Frustrated router bit set up

[Jenny Trice]

Today I purchased this bit:

http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=19531&site=ROCKLER&filter=wedge%20tongue

I spent a couple of hours and all of my scrap wood and never did get a joint that I thought was good. I found it really hard to get the fence adjusted for the proper depth of cut. I think I did OK on height since I have a router lift on my table.

Does anyone have any suggestions for getting this darn thing set up? I aligned the fence so that the smallest diameter of the bit was in line with both sides of the fence. When I made the cuts, there was still about a .020 gap at the surface of the joint. If I adjusted the fence for a deeper cut, then I was getting 'snipe'. I tried shimming the outfeed fence but that didn't prove effective either.

Can anyone help? If not, I may be testin Rockler on their "100% satisfaction guarentee". I thought this was a good idea for gluing up panels but I'm tired and frustrated so far.

[Mike Heidrick]

I glue up straight edge to straight edge. I dont use bits or biscuits etc.

If you got "snipe" your outfeed was not correctly set far enough out. You were cutting away the entire profile and the "snipe" was the wood being supported on the outfeed which was in farther than the trailing cutter.

[glenn bradley]

This type of bit is often used with offset fences on the router table to incur a jointing effect but, that is not absolutely necessary. Since the face "up" surface of one board is mated to the face "down" side of the next, vertical alignment is critical. Did you joint and plane your test boards? If not, the deviations in path that irregular board faces cause will foul this joint. Since you are essentially using the top of one board as the reference surface and the bottom of the adjoining board, well squared stock is just as essential as bit height unless you want to do a lot of flattening after glue up. Avoiding that is, of course, one of the ideas behind this bit in addition to greater glue surface.

[Joe Scharle]

I have similar bits, but with any of these types I find that a zero clearance fence makes setup and execution much easier. A shop made carrier jig, like a coping sled is a great help too. Good luck; movie's over...gotta go!

[Jery Madigan]

The sommerfeld tongue and groove set makes that job easy and lines up every time.

[Dan Bowman]

I'd also check to make sure my router was still square to the table. A slight change can angle the bit. You could test it with a straight bit and make sure the resulting edge was square to the face of the board

[glenn bradley]

I'd also check to make sure my router was still square to the table. A slight change can angle the bit. You could test it with a straight bit and make sure the resulting edge was square to the face of the board

Dan bring up an excellent point and an area many of us (maybe I should just say me) are prone to accept as "good" without re-checking.

[Bob Reda]

Wood shop demoes used to have all these setups available. He would show you how to do it. Since John passsed away I don't know if the web site is up or not. I know that you have to adjust if the one is high, half the distance down and try again.

Bob

[Joe Scharle]

Look at this...should help...

http://www.mlcswoodworking.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/smarthtml/pages/bt_door.html?tab=1#TabbedPanels5