Help - I smell smoke

[Steve]

I am fairly new to woodworking, I have done carpenter type work as a hobby for a while. I got a new plunge router for Xmas and have been having fun with it. Today I needed to cut 3 disks out of 1.5 inch thick lumber. I used a 2 inch straight cut bit with the Jasper circle cutting jig. I made 3 passes and had my 5 inch disk but I also had smoldering wood. I had it hooked to my vacuum cleaner rather than my dust collector so I wasn't too worried. I have been wanting to build a router table but now am worried about hooking up to my dust collector.

What did I do wrong. Router too fast? Wrong bit?? Needed four or five passes?

Thanks Steve

[Vic Baron]

IMHO, 1.5" in 3 passes is a bit much. You're hogging out 1/2"/pass. Depending on the wood, I'd personally go no more than 1/4 to 3/8 max per pass.

Vic

[John]

1/2in deep cut per pass was probably the problem. Try taking shallower cuts per pass should prevent this

John

[Robatoy]

In a blind cut situation, I have found the following:

1/2" Spiral (upcut) bit...sharp... 1/2" depth per cut. What's likely burning now is the waste from the cut that can't get out of the way. A single flute 1/2" straight bit will throw chips out rather well unless the wood is gummy..like pine and such. Those bits really start vibrating after a few sharpenings. Hard on the main bearing.

0?0 -

Rob

[Old Nick]

On Tue, 04 Jan 2005 23:45:52 GMT, Steve vaguely proposed a theory ......and in reply I say!:

remove ns from my header address to reply via email

When you take out too much, you go too slowly. You burn the wood. Shallower cuts.

Blunt bit?

[Knothead]

I'm thinkin Robatoy is right, try a spiral bit a cut that deep even if you take smaller cuts is still likely to build up interfering sawdust.

[Steve]

Rob, I think you are right. I had a hard time getting the chips out, I had to use a scratch awl with my vacuum after each pass to get the waste out. Should have used an upcut bit to pull the chips out as it cut. There simply was no place for them to go.

Thanks, Steve