Chunking wood

[Bob Huddleston]

Hi all:

I am making a plant stand for my mom and dad, using ash. I have a template and am using a flush trim router bit with a rolling bushing guide. Here is my problem: when going with the grain, I am getting chunks blowing off the piece, so much so that I have had to give up on two pieces so far. I trimmed as close as I could with my bandsaw befor routering on my table. It is a new router bit that I bought expressly for this project.

Any ideas or suggestions on what am I doing wrong? Thanks for the ideas.

[glenn bradley]

I had some oak that did that to me. Remaining pieces acted normal. I don't know but at the time I just suspected the wood was 'different' for some reason; dryness, drying method, etc. I was able to recover the pieces (although I had to modify my design) by back routing (or climb cutting if you prefer) a very shallow cut and then proceeding like normal while only removing about an 1/8" at a time till I met my goal.

[Bob Huddleston]

Glad to know I am not alone!

[Ralph Barhorst]

You need to take a close look at the grain direction on the wood. The wood will chip out if you are going in the wrong direction.

This is similar to petting a dog or cat. It works fine in one direction (from front of dog to back) but not the other direction.

When routing in the "wrong" direction, you can either flip the board over and route with the template also located on the other side, or you can do a "climb cut".

[Ellen Benkin]

I had a similar problem with a piece that had curves at each end. Going in one direction was fine until I hit the curve and then all hell broke loose -- always wear safety glasses. I finally wised up and routed to a certain spot then flipped it (and the template) over and did the 'bad' curve in the other direction. No problems.