Cope & Stick tearout fix trick

[Matt Meiser]

I'm sure I'm not the first person to ever think of this, but I've never seen it in writing before. Tonight I was working on some cope and stick doors. I cut all the cope profiles first. Then I went on to all the sticking. On one of the pieces I got some pretty bad tearout because I took too big a cut and there was some funny grain. I was rather disgusted because it meant having to cut another piece of stock to length (luckily I had thought to cut a little extra and dimension it just in case), set the cope bit back up, etc. Then I got the idea to run the bad edge through the jointer a couple times. I took off maybe 1/32 of an inch. Definitely not something that will ever be noticable to the eye. Then I ran the piece through the router table one more pass and got a perfect piece. Definitely easier than starting over. Now I'm not even sure which piece it was.

[Richard McComas]

Another way is to set up the fences on your shaper or router table the same as you would your jointer. Position the infeed fence so that it is 1/32 to 1/16 inch back of the inside cutting edge. Adjust the outfeed fence so that it is in line with the inside cutting edge. Now you can run your stick as many times and you need to get a clean cut. No trips to the jointer needed.

I usually cut my stick stock twice as wide as needed plus a little and run both sticks then cut two pieces from that.

[Rod Sheridan]

I'm sure I'm not the first person to ever think of this, but I've never seen it in writing before. Tonight I was working on some cope and stick doors. I cut all the cope profiles first. Then I went on to all the sticking. On one of the pieces I got some pretty bad tearout because I took too big a cut and there was some funny grain. I was rather disgusted because it meant having to cut another piece of stock to length (luckily I had thought to cut a little extra and dimension it just in case), set the cope bit back up, etc. Then I got the idea to run the bad edge through the jointer a couple times. I took off maybe 1/32 of an inch. Definitely not something that will ever be noticable to the eye. Then I ran the piece through the router table one more pass and got a perfect piece. Definitely easier than starting over. Now I'm not even sure which piece it was.

Sounds like a good fix Matt.

When you run your sticking do you set the cutters up to remove the entire edge of the piece?

Regards, Rod.

[Matt Meiser]

My bits have a bearing that limits the max depth of cut. I usually make 3 passes, one about 1/2 way, the other close to the rest of the way, and then one that just takes off a tiny bit (maybe 1/128?) But I forgot since I don't do them that much and tried to do an almost full cut which tore out the second piece. I wonder too if slowing down the bit would reduce the tearout?

[Rod Sheridan]

Thanks Mat, that clarifies your approach. I forgot about the bearing in a router bit.

I usually set the outfeed fence forward about 1 mm, and take the entire edge off the sticking profile.

Regards, Rod.

[David DeCristoforo]

Sometimes you can just remove the bearing and use the fence to limit the cut depth. If the bearing is on the "bottom" of the cutter stack, you can simply take it off (assuming that there is enough thread on the arbor to run the nut down to the remaining cutters). If it's in the center, you need to replace it with a spacer (usually 1/4") to keep the cutters correctly oriented.

This is one disadvantage of many "cope and stick" router bits. They often lack a "full stack" of cutters as you would have with a set of shaper cutters.

This is one instance where running the stock between the fence and the cutter is a huge advantage. You can joint, dimension and shape all in one operation. But this is not possible on a router table setup with bits that do not cut the entire edge.

[Chip Lindley]

As very completely covered in another thread on using a shaper with outboard fence, the same concept can be used on router table when cutting your sticking. Clamp an Aux fence outboard of the cutter bit to take a 1/2 cut into the piece. Add a shim piece (1/8 masonite?) to increase the cut "almost" to final dimension. Add a very thin shim (formica strip?) to close the distance for a final dimension and a very clean final cut of the sticking face. Using the outboard fence removes the possibility of bobbling the stock and adding boo boos, because the stock is being pushed AWAY from the cutter, not being pushed against a split fence TOWARD the cutter. Try it, you'll Like It!!

[Chip Lindley]

Oops! Yes! What David Said! .....