Am I losing my mind with this tounge and groove router set?

[Ryan W Taylor]

Long story short, I cannot adjust this thing to get the slop out of the joint when I put it together. I am attaching some pictures for you to see. I am about to throw down on some Freuds, these are some KOWOOD's. They had good reviews and I thought I would give them a try. I shouldn't have this much slop/runout in this joint should I?!?!

Public disclosure, I am new to this game honestly. First set of these bits. 451178

[Rod Sheridan]

Hello Ryan, it looks like a tongue and groove st, that means it, meant to have slop because this joint is used for panelling, flooring etc.

If you get it really tight, you might not be able to assemble the pieces.....Regards, Rod.

[Jim Becker]

They could be operating as designed like Rod says. Or it could be a mis-matched set. The groove is clearly significantly larger than the tongue that's being created. If the tongue cutter can be shimmed, adjusting it to create a thicker tenon is the way to go until you get the snug fit you want.

[Ryan W Taylor]

They could be operating as designed like Rod says. Or it could be a mis-matched set. The groove is clearly significantly larger than the tongue that's being created. If the tongue cutter can be shimmed, adjusting it to create a thicker tenon is the way to go until you get the snug fit you want.

I have used every single shim that came with it. The cutter head is about .0015 larger then the largest (all shims used) I can get the groove head shimmed to. I really don't know what else to do as I would like to have a pretty close fit on this set.

[Ed Aumiller]

I believe you have a mis-matched set... would ask for them to be replaced with a proper set...
On T&G you need a little looseness, but not that much....

[Jim Becker]

I believe you have a mis-matched set... would ask for them to be replaced with a proper set...
On T&G you need a little looseness, but not that much....

I am in total agreement.

[Lee Schierer]

On my tongue and groove set, both the tongue cutter and groove cutter are adjustable. There is a bearing between the cutters on the tongue cutter that sets the minimum thickness of the tongue, but the shims for the groove cutter are more than adequate to widen the groove to fit the minimum tongue thickness. Perhaps you need to add a shim or two to between the two pieces of the tongue cutter.

Here is the documentation that came with my cutter set. The shims are color coded for thickness.
451209451210

[Rod Sheridan]

I have used every single shim that came with it. The cutter head is about .0015 larger then the largest (all shims used) I can get the groove head shimmed to. I really don't know what else to do as I would like to have a pretty close fit on this set.

I wouldn't think that 1.5 thousandths of an inch is excessive for a tongue and groove cutter clearance.

One possible issue is that your router spindle isn't square to the table, that would make the groove bigger, and the tongue smaller..........Regards, Rod.