Reading Wood Grain

[George Bokros]

I am making some rails and stiles for some doors. In the past I have had some trouble on some pieces. The edge of the profile is splintering off. I am thinking that the issue is I am going against the grain. How do you read the grain so you are going with the grain. I am not referring to routing the end grain. I am routing the profile on the edges of the stiles when this happens.

What can I do to prevent / solve this problem.

Thanks

George

[Mel Fulks]

In reading the grain ,try looking at the small dashes ,for lack of better word ,in the grain rather than the large ring grain.Many times they are going in opposite directions. Simply rounding the edges of the wood by routing climb cut style prior to real profile cut can stop a lot of tear out by getting rid of loose "threads" before doing the real profile.

[George Bokros]

Typically I set the fence flush with the bearing on the bit and take a full depth cut. What if I took a shallower first cut then increased to full depth on the second pass would that help?

George

[Mel Fulks]

Some here report good results with your last post . I prefer "my"way and think its faster and works better. No more than two cuts are needed and the climb cut can be done at very high speed. Try both on some scrap.

[Jim Matthews]

Here's a fairly clear explanation of reading grain (http://www.newwoodworker.com/readgrain.html), and orienting your board relative to the direction of the cutter.

In brief, you want the cutter to raise a chip in the same direction the fiber grew in the tree.
With finer profiles, you must select finer grained species.

I used some Angelim Pedra, two years ago - and it splintered in nearly any direction.
This year, some fine old Honduran mahogany came my way and it is forgiving of my hamfisted handling.

May I ask what species you're using for the stiles?

Have you considered applying the profile, after building the door and fitting the panel?
http://walzcraft.com/products/cabinet-doors/applied-molding-cabinet-doors/

[Steve Rozmiarek]

To read wood grain, the arches point which way to cut. To cut with the grain, the cutter should go the same way as the grain arches. No matter if it is a router bit or plane blade. You'll see the problem soon, many maybe most boards have grain that undulates, so it's not practical to cut only with the grain at times. I use Mel's climb cutting approach as well. In fact, I didn't know you were supposed to cut the other way with a router until I started reading the woodworking mags. Still think climb cutting is better for most router work BTW.

[Mel Fulks]

I just looked at that link .Some of his photos are WRONG .You will get better results looking at the texture .He shows some oak with the texture running opposite to ring grain,and makes the wrong call.

[Pat Barry]

Pretty simple - if you slice the material with a knife and the knife wants to dive into the wood you are going against the grain. You can use that trick to learn how to read the grain like Mel is explaining. The worst splinters are from against the grain.

[Ralph Okonieski]

I have difficulty reading the grain sometimes so I take a piece of dry cotton cloth and rub it on the face of the wood. The smoother direction is with the grain.

[Justin Ludwig]

See my signature. I don't understand why the woodworking mags and such are so vehemently against climb cutting. Oh wait, it's a sue-happy world full of PC that's ready to blame others for their own ignorance. -Flame off-

If you haven't climb-cut before, start with a small bit like an 1/8" Round Over and get a feel for it. I turn down the RPM on my router to about 12-14000k for bits that can spin 18k+. If you don't have a strong grip, clamp your work piece and keep both hands on the router. Remember, every bit is different. Don't climb cut with large bits (an arbitrary term). You'll know what large is if you work your way up from an 1/8" RO.

[Joe Scharle]

I'm with Ralph; if I can't feel it with my fingertips, I drag a rag.

[Prashun Patel]

You can also improve your results by running a 1/8" roundover or chamfer on the edge before routing the profile. I have that problem with ash and oak a lot. Light passes is usually the key.

[George Bokros]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I am going to try the roundover bit first then use light passes with the stile profile bit.

George

[Jeff Duncan]

Justin I think generalizations are what can cause some problems here. To just recommend climb cutting without knowing how large a cut the OP is making, or what his experience level is may be a bit reckless no??? The reason so many recommend against them is because it's exponentially more dangerous than a normal feed. That's just fact, nothing to do with suing or anything else. Of course it can be done in certain situations....in others it cannot. It's having the knowledge to know when, and when not, to use it that's most important;)

When I hear edge profiling I'm thinking like what one would find on the edge of a kitchen cabinet door for example. If you try climb cutting that on a router table by hand I can pretty much guarantee that sucker is going to fly! Conversely if your doing a little 1/8" roundover holding the router it's a different story. Hence it's not a one size fits all solution. For what's described here if it's a full profile as I'm thinking I'm going to recommend doing it in two passes. The first pass to remove the bulk of the material and the second just to clean up. This should go a long way in eliminating the little chips and tear-outs from reversing grain.

Lastly you can try to read the grain before running but it's usually not all that practical. One, you have doors that are assembled already so you have to feed them the way you have to feed them. Secondly, because some woods have grains that reverse direction often. Anyone who's done much work in maple is familiar with this problem. I run stuff through a nice large shaper with good tooling and if I take too big a bite I can still run into this problem on some woods.....especially maple. When I do I simply run a second "clean-up" pass to finish it off;)

good luck,
JeffD

[Mel Fulks]

George,if you make the round over with climb cut you will be able to remove all remaining wood in one standard cut.I am ,of course, talking about cuts small enough for safety to not be violated. It's an old trick well known to those who make stair rail fittings cutting with and against grain. When it's just a piece or two,they sometimes round over with sander or drawknife.

[glenn bradley]

I have this pinned to the wall: