Hand Router Tip
- This topic has 6 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 10 years, 2 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
I discovered this little trick tonight while using my hand router to flatten & clean out a dado for the leg on my workbench. First, score a line down the middle of wide dados before hand routing. It will make the chips half as wide and won’t get jammed up in the throat of the router. It also seems to offer less resistance that way. Second, if you hold one handle fixed while rotating the opposite handle around it in an arc like fashion, the router pares the wood easier and pulls out less of those long fiber pieces, giving a smoother bottom.
When I was in high school, we sawed a kerf down the center of the dado to assist in clean out. Im going to try this next time. This post hes reminded me of that saw kerf.
Meridianville, Alabama, USA
Cool Brent. I knew I couldn’t have been the first one to “discover” that. I just used my striking knife, but that was in soft wood. I’ll remember the saw kerf trick if the knife doesn’t work as well on harder wood. Both ways seem similar to how Paul makes relief cuts to help hog out wood on a curve.
Making an extra saw kerf in the waste area when cutting dovetails really helps when chiseling too.
-Canada
In almost all circumstances a shearing cut will produce a noticeably smoother surface.
Thanks for the dovetail kerf tip Dave, I’m definitely going to use that one.
I never thought about that Ron, but it makes sense. Thanks.
A sheering cut with a hand router should mimic planing while holding your plane at an angle. It effectively decreases the angle of the cutting edge.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.