small "palm" router can make that kind of free hand work easier. I use a small Bosch 600W fixed base router for that kind of thing - its comfortable to use in one hand.

Reply to
John Rumm

I thought of that, but with wood that's uneven in places & not perfectly st raight that didn't seem workable

but there's nothing level to sit it on. I think it's just an inherent situa tion with routers that they won't give a passably consistent cut with timbe r that's not even. Maybe a 45 degree straight edge cutter would be better s uited to such situations than a small roundover. Or maybe a 2nd pass would improve things.

NT

Reply to
tabbypurr

If you don't start out with clean and square edges for the router to work to, you're not going to get a perfect moulding.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

If I had a router with much smaller baseplate the imperfections could be far smaller. But both have big bases.

NT

Reply to
tabbypurr

I think small base plate routers will tend to follow surface imperfections in the wood worse than a larger baseplate. Can you not attach material with a smoother surface on top of your lengths and simply set the cutter deeper?

Reply to
Tricky Dicky

If you are using bearing guided cutters, then you are always going to have a hard time if what you are routing is not at least consistent in finish. All the bearing can do is copy the existing profile to the new one.

The closest you will get is to add an ancillary guide to follow instead of the edge (bit like a sawboard). You will then get an edge that is straight and true, but the amount of roundover will vary due to the wood itself moving closer to and further away from the "right" position as you route.

As an intermediate option you could used the fence, and screw a longer bit of wood to it. Then it will still ride the imperfect edge, and follow it - but not as closely. You will end up with a cut that is somewhere between straight, and following every imperfection.

Reply to
John Rumm

better surely

the surface is smooth already, but not even

NT

Reply to
tabbypurr

I think the misunderstandings are persisting. It is the top that's uneven, as the timber is not entirely straight and the joints not well aligned. The point of the exercise is to round off the wood for safe handling, so we wa nt the cutter to follow imperfections.

The main problem is that the baseplate of the router does not sit flat with any degree of consistency on the wood. The wood is too narrow for the usua l feeling of when it's sat right to work. There's no time to go over it man y times, the workpiece is industrial equipment and the work needs to get do ne.

I think the answer is to use a 45 degree cutter instead. They don't care ne arly as much if the router is off angle a bit. I've always gone with 45 deg rees in the past, it seems roundover is not a better option for this type o f work after all.

NT

Reply to
tabbypurr

If all you want is softer corners, run a plane down them.

Reply to
John Rumm

No good with internal corners, hence using the router.

NT

Reply to
tabbypurr

See if you can pickup an old chisel plane...

(failing that, plane as close as you can get, and finish off with a chisel)

Reply to
John Rumm

You can get block planes with a removable front piece that allows you to work right up to corners.

Richard

Reply to
Tricky Dicky

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