Router tearout on soft maple

[Jared Cuneo]

I'm routing (router table) some 1/4" dadoes for box bottoms into soft maple (non-figured) and getting horrific tearout. The dadoes are 3/16" deep. The bit, a 2 flute carbide, seems to be ok on other species.

I've built 3 sets of ends for these finger jointed boxes and I'm losing money on this one for sure by now....

Any advise? I'm about to call it a day and just cut them on the TS with a dado set but the walnut side pieces have stopped dados and I'd like to minimize any potential mismatch, ie, do it all with the same router setup....

Thanks...

JC

[Rick Gifford]

Besides backing up the board with another to minimize tearout you might need to cut these on the bandsaw.

[keith ouellette]

Are you sure the bit is sharp enough. I've used a little soft maple and the cuts all came out clean. The bits were new and sharp though.

[Cody Colston]

I recently made some finger jointed drawers from Soft Maple and even with a backer board I had a lot of tearout...actually more fuzz than tearout. I think it's the nature of the wood.

[Todd Jensen]

Whenever I'm getting tearout I like to first try some blue tape FIRMLY pressed down around the blade target area(saw/router, etc). It works quite well for me most of the time.

[Jared Cuneo]

I switched bits and made a shallow first cut, then went the full depth. At that point, the edges were clean but had fuzz all over the inside. I ran it through 2 more times and its clean now....

What a PITA.... Thanks for the suggestions, I'm gonna try the tape thing too...

JC

[Lee Schierer]

For cutting slots, I prefer a spiral bit rather than straight bits. They make both up spiral and down spiral types. The down spiral will have less tear out in your dado cutting but may pack the dado with chips behind the cutter.