Well, you'll know for next time.
Not a washer - but a spacer from the manufacturer (the thing is doing 18,000 rpm so the spacer really needs to fit snugly - and BTW have you altered the speed setting on the router to take this into account?). Your cutter is a Trend CraftPro C158 T&G cutter. Trend sell a spacer set, part number SPACER/8 for it (£6.79 + VAT list price). Undo the bolt, take the lower cutter off, add spacers to the right size below the bearing (1/8in or 3.2mm) and re-install the lower cutter, spacers, nut, etc and you'll be good to go for the tongue. Obviously make a test cut first. The tongue cut needs to be shimmed to match your panel material and the groove can be adjusted to fit afterwards. The groove will still need to be cut in two passes. That way you won't need to rebate (not rabbit, please - that's Yankee speak) the panel, go in for panel raising or any other non-essential process. Absolutely no need to get a new cutterthis is the cutter, as its adjustable I dont know if i can place a washer in middle to upsize it.
Sounds like a line borer head. Used to be fairly standard piece of kit in furniture factories
And in any case they won't work on MDF, plywood, etc......... Only solid timber. They also need to be run at 8,000 to 12,000 rpm - run them at 24,000 and you risk screwing up the router bearings in the longer term
Yes. So that the thicknesses add up to 3.2mm
Spacer = shim. Interchangable in this context
Yes shim the two cutters to make a tongue of 9.5mm - so actually 22.2mm overall height (6.35 cutter + 6.35 bearing + 3.2 shims + 6.35 cutter - accordingto the Trend catalogue in front of me - which works for your 21mm stock). To make the groove, because you only have a 6.35mm groover, you'll need to make 2 passes, changing the height of the cutter between passes (or flipping the timber over) to cut a 9.5mm groove
Different depths of groove/width of tongue, I think. Not 100% sure. In fact looking at the pic again they look like they could be three shims and a bearing. The catalogue seems to show a couple of shims at the bottom of the cutter set when using both cutters to form a tongue. Any chance of a piccy of all the bits in the packet? What does the instruction sheet say. You may need to install the bearing between the two thin shims (which then act as seals). Without the cutter set in front of me it's difficult to say (my own is a Wealden and slightly different)
Trial and error. Fitting is always like that
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