Wood Router Question

[Old_Geezer]

I'm not au fait with using a router so when I had a job where I needed to use one, I tried the one I had in the garage. It turned out I wasn't very good at it; the tool kept jerking away from the test piece of wood and instead of a nice cut out along the length I got patchy cuts and non-cuts, and it was clear that wasn't going to work.

To shorten the tale I bought a Trend router table, then having found out the B&D router wouldn't fit, a Dewalt router, then having found out it needed an optional extra to work inverted in a table I bought a replacement height adjust. Cost me a small fortune just to do a small job.

I tried the router with the cutter bit I had in the B&D router, and the cutter broke, so I then bought a new set of cutters from Wickes.

The first length of rail I fed through, to remove the bit I didn't want, seemed to be reasonably ok. I checked that out last weekend where I wish to fix it, and it looked good. Today I tried to do a couple more rail lengths and that was totally different.

Instead of a neat cut I heard more noise than before, and found the cutter wasn't cutting nicely but gouging out large chunks of wood, leaving the surface in poor condition. Luckily the damage to the rail will be on the back and unseen when used.

My question is, what was I likely to be doing wrong, given that the first use last weekend seemed to go ok ?

The rotational speed was the same, but could it have been wrong ? I thought I fed the wood in at the same rate, but could it be that ? Too quickly ? Too slowly ? The cutter bit/table had not had it's settings changed since last weekend. The only other thing I could think of was maybe router cutters need slinging and replacing every few yards of feed. Beyond that I'm stumped.

Anyone know what was the likely issue such that I can avoid it in future ?

Thanks.

[The Builder]

I use a Trend router table myself, OG. A good piece of kit.

The only way I can see as to why you are having problems, is that the work will jump and judder if it's run in the wrong direction.

Facing the table ... Hold the work tightly against the fence... and run it from right to left. A man of your calibre should have no problem ;o)

[Old_Geezer]

Unfortunately, that was what I was doing: but thanks for your input. I feared no one would have the expertise to advise.

I'm not experiencing it jumping and juddering as such. It's that it's become noisy, and instead of cutting away the wood smoothly as it first did, it turns out it's wrenching off inch long (or larger) slivers, somehow.

I did remember to check the 3 fixing screws this morning, but that was a dead end. They are in as tight as ever and the router is fixed & stable in the table.

[-Talbot-]

Try using more passes OG.

[Old_Geezer]

I did wonder about that, but it didn't need it first time, and it would mean, after managing to set the height and depth correctly, changing it. I've deliberately not moved the settings since I'd got it about right. (Too deep and it'll take out the moulded front !) I was rather hoping it could take it out in one go. Thanks though. I may need to try that next time.

[rccatnap]

The direction of the wood grain can make a big difference.
Reduce the depth of cut, increase the rotation speed and feed the piece into the rotating cutter slowly. If it shows signs of juddering, turn the piece over lengthwise so the blade is cutting with the grain and continue feeding until the end is reached.

[Old_Geezer]

Cheers. If I turn the rail over the wrong side would get cut. Speed is at maximum already; I thought that best.

It begins to look as if there's a small consensus that many smaller cuts might sort the issue then. Perhaps the difference between the first try and the second is the wood grain. That's would explain it.

I probably won't need to try again for a fortnight but I'll bear it in mind, and see what happens.

[Old_Geezer]

Well I wasn't keen on changing the settings as I wanted all to be exactly the same, but I reduced the depth from 4mm to 1 mm and tried another cut; and it seemed to make no difference.

So I returned the depth to 4mm and reduced the height from 9mm to 4mm. That seemed to make a difference, and suggests that the cutter can't really cut the height it appears it ought.

That said it still wasn't 100%. Particularly when running down the 2400mm rail, and it may be a 'red herring' but I think part may be due to the amount of wood dust that fails to blow away from the cutting area.

Anyway it went better that time. Cheers.

[Old_Geezer]

You say that the Trend router is a good piece of kit, but as a novice I'm having an issue with the width of the gap in the guide around the router bit.

It's so wide it hard to keep the wood moving well across it neither allowing it to move away from the bit nor accidently moving it closer. I try to press on the part of the workpiece yet to reach the bit, and thus still on the guide, but that still seems to let the front end drift a little. and trying to stop that one can easily get a deeper cut as the wood at the start of the cut than later. Longer workpieces seem less prone than shorter ones. I wish there was a way to narrow the gap so it is closer to the width of the bit, but it seems fixed.