Compression (up and down) spiral router bit
DannySnyder
| Posted in General Discussion on
So based on a few articles I saw I decided to get one of these compression spiral router bits to cut some mortises and some grooves in my project. It cut very easily, but it turned out that it doesn’t cut a clean groove, there’s a bump along the side walls. The picture is from the grooves I just plowed. I’m worried the mortises will be even worse. Has anyone else noticed this? This is the bit – https://www.whitesiderouterbits.com/products/ud2102
Replies
How deep is that cut? I've never had that problem. Hard or soft wood?
Mikaol
HI Mikaol thanks for replying. The wood is VG Fir. It's a 3/8" deep groove (1/4" bit). I just tried doing the 1" deep mortise, and it's as I feared. Did I just waste my money?
(the tearout at the back is my practicing squaring the mortise with my hollow chiseler)
I have a set of spiral bits (1/4, 3/8, 1/2) and I learned quickly to keep my cuts to max 3/16 and watch the router speed. Slow speed on soft wood and a small bit will bounce of the dado walls.
Did you waste your money? Not at all. I use a 1/4 for box joints in some pretty tough wood (Brazilian ebony, hickory, ironwood.) Keep with it, you'll figure it out.
Mikaol
Thanks Mikaol, I guess I'm just taking too heavy a cut.
Hey there - the bit you got is really for routing operations when you are routing both tops and bottoms of the board simultaneously, especially plywood, so that you don't get tear out on either top or bottom. Think the problem you are running into is that where the up spiral is meeting the down spiral you are forcing the chips into each other... For dadoes I would use a plain spiral bit, not a compression bit.
(If you use an downcut bit in a dado you will get a clean edge but fill the dado with chips - take light passes and vacuum the chips out between passes. If you use an upcut bit in a dado the chips will clear nicely but leave a little fraying of the dado edge. If the dado edges are visible I use a downcut bit. If the dado edges won't be visible, I use an upcut bit.)
Ah, that makes sense RAL3Wood, thanks for the input. I'll make do with my straight cutter for now and look into getting a spiral in the future.
This new video popped up in my feed.
It does not explain the OP's problem, but it does explain the bits well.
Some great high-speed footage too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seAmL6mtqgM
The folks at Whiteside have always been cheerfully responsive to my queries. I would not hesitate to contact them.
While compression bits are indeed designed to leave clean surfaces on dual sided veneered material I am not aware of ones that do not cut the correct diameter for the length of the bit.
I would contact them. Offer to share your pictures or include the link to this thread and they can look at them here.
https://www.whitesiderouterbits.com/pages/contact
Defects can happen, even if rare. I returned a keyhole bit that broke unexpectedly (I use a lot of small bits and have some level of experience with them). I wasn't looking for a replacement. I was just supplying the failed bit so they could analyze it. They sent me a new bit anyway.
Thanks GeeDubBee I'll do that.
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