Wandering the aisles of McGukin's (Boulder's Hardware Store) and I saw a 29 piece drill bit set of HSS bits for $39. Was thinking more ***ese soft steel crap till I popped open the index. I'm no metalurgist but, Golly Gee Wally, those bits looked nice!
I think this 'be them:
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nice shiny ones. Lightly oiled in the case. Could'a shaved nose hairs with 'em.
If they're good stuff then forty bux seems like a good deal. And a tad cheaper than some WL Fuller bits. Wondering if anyone else has heard of Champion?
Sort of, I tripped across a set of Champion router bits (not sure if its same champion) at Sears. 5 bits for $4.99 in a wooden box. Carbide tipped no less.
I needed a small radius round over with a guide bearing. The trick was I needed the gap between the bearing and the cutter to be VERY small. I was making curved screen molding. Well, this set from champion was cheap but still had a pretty large gap between the bearing and the cutter.
I decided to modify the bit to lower the bearing a bit. I started with a file. I couldn't get things even. I needed some type of lathe. Hey, I thought, the router will hold the bit and spin it while I make the modification. I chucked it up and turned it on. I then VERY carefully took my file to it and lowered the part of the bit that set the guide bearing gap. I lowered it to about 1/16 from the cutter. Powered down, re-attach the bearing and low and behold I had the perfect bit for what I was doing!
The bit worked well and for the price U cant go wrong.
Am I an idiot for not being able to find a router bit to fit my needs? Am I an idiot for doing something risky to modify my router bit? Am I an idiot for buying a $5 router bit set? Am I an idiot for modifying a tool to make it precicely fit my needs and turning out the relults on my project better than expected?
How else could I have acurately rounded over the edge on some very small molding (3/16 x 5/8) that was curved, not straight. Straight pieces are easy, I would put the edge on them before I ripped and joited them to thickness. How do you do that with a curved, sort of S shaped, piece? I went online for an hour and visited 4 local stores and could not find a router bit with a small enough gap between the guide bearing and the cutter. Believe me I tried.
I'm assuming you think I'm an idiot for modifying the bit while in a spinning router. Sure, not the safest thing to do. Let me provide you with some more details. First, the router was in a table, second I was wearing gloves, third, the file was pretty long and my hands were clear, 4th shop was pretty clean and sparks had nothing to ignight. I felt my only risk was the wasted time and perhaps loss of the bit or file. I felt the risk was very small as to personal injury.
Perhaps. Depends on how hard you looked -- including how hard you looked for alternative methods of accomplishing the task.
Yes.
The way you did it -- yes.
Attach a template to the other side of the workpiece to provide a surface for the guide bearing to ride on.
With a template, as I described. Or using a jig with guide pins, to guide the curved workpiece in a curved path.
Doesn't sound like you tried any *other* ways of solving the problem.
Yes.
DUH!
You don't seem to be very good at evaluating risks. Especially the risk of a bit disintegrating while spinning at 25,000 rpm. It's not clear just what size bit you were using, but let's suppose that it's 1" in diameter. That means the tip of the cutting edge is moving at 3.14 * 25000 inches per minute, or about
74 miles per hour. That's a bit too quick to dodge.
You don't mention any sort of eye protection.
You don't mention a face shield. The eyes aren't the *only* things on your face that need protection. A piece of carbide moving at 74 mph could give you one helluva bloody nose. What do you suppose it might do if it whacked you in the teeth?
Now, I no longer think that you're an idiot -- now, I'm SURE of it.
You shouldn't have either. You're lucky you weren't hurt.
-- Regards, Doug Miller (alphageek-at-milmac-dot-com)
For a copy of my TrollFilter for NewsProxy/Nfilter, send email to autoresponder at filterinfo-at-milmac-dot-com
Nope, not at all. Just sometimes you tagged on the wreck from time to time by some "well meaning" person. I've started hanging Shell No Pest strips by my monitor, when I read the wreck. :)
By the way - I think the bits I saw are a different "Champion" brand. I had the chance to duck into Sears the other day and look at theirs. The ones I saw are very differenrt.
Well, you are the way you filed it down. I mean, come.....Fired the router up, with the bit in it, then laid the file on it. I'm seeing a multitude of things happening with the file, the bit, the router, you fingers. Need I go on? I'm not saying the 5 dollar bits are a mistake, I'm just saying the way you made it fit your needs was plain stupid. It would be like turning a blade around backwards in the TS and pushing a sharpening stone up to it to sharpen the blade. I, for one, would have had to (1) change my plans for the molding somehow. I've found out in my 50 years on this planet there is almost always a work around. (2) Took the bit to a machine shop and have them do it. They would have the "proper" equipment/knowledge to do it right and safe. Whether the router was in a table or not is of no concern. Gloves, in my opinion, would make matters a little worse. I would think the sparks flying off of it might possibly ignite my clothes, unless you happened to protected in that manner. Which I highly doubt, considering what you did. and the longer file, let's see. Instead of a 8" file sticking in your gut, it would be better to have a 16" file sticking in there. That way it could be pulled out through the back leaving a nice smooth hole all the way through. Files and router bits are cheap, loss of life or limbs aren't. Take it from someone who lost a son to stupidity, it aint just you your hurting! Enough said.
I guess that was a stab at me? Stab away my friend, but my thinking won't change the way I feel about any one laying a file next to a router bit spinning like a bat out of hell.
Not saying it's right or wrong, wise or stuipid, but I've read an article on circular saw sharpening which advocated exactly that. Mind you, it was talking about jointing a steel tablesaw blade, not carbide, but the OP was removing the steel parts of the router bit, no?
Yea, he was. That alone was cause enough for me to say what I did. I just can't see and difference in a piece of steel, carbide or wood for that matter, flying at me going 75 mph. As far as the saw blade sharpening thing goes, I too have read a lot of stup....uh silly things being done. The Darwin awards come to mind first and foremost. IMNSHO, saw blade sharpening should be left to be done with the proper tools. I wouldn't want to push anything next to my rotating saw blades, router/shaper bits, planer/jointer blades, or what have you's unless it's for what it's designed for. Steel, carbide, sandpaper or otherwise. Again, my thoughts, and as they say, YMMV.
I think "Bri" showed a lack of judgement; a willingness to take a risk that the rest of us wouldn't take. I certainly wouldn't do it.
But I like Doug's reply over your name-calling. That's all. Pointing out the risks may prevent someone from repeating his technique. Like you said: YMMV.
And - I do appreciate him taking the time out to reply to my question, since I'm the OP...
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