The dining room table is finally started. The legs are 2.25″ square at the top and taper to 1.25″ at the bottom in a gentle curve on two sides. Using templates, I marked the curve on the leg and cut off the excess on the bandsaw close to the line. I then used a pattern router bit on the router table to cut the curve smoothly along the template. I used a 1.5″ bit because I have not been able to find one which is longer than 2″. this worked pretty well but I got some tear out. With some gentle coaxing and working carefully and some final sanding I got the first leg done. I was wondering if it would be better NOT to take off the excess with the bandsaw and use only the router.
ASK
Replies
Boy, this seems to be exactly the place for a spokeshave, or a Nicholson #50 patternmakers rasp, rather than fighting the risk of tearout.
Steve and PZGren,
Thanks for the suggestions. I'll let you know how it works.
ASK
ASK,
You could use a draw knife to remove the majority of the extra wood and then, as Steve suggested, use the #50 rasp to refine the shaping and the spokeshave for the finishing touches. Lot less probability of tear out than with a router bit....
Beste Wünschen auf eine Fröhlichen Weihnachten und ein glückliches Neues Jahr!
Tschüß!
Mit freundlichen holzbearbeitungischen Grüßen aus dem Land der Rio Grande!!
James
Typically when routing around a curve the cut will be into the grain of the wood. When this occurs one can minimize tearout by climb cutting. Better yet, tearout can be all but eliminated by turning the piece over and routing from the other side so that the bit will once again be cutting with the grain. This means you will alternately use both a top bearing and a bottom bearing router bit.
Edit:
I want to add..... always cut as much waste away as you can before using a router. A router is really a trimming tool. Although our big motored routers with their large diameter bits are capable of removing large amounts of wood it is messy, fraught with danger, loud, not very efficient from an energy and time standpoint, ..... on and on.
Just imagine if you could cut exactly to the line with the bandsaw, you'd not have need for a router or a spokeshave!
Edited 12/18/2006 3:20 pm by sapwood
Sapwood,
Yes, but the problem is the double curve and the 2.25" height. I think I can use a 2" top bearing bit first and then push is up and eek out the extra 1/4. If I can do one side at a time this way it should work.
I also love my 4" X 24" belt sander with a 60 or 80 grit belt. Amazing how much it will take off.
ASK
I think I'd go with the hand tools also, but another option would be a bearing guided drum sander in the drill press, with the bearing following the template.
If you build it he will come.
This is not a router application; it is for the shaper.
I'd still waste with the bandsaw, then fixture the work on a templet with toggle clamps. Feed the work on the shaper table against a big bearing on the arbor.
Cuts of this size, (& full thickness too), are quite ordinary for the shaper. Their cutters are big, have the volume to grind in the desired cutting angles and relief, tearout far less wood, a triviality for a shaper cutter. Router bits cannot compete. They have their place but not doin' deep & wide cuts
I suspect your cutter was a 1/2" trimmer. A cutter as long as yours deflects and hammers the hell out of the stock. Expect tearout, chatter and a short lived cutter. Shaper cutters are rated in shifts of milling time; router bits in feet (2-400' wear lines begin!)
Routers
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