I was just given 200+ board feet of quartersawn Oak and I am going to be turning it into rails and stiles on some panel doors. The only thing I am worried about is dealing with tearout on the wood.
details on the wood, 3/4″ x 3″ x different lengths mostly longer than 3′
Question: What brand of router bits would you recommend? Which are better?
Adam
Replies
CMT (the orange ones). Spray them with Dri Cote before using. Keep them clean.
Don't worry about tear out. You need to always run your pieces over length and then trim finished length. This will take care of tear out at the ends. Otherwise, run a few pieces to get your feed rate down, use the CMTs and Dri Cote and have fun.
Foul ups in the middle of the board are usually due to poor technique - not using featherboards, bad feed rate, bad router speed, etc. Get that worked out on a trial run or two before you run your finished pieces.
When it comes to bits, in general, you get what you pay for. There are two schools of thought, buy inexpensive (not cheep) bits and toss them as soon as the get dull. Or buy top of the line bits and have them sharpened as needed. Most of the high end pro guys I know figure retooling bits into every large job. Most of the fine furniture craftsman types I know go with top of the line. A decient set of door bits will last 2 good sized kitchen jobs before showing signs of dulling.
Having said all that I have a 20 piece set of cheep Home Depot bits, a handfull of Viper bits, a couple of Rockler's and White Side drawer and door sets. Mostly I bought these out of convienence, HD sells Viper and and their house brand. The rest came from Rockler or Wood Craft as needed.
People say good things about Amana.
Mike
I one of those that will say good things about Amana! I've used their dado set as well as owning a number of their router bits. I have an assortment of Amana spiral bits on 1/2" shanks and have been very happy with their ability to hold an edge over the life of a number of projects. Most work was on quartered white oak. However, this isn't the same as cabinet work...but it is positive feedback on my experience with their brand!
I've also gone down the cheap path. Since I don't have a dedicated dovetail set-up, I've always bought cheap dovetail bits for each project requiring one. I just tossed out two of them after running a test cut with each and meeting all sorts of resistance!
Congratulations on acquiring some nice material and good luck/good skill on this project!
tony b.
Adam,
Quarter-sawn oak is less prone to tear-out than plain sawn but the advise about feed rate and technique is well-advised. For small projects almost any new bit should work well but keep in mind that a bit can dull after as little as 10 lineal feet. I'm sure you already know to shape cross-grain first then long grain to minimize the results of end grain tear-out. I use mainly CMT and Whiteside bits. If you choose to use inexpensive bits, consider getting 2 so you'll have one on hand and not be tempted to keep shaping when you start to experience the effects of a dulling cutting edge.
Doug
I've been using my Freud panel raising / rail and stile bit set for a couple of years now; other than regular cleaning and a light hone now and then, they're performed just fine. The last 3 projects I've done saw them used on QS oak... went through it like a hot knife thru butter.
Mike Wallace
Stay safe....Have fun
I've been using Ridge bits; they are very similar to Whiteside. I've also used Carb-tech, CMT, grizzly, Amana and Home depot specials, and can only recommend Ridge, Whiteside and Amana. CMT bits are OK, but there are better choices.
Cheap bits will give you a lower quality cut from the first inch and on--I would not bother to use them or buy them. Quartersawn white oak ain't cheap -- why try to save a few bucks on a router bit when you have $700 worth of wood passing over it?
Paul in TF
ps: one bias I have toward Ridge is I can drive to their shop to pick up bits. If I could drive to an Amana shop, I'd do that, too.
I cut a lot of chamfers on QSWO, and Whiteside bits work well for me. They seem to stay sharp a little longer than Freud, but that may be just my imagination. Don't waste your time on cheap bits, the money saved isn't worth it especially considering the value of the wood. (I haven't tried the Ridge or Amanas - maybe will order some.)
Watch the grain direction and rout downhill as much as possible. I sometimes take climbing cuts if the grain is adverse, but I'm usually only taking a small chamfer or roundover; this is probably not safe with R&S cutters. If the bits are sharp tearout should not be a problem; you might want to get two bits and locate a sharpening service. When one gets dull you swap it out and use the other while the first one is being sharpened. That's my theory anyway, it used to work for me (with planer blades) but the local sharpening guy quit. :-(
"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler." A. Einstein
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