How to climb cut safely?

[David F. Eisan]

Dear All,

I am trying to make a rabbet in the back of a cherry frame and I am getting some pretty awful tearout. I am not at my finished depth yet, and the frame still might be salvageable.

am thinking about climb cutting. How can I do this without loosing a finger or crapping my pants?

The router table is the only tool I have ever been injured on and it really does scare me.

Thanks,

David.

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[Tom Watson]

David:

I would use the router freehand in preference to the router table.

First, make a knife cut along the innermost edge of the rabbet, so that the wood fibers are severed cleanly.

Next, creep up on your final depth a little bit at a time.

Regards, Tom Thomas J. Watson-Cabinetmaker Gulph Mills, Pennsylvania

[Leon]

When I run across that tendency I make the first cut shallow and then follow up with several cuts until the desired depth is reached.

[Garry Collins]

Hi,

There was a similar situation on an episode of the Router Workshop. He routered into the wood at set distances and then out. It was a single cut without the wood moving along the router but rather the wood moving into the wood as set distances. Then he routered along the wood in the same fashion as you have done. The single cuts were connected by the long cut.

Hope this was helpful.

Garry

[Dave Balderstone]

I don't get to see the RW every week, and missed this one, but I honestly don't understand your description.

Would you mind expanding on your description? Aplologies for my inability to understand, but maybe the visual helped?

Thanks,

djb

[Rumpty]

Agree.

[charlie b]

Might try a rabbet/rebate bit with multiple guide bearings. Start with largest bearing for shallow cut and progress through bearings to the depth you want.

charlie b

[Garry Collins]

Dave,

In the episode I saw he want to route the side of a picture frame with an ogee shape. It was an inside route. The grain was a problem because he was going against the grain. Rather than try to do the length of the wood as you would expect, he simply took a few cuts at intervals where he pushed the timber into the cutter and then withdrew it. It was simply an in and out motion where the timber moved into the cutter and then out, but the cutter did not move along the timber. After he did this, there were a number of cuts into the timber along the length of the timber. Then when he routed the timber along the grain he was connecting the indentations that had been made by the earlier cuts into the timber.

Take a piece of wood and mark centers at 2 inches along the side of the timber. Set a decorative bit into the router and push the timber into the router at the various marks and then pull it out. There are now cuts at 2 inches along the wood. Now route the timber and any damage to timber can only split to the next indentation made by the impression. Without the earlier cuts a split in the timber could progress along the timber and get deeper as it progressed.

Hope this is clear.

Garry

Dave Balderstone wrote in news:191020031732060186% [e-mail]:

[Dave Balderstone]

I understand perfectly now. Thanks a lot for taking the time!

djb

[Mo' Sawdust]

Routers with a D-handle, together with a strong wrist, are good for this type of cutting.

With a tight grip on the router, to avoid it moving too fast towards you, take the wood off in multiple passes (about 1/16" per pass until you gain confidence in your ability), ending with one final pass in the correct direction to remove the final 1/32" to 1/16" of material.

[Luigi Zanasi]

On Sun, 19 Oct 2003 15:35:05 GMT, "David F. Eisan" scribbled

It's not as bad as you think. I do it all the time, and it doesn't really "pull" all that much. You might think of using a vertical featherboard attached to a fence, or one of the push handles you use with your aircraft carrier.

Luigi Replace "no" with "yk" twice in reply address for real email address