Router problem

[James Ayars]

I am stumped and am hoping the many people here smarter than me can help me out. I'm finishing a floor cabinets for my new son's room and am down to doing the top. I'm using 3/4" stock and want to put a finished edge on it. I tried a 0.5 inch round over bit today.

Here's the problem. The bit leaves a tiny strip of wood at what will be the base of the edge. The line is less than the thickness of a dime. I tried raising the bit in my router table and it left a line at what will be the top of the top. Any idea what the problem is or what I'm doing wrong? The router bit is a Skil brand.

Many thanks.
James

[John Keane]

The actual first order of business is to rout a test piece

The bit is to small. To remove the edging I would suggest that you lower the bit and then round over both the top and the bottom. I would round over the top and then flip the top and round the bottom. To prevent tearout on the ends route the sides first. A backup board will reduce or eliminate any tearout on the sides.

[Vaughn McMillan]

James, did the router bit come with more than one bearing? Some roundover bits have a small bearing, to leave the little reveal line you're seeing, and a larger bearing to make a true roundover. It sounds almost like you have the smaller bearing on your bit. If that's not the case, then you'd probably be wise to invest in another bit. Any of the bigger names (in router bits, not power saws) would likely be a step up from what you have now. Roundover bits are real useful, and it's worth it to buy good ones since you're likely to use it more than others.

I do a lot of bullnose edges on 3/4" cutting boards with roundover bits, and I still always do some final sanding to get a smooth, line-free edge.

HTH -

- Vaughn

[John Keane]

Vaughn's points are valid.

[Charlie Plesums]

A half inch roundover bit on a 3/4 inch thick top is too large. Normally I use a 1/4 inch roundover bit, leaving a flat space in the center for for the guide bearing to follow.

You can use the 1/4 inch on both top and bottom, but if you want to get fancy, use 1/8 or 3/16 on the bottom and 3/8 on the top.

If you want to round the whole edge, and not leave a flat space for the guide bearing to follow, you need to use an edge guide rather than counting on the bearing on the router bit.

[Richard Wolf]

I think the Skil brand is not the best. Sounds like the bearing is just a touch to small for the cutting dia. Time to invest in a good one.

Richard

[James Ayars]

Many thanks to all of you. I knew I would get good advice here. Running test pieces was how I discovered the problem. I would have jumped off the roof if I had messed up the counter top without testing a piece first.

Richard, I agree that Skil is not the best. I bought an inexpensive set to see what bits I would use the most then planned on getting better versions of the most used ones.

I had not thought of routing the top and bottom. The router and table are relatively new tools for me so I still have much to learn. I think I will try it though.

One response is that the bit is too small and one says it is too large?

Vaughn, my bits did come with two bearings. I'll compare them and see what the difference is.

I will try clamping a backup board as well. Thanks again.
James

[Jim Becker]

If you want to round the whole edge, and not leave a flat space for the guide bearing to follow, you need to use an edge guide rather than counting on the bearing on the router bit.

...or do it on the router table with the fence to guide the workpiece. Same effect. Different method.

[David Eisenhauer]

There is a popular table top edge treatment that uses a 1/4" roundover on the top edge and a 3/8" roundover on the bottom edge - look at an elevation view of your thumb;) . Those two bits are two of the most ysed bits in my arsenal and I use 1/2" shank-carbide cutter bits for these and then other heavily used bits. Freud, Whiteside, Amana are good brands for me, as well as many other brands out there other folks use. Best of luck.

[Dev Emch]

Many of the round over router bits will often do a tiny thumb nail effect which is what you descibed. Often on a true bull nose or half bull nose bit, the bit is flaired out so that the change from flat to round is faired in. On the schmidt shaper cutters that do this, I think this flair out is as much as 35 thousandths on a bull nose knife. Now the trick is to find the same kind of cutlery in a shaper cutter. You may wish to go online and see what Whiteside has available.

[Charlie Plesums]

...I had not thought of routing the top and bottom. ...One response is that the bit is too small and one says it is too large?
...
(I'm the too large guy)... I thought you were routing both top and bottom... if so, you need to worry about having an edge for the guide bearing or fence to follow - try 1/4 inch on both top and bottom of a 3/4 inch board - to my eye, that looks pretty good.

David suggested a larger roundover on the bottom - I'm going to have to try that, since I usually put a larger roundover on the top when I make the two different.

[James Ayars]

More good advice, and I do appreciate it. I'm going out of town today but when I get back at the end of the week, I'll try some of these things and report back.

The only other router bits available around here are Bosch. How would you guys rate them? Good or not so good?

Woodcraft is ~70 miles north of here but it will be a few weeks before I can get up that way. Which of their router bit brands should I stay away from?

Many thanks
James

[James Ayars]

Well, I tried several things yesterday. Made ~25 practice runs. I changed to a different profile bit(Roman ogee instead of a round over) and dropped it a bit to leave a larger lip around the base of the piece I was edging. The down side was Lowes had no useable boards or birch ply in big enough so I had to use 3/4" pine. It turned out nice though. Tonight I'm doing the finish work.

When priming plywood, how many coats should be used? is one coat enough or should I use two?

Many thanks for the replies. Any advice on what brand bits to avoid or look for is appreciated.
James

[Vaughn McMillan]

James, in my limited experience, I've primed plywood with two coats, although those were always outdoor applications. Indoors, I'm guessing one coat would suffince, but others might correct me on that.

Regarding router bits, Whiteside seems to always be well liked, as are CMT and Amana. I also like the Katana bits from MLCS, and have heard good things about Freud. (I like their saw blades.) I've had OK success with Rockler bits, although the reviews I've read usually have the Rockler stuff in the middle of the pack.

HTH -

- Vaughn