Rockytime Posted December 30, 2019 Report Share Posted December 30, 2019 I just finished using a round over router bit on this piece. It is Poplar. I have used the same bit on straight pieces but never on something irregular like this. There is burning and chatter areas. I perhaps have no idea to use a router, or a dull bit, going too slow or something. I obviously don't know what I am doing. I can use some advice. OCtoolguy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul S WI Posted December 30, 2019 Report Share Posted December 30, 2019 Well, based on my experience the first thing I would look at is a dull router bit, which is usually the culprit. Once sharpened I would route the project a second time which usually helps in the reduction of sanding needed. Router speed and feed rate do play an important role as well. That being said I then resign myself to the fact that there will be a lot of sanding to do. NC Scroller, Oscar Myer, Wizard of Oz and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
new2woodwrk Posted December 31, 2019 Report Share Posted December 31, 2019 I am so bad at routing - it's one of my current banes in woodworking Are the bits new? If not it could be a dull bit, but it looks more like chatter to me - slowing and not going smoothly around the edge. Interested to read what others respond with OCtoolguy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OCtoolguy Posted December 31, 2019 Report Share Posted December 31, 2019 The first thing I thought of was dull bit. Second thing is the speed of the router and also the speed of movement around the piece. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kmmcrafts Posted December 31, 2019 Report Share Posted December 31, 2019 Looks good like that... just take a torch and do the rest of the piece to match, lol Gary Rider, LarryEA, jerrye and 2 others 2 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JTTHECLOCKMAN Posted December 31, 2019 Report Share Posted December 31, 2019 (edited) End grain. It will cut differently that face grain. If you are using a stand alone router it will make it a little more challenging that using a router table because you are concentrating on not tipping the router as you route. If you can tell us how you routed it. The bit can be dull but if it is carbide I doubt it unless you use it alot. If it is steel it is junk. Feed speed is important. Direction of feed is also important. The basic answer to your question without knowing the variables is always always always route in multiple passes and never try to hog off that much wood in one pass. Your final pass cleans up chatter and any burn marks. I can tell those burn marks are from bit not moving fast enough and staying in one place too long. One other thing I notice and it can happen alot with poplar because it is a soft wood and also with any soft woods, the bearing dug into the wood which tells me you are pushing too hard on the router against the wood. When you route soft woods light touch is important or else you end up with those ridges. Also the scalloping which you see on the top is probably from your cut. The bit will follow any little imperfection in your cut so if the cut has high and low spots the bit will follow. Hey you asked. Edited December 31, 2019 by JTTHECLOCKMAN OCtoolguy, Scrappile, Mark Tracy and 3 others 5 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgman Posted December 31, 2019 Report Share Posted December 31, 2019 I echo what John wrote. OCtoolguy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bandaideman Posted December 31, 2019 Report Share Posted December 31, 2019 I too agree with John and Dan, I would have the same look of the wood when I routed. Biggest help was getting a table, Smaller amounts of routing at a time and sharp bit. May take longer but worth the time. I too have a heavy hand and get hurried I figure when I get older I will get better. Rolf and OCtoolguy 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karl S Posted December 31, 2019 Report Share Posted December 31, 2019 John is correct with his post. You might clean it up by making one more pass with your router set just a fraction deeper and don't move too slow as John said the second pass might clean it up and the depth won't be enough to really show if you keep it small enough. It does appear that your bit could be dull they don't last forever. If you have any diamond cards you might give the flat sides a little touch up before proceeding. JTTHECLOCKMAN and OCtoolguy 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockytime Posted December 31, 2019 Author Report Share Posted December 31, 2019 The advise here is good. My cutter is lightly used carbide. My problem was hogging instead of several lighter passes. Of course hogging could slow down the little trim router. I did run it at full throttle. Tomorrow i'll try running it through again just a few thousand deeper. My router table is small and of course I had the fence out of the way. Never thought of lighter passes. Dumb! Thanks for the suggestions! OCtoolguy, JTTHECLOCKMAN and new2woodwrk 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jollyred Posted December 31, 2019 Report Share Posted December 31, 2019 Instead of sanding off the burn marks, I find it quicker to scrape them off. If you have a set of cabinet scrapers, you should find a shape to fit your profile. Otherwise, a flat scraper will do the job. After scraping, light sanding will get it looking like the rest of the edges. Tom OCtoolguy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davevand Posted December 31, 2019 Report Share Posted December 31, 2019 I will echo the dull router bit, might also be just a inexpensive bit that is just not very good. I do use the cheap bits for plywood, but I always use my good bits (mostly Whiteside) when I want I want a good finish. On a profile like that I would probably use at least 2 or maybe 3 passes to complete, the last pass is just a very light pass keeping the router moving equals very little chance of burning OCtoolguy and JTTHECLOCKMAN 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roberta Moreton Posted December 31, 2019 Report Share Posted December 31, 2019 14 hours ago, Rockytime said: The advise here is good. My cutter is lightly used carbide. My problem was hogging instead of several lighter passes. Of course hogging could slow down the little trim router. I did run it at full throttle. Tomorrow i'll try running it through again just a few thousand deeper. My router table is small and of course I had the fence out of the way. Never thought of lighter passes. Dumb! Thanks for the suggestions! You solved it. Trim router, hogging. Light passes with any router is always best. OCtoolguy and JTTHECLOCKMAN 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockytime Posted January 1, 2020 Author Report Share Posted January 1, 2020 My router bis is carbide but comes from HF. Very dull and used very little. pulled the bearing and cleaned the two blades. I tried touching them up with a diamond hone. But upon close exam it is not worth it. I'm just ordering a quality bit and be done with it. OCtoolguy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OCtoolguy Posted January 1, 2020 Report Share Posted January 1, 2020 I bought a very nice set of 1/2" shank bits on Amazon for under $50. So far they have performed well. I bought that used Bosch router table and put my Dewalt router in it and I love it. I bought the router on eBay for $50 and found a brand new Dewalt plunge base for it for another $35. I've not used that yet. I love buying used stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharleyL Posted January 2, 2020 Report Share Posted January 2, 2020 Find a bearing that's just a little smaller in diameter than the one on your router bit and use it for making the light pass. If careful, you can climb cut this next pass because you won't be removing that much material. Try to keep moving. A little slower bit speed might help too. Poplar and Cherry give me the most trouble with burning. Using the slightly smaller bearing is the way that I clean it up, if the piece doesn't have to end up an exact dimension. If it does, I start over and sneak up on the final cut by making multiple light passes. Scraping and sanding to remove the burn marks is possible, but I hate doing both. Charley OCtoolguy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockytime Posted January 3, 2020 Author Report Share Posted January 3, 2020 4 hours ago, CharleyL said: Find a bearing that's just a little smaller in diameter than the one on your router bit and use it for making the light pass. If careful, you can climb cut this next pass because you won't be removing that much material. Try to keep moving. A little slower bit speed might help too. Poplar and Cherry give me the most trouble with burning. Using the slightly smaller bearing is the way that I clean it up, if the piece doesn't have to end up an exact dimension. If it does, I start over and sneak up on the final cut by making multiple light passes. Scraping and sanding to remove the burn marks is possible, but I hate doing both. Charley My small router table and small trim router make it difficult to adjust in very small increments. I think the next time I am faced with this problem I will move the fence partially over the router bit taking small bites, backing the fence farther away from the bit until I can take a final pass. Also have new bit coming. Thanks for the suggestion. OCtoolguy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rolf Posted January 3, 2020 Report Share Posted January 3, 2020 (edited) Some great advice from lots of folks. One thing that I have done to help with the final finishing cut. I put a couple of layers of blue tape just on the edge that the router bearing rides on. do your cut, the tape causes you to leave a bit of material. Remove the tape and do a final finishing cut using a steady and continuous feed rate. Edited January 3, 2020 by Rolf OCtoolguy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharleyL Posted January 3, 2020 Report Share Posted January 3, 2020 13 hours ago, Rockytime said: My small router table and small trim router make it difficult to adjust in very small increments. I think the next time I am faced with this problem I will move the fence partially over the router bit taking small bites, backing the fence farther away from the bit until I can take a final pass. Also have new bit coming. Thanks for the suggestion. That will work if the edge of your project is straight, but not for curved edges that need to be routed. You need a smaller bearing that will ride along the curved edge and cut the original round-over, ogee, etc. Just a little deeper. The project that you showed in your photo is full of curves. I cannot see you re-cutting that project using a router table fence. Charley OCtoolguy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NC Scroller Posted January 3, 2020 Report Share Posted January 3, 2020 GREAT responses by many. One thing to add. Whenever I do a project like that one I route the edges before I scroll the text or whatever. Sure you have to be a little careful but that way if you really mess it up on the router you have not lost all your work. Rolf and OCtoolguy 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OCtoolguy Posted January 3, 2020 Report Share Posted January 3, 2020 1 hour ago, NC Scroller said: GREAT responses by many. One thing to add. Whenever I do a project like that one I route the edges before I scroll the text or whatever. Sure you have to be a little careful but that way if you really mess it up on the router you have not lost all your work. Point well taken. All the above are great info. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockytime Posted January 3, 2020 Author Report Share Posted January 3, 2020 BTW that was the first time I routed something like that. Everything I did a round over before was straight. I did nothing with burned edges. I just used a Minwax stain (Gunstock) and the burnt areas disappeared.. I'm going to re-cut with Oak and try the suggestions here. Thanks to all. OCtoolguy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OCtoolguy Posted January 4, 2020 Report Share Posted January 4, 2020 (edited) Well Les, I'm here to make YOU feel better. I made a circle cutting jig yesterday for my Grandpa's old 7/8 H.P. Porter Cable router. It has no bells or whistles but it just works. When I do my part that is. So, there I am with two pieces of walnut 10 x 10 inches. Going to route a 1/4" deep by 5/16" dado around the under side of the top piece for my 1/4" BB panel holder to hide in. Well, I did everything I could think of to make it right. I bored a pilot hole for the 5/16" cutter to start in and a 1/4" hole in the center for my pilot to fit in for the jig. All went great until I tried to widen the dado a few thousandths. I wasn't watching carefully enough and when I flipped the go button it jumped out of my hands and hit the driveway. That would not have been too bad but on it's way out of the cut, it dug in and tore the side wall out of one side. Ruined!!! So, I figured ok, I'll just do another one. I had another piece to work with. Once again, all good. Until the damned center pin came loose and I didn't realize it. All of a sudden, I've got an eggs shaped dado and it wandered out enough to take out another side wall. So, there went $20 worth of custom milled wood. Luckily I still have enough to make some more pieces but it gets really frustrating when I, who is supposed to be PERFECT at everything I do, screwed up. I don't use a router enough to stay in practice I guess. So, after using all the blue language I could think of, I cleaned up my mess and decided to call it a day. Now, I'm here bleeding my heart out to all of you. DANG!!! Edited January 4, 2020 by octoolguy Rockytime 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgman Posted January 5, 2020 Report Share Posted January 5, 2020 OCtoolguy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rockytime Posted January 5, 2020 Author Report Share Posted January 5, 2020 Ray, confession may be good for the soul but it's sure bad for business! OCtoolguy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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