Sliding dovetail, part II

[Z3Driver]

I finished the little stepstool I wrote about a few days ago and had an interesting experience while cutting the pins on the router table. The stock was between the fence and the bit. I always feed from right to left and was just nibbling at the piece, rather than making a full cut to the mark. The bit pulled the stock out of my hands and sent it flying. I elected to finish the task by feeding from left to right and had excellent control of the feed. Any thoughts?

["<<<]

Right to left is the norm, but, when the bit is trapped in the cut and cutting on both sides simultaneously, it's a crapshoot. I would normally remove as much material as possible using either a straight bit or the table saw. It greatly reduces the amount of "work" the dovetail bit is doing.

[Z3Driver]

I guess I wasn't clear. I was cutting the pin, so was taking about 1/32 off the edge of the board. The bit, therefore, wasn't trapped.

["<<<]

OOPS !!! My misread ... you DID say it was the pin you were cutting ... for certain, you should have buried the bit in the fence and only exposed enough of it to make the cut. You should never trap the stock between the bit and the fence.

[Leon]

You always feed against the direction that the cutting edge is moving unless climb cutting.

If your stock was between the bit and the fence you were feeding with the bit spin direction and it would naturally pull the work out of your hands and throw it.

[Z3Driver]

Aha! That makes perfect sense, Leon. This old dog appreciates learning a new trick.

Larry

[dadiOH]

Doesn't matter how much you were taking off, you had the wood between fence and bit; therefore, it was trapped. Big no-no.

Additionally, the wood being trapped and you feeding right to left, you were making a climb cut. That too is generally a no-no.

[routerman]

Enevitable. A shame this kind of thing is not written on the front page of every owner's manual. You're to blame alright but anything this risky should be in your face, maybe even written on the router.

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[Steve Turner]

I remember going to a router class years ago at the local Woodcraft and the instructor (a comical kind of guy) was explaining about the dangers of running the stock between the bit and the fence, and how it could turn the stock into a projectile. He said something like "... and the point in time when you know when this is about to happen is when you look across the room and the board is sticking out of the wall."