Best approach to routing the edge of a long board
Peroroger
| Posted in Power Tools and Machinery on
I am a novice at woodworking and I am in the process f building a bookcase that is 12 feet long. The top of the bookcase is one single piece of pine 12 feet x 12″ x 1.5″. I would like to rout a decorative edge treatment. Should I run the board across a router table or secure the board and run the router along the edge.
I think that the latter approach is best as the board is heavy and awkward to manipulate. Can anyone provide some advice?
Replies
Ditto Dusty.. on anything that can't be supported properly on a table... I would also take the router and bit to the wood in lieu of the wood to the router and bit on a table. As Dusty stated... simply use a bit with a guide bearing.
A suggestion, since this is a new operation for you: Try the profile on a piece of identical scrap, say a couple feet long, to be sure that your router can handle a full cut of the profile and you're comfortable using the router in this manner. It's not that it's a difficult operation, just good to get a feel for it the first time.
Good advice. I have learned rather quickly that you should test cuts on scrap before attacking the real pieces that will be used. This carpenter's rule is right up there with measure twice, cut once. Or is it it measure three times... :)
Thanks!
Roger
Thanks for the advice. The bit that I will use is called a corner round over. The supplier (Lee Valley) indicates when a bit must only be used with a router table.
Cheers!
Roger
I think like what Forest Girl stated in her post...
I use my routers, probably more than any other tool in my shop, except for glue..... Most of my bits (but not all) I purchase are, 'Anti-Kickback' kind, that limit the depth of cut. Unless you own a shaper and power feeder that will hog out a deep cut.. Use a router table and make multiple passes... I have used routers for years. I find much better results using a router table. I freehand sometimes, and my best results are on the router table. Using 'multiple passes' while using feather boards. Maybe I have never learned how to freehand a router very well?
EDIT: I forgot to say that a roller stand on the input AND output are very importent to hold the 'stick',,,,,, AND the warning!
The supplier (Lee Valley) indicates when a bit must only be used with a router table. Enough said about the bit in use!
Good point FG makes about the test cut. I probably should have said that unless it is a low profile round-over... lower the bit in increments so you are not trying to take all the stock as once. I would make at least two passes and possibly three just depending on how large the diameter of the round over bit is. Too much bite at once will gouge... scorch or tear so always sneak up on the final cut unless the cut is an extremely shallow one for best results. Cleaning up tear or gouges on edge profile isn't exactly the most fun in the world. Trust me! ha.. ha...
That is definitely too large a piece of wood to try to wrestle across a router table. It could be done with a couple of roller stands on the infeed side and another couple of stands on the outfeed end and a helper would be a good idea also, with one person feeding the stock and another keeping it against the fence.
It isn't clear whether the bit you have chosen is one that the catalog says must be used with a fence. Giving the LV part number for the bit would be helpful. If the bit needs a fence you will either have to use it in the table or have a fence attached to the router, and some bits are really too large to use in a router being guided freehand, fence or not.
Another in agreement with using the router hand-held with a good edge guide, and practicing first on scrap.
The alternative, of course, would be to build a 25' wide router table. ;-)
"The alternative, of course,
"The alternative, of course, would be to build a 25' wide router table. ;-)" Goodness, why didn't we think of that? LOL!!
"Goodness, why didn't we
"Goodness, why didn't we think of that?"
Because you aren't as twisted as the guy who suggested it? ;-)
oh...a bookcase 12' long....I'd be tempted to ask how in the heck the sag from the shelves is gonna be handled, but I ain't even gonna go there.
12' long mouldings in the shop, I'd move the router rather than the work....Ain't no one in my experience can maneuver a 12' piece over a router table without having flop and sag....
OTOH, a fine straight piece of 4x4 would support the work faultlessly as the router passed over it...
doncha thunk.
My axiom is to TRY to work smarter, not harder, back-asswards or dumber
Not always succsful at that folks...
Eric in Calgary
The advice to "bring the
The advice to "bring the router to the wood" is sound. (Don't ask me how I know.)
Another caveat: Check the grain in the edge-area of the proposed cut. Of course you want to rout "downhill" all the time, however the grain on any individual board may not permit this.
Mark the areas, if any, where you might have to rout against the grain and plan on a 'climb cut' in those spots. A climb cut is difficult to control, so practice on scrap and take light cuts.
Good luck.
All my final passes are a 'climb cut'. No more than 1/16 inch... Many less than that...
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