Replies

1. 
   Knotscott | Jun 20, 2009 03:23pm | #1

   Couple of guesses...did the bit break? If the bit's fine, I'm wondering if you reversed the workpiece the 2nd time you fed it, or dropped the piece too quickly onto the bit. You mentioned that the fuse is fine, but did you confirm that there's power to the outlet? If the router is plugged into an outlet strip, check the strip for a reset button.

   Does the router have a reset button anywhere?

1. 
   davcefai | Jun 20, 2009 03:38pm | #2

   The bit's fine, the outlet has power and there's no reset button - at least externally.I have to assume that the impact did some internal damage - it was a sideways one.

2. 
   JerryPacMan | Jun 20, 2009 04:18pm | #3

   Remove the brushes and look at the commutator through the brush hole for any damage.  I did something similar many years ago and destroyed the router commutator.

    

   Life is what happens to you when you're making other plans.

   When your ship comes in... make sure you are not at the airport.

1. 
   davcefai | Jun 20, 2009 06:54pm | #4

   Thanks. I supose that it's possible that the bit stopped and the current then did the damage. Off to my friendly repairman on Monday.Good news for me is that there was one shop open this pm and I found a Ferm router. These are also rebadged as Trend so can't be too bad.

1. 
   JerryPacMan | Jun 20, 2009 08:51pm | #5

   On my router the sudden shock of the bit taking a large chunk out of the wood caused the armature segments to separate. 

   Life is what happens to you when you're making other plans.

   When your ship comes in... make sure you are not at the airport.

2. 
   davcefai | Jun 21, 2009 01:57pm | #6

   Jerry,You were close, but, fortunately for me, not on the money.There are 2 ferrite wound coils on a PCB in series with the brushes. The wire of one of them snapped near the soldered joint.I resoldered it and the machine is spinning once more!Thanks for the help.

3. 
   Lataxe | Jun 21, 2009 02:04pm | #7

   Dave,

   Can't help with what might be wrong with your router but I can offer an informed opinion (informed by bitter experience) of why the issue arose.  You mention:

   "I then lowered the bit, restarted the router and offered the work to it again....."

   In my experience it's always best to allow the router to start and get up to full speed away from the immediate vicinity of the work.  Better, in your example, to have started the router up to full speed before you lowered the bit back into the part-routed work. 

   It's all to easy to allow the bit to drift into close-by work before it has properly started and acquired the angular momentum/bit-speed that makes for clean cutting rather than a grab-and-stop.

   Lataxe

1. 
   davcefai | Jun 21, 2009 06:15pm | #8

   I can't swear that I did not do the wrong thing but this procedure meant reaching under the table and turning on the router, pick up the push-stick, place the work against the fence, then start moving it.OTOH the router was on speed 3, ie half speed. Could this have been too slow?My main concern at the moment is: Next time I want to rout a groove along the grain on a router table, what is the correct way to do it?A method where the piece is at constant risk of being snatched by the bit can't passibly be the best way.Suggestions or references are most welcome.

1. 
   Lataxe | Jun 21, 2009 07:43pm | #9

   Dave,

   Stopped grooves on the router table are always difficult and (for the reasons you mention) prone to bitey-bang events.  I generally find a way to route stopped grooves from the top. 

   A woodrat can do stopped grooves well as it allows easy accesss to the router plunge mechanism and has vises and a carrier to move the workpiece.  Another method uses two fences on the router (with extra-long fence arms) set to the width of narrower workpieces, which allows one to use the plunge mechanism and also control the movement along the workpiece.

   However, with wider workpieces the above methods don't work.  I then try to use two parallel guide rails clamped over the workpiece to run the router between.

   I did once try this mechanism on my Lee Valley router table:

   http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=3&p=43039&cat=1,43053,43885

   However, I couldn't get it to work as smoothly as I wanted; and it seemed to have a limited plunge depth (or raise-height, to be more accurate). However, this may just have been me and my cack-handedness with complicated gizmos.  The principle is sound enough.

   Lataxe

1. 
   davcefai | Jun 21, 2009 10:36pm | #10

   OK thanks.It's from the top for me, for now anyway.

2. 
   saschafer | Jun 22, 2009 12:10am | #11

   The grabbing is caused by inadvertently making a climb cut. A slot-cutting bit is less likely to grab that way, but it has other disadvantages that may or may not be applicable (the piece has to be held vertically against the fence, the ends of the groove are radiused in a different direction, etc.).

   -Steve

    

1. 
   davcefai | Jun 22, 2009 07:53am | #13

   So I suppose what probably happened is that, when I re-started, the "wrong" edge caught the wood. Had I been routing holding the router instead probably nothing would have happened as the router is much heavier.

1. 
   saschafer | Jun 22, 2009 03:30pm | #15

   Exactly. I've experienced it many times myself. ;-)

   -Steve

    

3. 
   Routerman | Jun 22, 2009 12:57am | #12

   Safest way for stopped slots, independent of work section, 2 edge guides, one on each side of the work. A plunger is essential, a step at a time. Stops on the stock or bench to limit the north/south travel of the router, with them the router is on a defined path that cannot deviate. The cutter can be retracted at will; a safe way to do business,

   Routers

   Edited 6/22/2009 9:57 am ET by Routerman

1. 
   davcefai | Jun 22, 2009 07:55am | #14

   So essentially I should not have tried cutting this slot on a table.I like the 2 edge-guide idea. Never thought of it.Thanks

1. 
   Routerman | Jun 22, 2009 05:03pm | #16

   Indeed, an accident in your face. Blind cutting on the router table is spooky/dangerous business. If the work is mishapen, the fence is not straight & square, and you're cutting >1 diameter you're at more risk.

   A daily affair with bungee jumpers (routing blind), but not for this tech.

4. 
   mikeddd | Jun 25, 2009 12:15am | #17

    I agree with the others here that what you are trying to do on your router table is dangerous. I built a couple of jigs for making dadoes with the router, the small one will make about a fifteen inch long dado and the longer one I made will make up to a thirty six inch long dado, for stopped dadoes just screw a piece of scrap across the path of the plunge router. As you can see in the pictures I attached I use a guide bushing in the router to follow the grove I cut in the jigs, use the largest guide bushing you can get then you be able to use larger bits, in my case I used a one inch outside diameter guide bushing so I can run a 3/4 inch bit inside of that for wider dadoes I just move the jig over and make another pass to the required width, with large bits don't try to go to full depth in one pass, I bolted the fence to the jig so if it gets banged out of square it is easy to realign.

   Mike

   
1. 
   davcefai | Jun 25, 2009 03:13pm | #18

   Neat. Thanks.The funny thing is that I thought doing the job on a table was safer that running it handheld!