Cabinet Door Stile Tearout

[Jeff Anderson13]

I'm a newbie building cabinets :) I has been going good except I got some tear out on my stiles/rails for my cabinets doors. The tearout is between the goove and the ogee profile. I'm using hard maple wood and the CMT ogee raised panel bit set. Any advice appreciated.]

Thanks!

Jeff

[Quinn McCarthy]

Jeff,

To clean that up I usually use a backer board for both the cope and stick cuts. For the cope cut I put a waste block between the back of the board and the front of the sled. That way you have a fully supported piece. I also run a board behind the styles for the same reason. There is usually very little tear out on the styles.

I hope that helps.

Quinn

[Neal Clayton]

if you're cutting the profile and the groove all at once, you need pressure to keep the board flat as it goes through. it can be done with hand pressure, if you know what you're doing, but a couple of featherboards (pressing into the fence, and down next to the bit) go a long way.

even though movement might not be perceptible, it's there in the form of vibration if you don't have the board securely held down.

[Jeff Anderson13]

Neal, I think you hit it dead on - I can't remember if I had my feather boards setup or not... It was a test piece... I'll run some more tomorrow and I'll know for sure!

Quinn, thanks for the comment, but my tearout is more in the middle of the stile while running it through.

Thanks!

[J.R. Rutter]

You may want to take a light scoring pass, just enough to cut the wood fibers at the edge of what will be the groove. Maybe 1/64 to 1/32 deep.

[Van Huskey]

I am going to verify the obvious but since you said your a newbie I assume the bit is new thus sharp?

[Chip Lindley]

Besides sharp, make sure your cutters are clean. (pitch-free) Hard maple is a cantankerous, brittle wood on occasion; especially when grain reverses. As J.R. suggests, make a partial, scoring cut in the rails for starters, then come back and cut the full profile. Perhaps 3 cuts may be in order; the last clean-up cut being only 1/16" or less to shape the profile perfectly.

[Neal Clayton]

Neal, I think you hit it dead on - I can't remember if I had my feather boards setup or not... It was a test piece... I'll run some more tomorrow and I'll know for sure!

Quinn, thanks for the comment, but my tearout is more in the middle of the stile while running it through.

Thanks!

yep, it's actually possible to get a smoother cut with a handheld router rather than feeding the wood, i still do that sometimes for full sized door stiles if i see a board that i know is going to want to tear (weight, the router at any given point that the bit is touching is heavier than the wood).

simple physics ;). a stick profile bit points up, it's trying to push the board up, so you gotta hold it down or it's gonna bounce/vibrate.

[Joe Chritz]

Another trick that works sometimes is to rip your pieces about 1/16th to 1/8th wide and run the sticks. Take down to final size cutting off some of the profile then re-run them to get final profile.

Generally the problem areas are cut away or cleaned up with the last cut.

Joe