Small Router Bits.....Advice on use..

I actually have a router attachment for my dremel tool and use the small router bits in that. Dremel makes approx. 6 different router bit you can use. Works great!!

I have used 1/16 router bits with no problem. The only caution would be to not feed it too fast. I work in an ER and can assure you that AT LEAST 15 people will ask how you......

Would it be possible for your application to use a slotting cutter in stead of a straight bit? Might be safer, or at least less likely to break. I know that MLCS and Porter Cable (through Amazon) have 1/16" slot cutters. Andy

Not a problem with 1/4 shank in solid carbide. And you will require solid carbide in MDF. Keep starting cuts to ~1/16 x 1/16 using small plunger. Problems? See

A slot cutter is only useful if the groove is somewhat close to an edge.

Dave

Don't think the slot cutter will do it. The grooves I'm looking to put in are going to wander a bit. The project is my first attempt at a wooden HO scale (1/64th) wooden slot car track. Middle groove for the guide pin of the car and a shallower groove on either side for the power rail. I'll be putting 16 ga. rebar tie wire in the outside grooves for the power rails.

Candysthis, I have a Dremel and was wondering how it would work for this application. I'll have to look into the router attachment for it.

Thanks for the ideas. Please feel free to add more. It's going to be a couple of weeks before I can start.

H0 scale (the one for model railwas, yes?) is 1/87

HO scale for model railways is 1/87th scale, yes.

However, HO scale for slot cars is 1/64th scale.

I'm not at all sure why this is the way it is, but it is. It's probably something like how O scale (for model railways) in Europe is 1/43rd scale, but O scale in the U.S. is 1/48th scale. And don't even get started on G scale....

- Brooks

| Hello...Looking to start a project that requires use of a 1/16 | straight router bit. I've never used a bit that small before and | wondered what advice you could offer besides slow and easy.

Easy - but not slow. I use 'em in a CNC router at 90"/min; but keep the depth of each pass at or less than 2 diameters (1/8").

FWIW, the same rules work fairly well for 1/32" bits. Also FWIW - it's only scary the first time. :-)

-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA

Okay, I won't...but my LGB set-up has the same track width as ....okay...I'll shut up now.

I need to cut a very small slot in a cabinet I made after is was assembled and decided to use my new Dremel tool. Plunged right in, started making the slot, it kicked and sent the bit right into my right index finger. Nearly cut the entire tip of my finger off and exposed the inner workings of exactly how a finger nail grows out of the bone.

Luckily, the whole thing healed without a much of a scar. Luckily. I was stupid as I think I was using a drywall cutout bit. Big mistake.

For what its worth,

Chuck Who still has his right index finger.

The Dremel should work but.....the bearings in the thing aren't really designed for heavy side-loads. At least the first two I owned weren't. Newer models *may* be better.

Just go slow or you will let all the smoke out.

Bill W

FLASHBACK!! wow.. lol

I made an HO scale track for Tyco and Arorua cars about 100 years ago...

I'll have to see if I can find a picture... faded memory recalls building a jig for the router (or maybe the drill press?) that cut 3 grooves at once, the middle one for the slot and the 2 outside grooves were for the burglar alarm tape that we used for the power to the cars...

Damn.. that was a LONG time ago.. *g*

If you look at web sites like Penn State, etc., you'll see yo-yo cutting bits for the drill press... that's sort of what we made, as I remember...

mac

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