Using a 1/4 router bit on a 50mm thickness piece of pine.

[gizmo1990]

I need to straighten off the edges of a table top Im making from an old piece of oak parquet veneered pine. The oak veneer is about 5mm thick with the pine around 45mm, so 50mm all told. After I've straightened the edges I'll veneer them, so I need a nice clean edge.

I have a Bosch 1200 router which I was thinking of running around the table edges (with a flush trim bit) via a long straight-edge guide.

50mm is quite a thick amount of material, even if the majority of it is pine. Given that the 1200 router takes a 1/4inch bit, does anyone have any experience or advice for how viable my use here is? My worry would be that 1/4inch is maybe too thin or the 1200 isn't powerful enough.

Any advice much appreciated.

 

[foxhole]

Not seen a suitable bit for 1/4”? Have you found one?

 

[conny]

Assuming your router bit will reach to a 50mm depth of cut, (may be possible with a long shank bit), take it easy when cutting. Set the depth to 5mm and don't force the router, gently push it and let the bit do the work. After a full length cut reset the depth another 5mm and proceed again. Continue doing this until you have the final 5 mm to cut. This time set the depth to 6-7mm deeper to ensure you don't leave a wafer lip at the bottom. Patience is the key. If you try to rush it you may cause a number of problems.
1/ Blunt the cutter.
2/ Bend the shank of the cutter.
3/ Burn out the router.
4/ Wander off line or chew up the cut edge.

 

[Tigercubrider]

You can buy extra long router bits

 

[mrrusty]

You won't want to trim to 50mm depth with a 1/4" router. I wouldn't - the risk of snapping the cutter is high. An alternative is to use a trimmer with a bearing at the base and go from both sides. The bearing will make the bottom cut follow the top cut exactly (or close enough)

 

[Deleted member 174758]

You can buy extra long router bits

And a 50mm high edge bit on a 1/4 in router is just asking for trouble. Pushed slightly too hard it will either snap, as Mr Rusty says, or worse still it will bend and wreck the base of the router

 

[mrrusty]

or worse still it will bend and wreck the base of the router

that sounds scary @JobAndKnock - you ever actually had that happen? I've broken a cutter before now but never had one bend...but I won't have done nearly as much routing as you.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

I've had it the other way - a 1/2 in shank router cutter, 1/4in cutter about 50mm (2in) long cut, pushed a bit too hard (and maybe it was a bit blunt, too) - and it bent then quickly snapped like a carrot just where the shoulder was. Made a right old mess of the sub-base.

On another occasion I had a 1/4in shank bearing guided chamfer bit (Porter-Cable, so in theory a good cutter) in a 1/4in Elu router where I accidentally overfed the cutter and it bent the shank. That completely wrecked the base of the router.

The thinner the cutter, the thinner the shank the easier it is to bend the shank or the cutter body, so load the cutter less (and in any case never more than about 1/4 of the cutter diameter except in exceptional circumstances)

In both those instances I could not hold onto the router, so the only approach was to throw the router away from myself before killing the power (which did even more damage to the router). Brown trouser moments, both

I've had a number of long, thin spiral cutters snap as well, but as they are generally solid carbide you can hear the note change as they fail, so you get a small amount more warning (a few seconds). They are particularly sensitive to worn or dirty collets.

Other breakages have been when a cutter has just been run too long and gone blunt, but they often betray themselves by the paint on the cutter going brown first (through overheating) - and again cheap Chinese cutters can be blunt or out of balance from the off. So, beware!

There's something to be said for the old advice of always choosing the shortest cutter you possibly can for the job at hand.

 

[mrrusty]

Thanks for that. I always think I'm careful, but will take extra care in future...

 

[Deleted member 174758]

It sounds frightening, but TBH over the years I've had relatively few breakages, and they've generally been fairly benign - the cutter brakes and the broken bit drops away, and that's it.

 

[gizmo1990]

Thanks for all the advice everyone. Hmm I'll likely attempt the 2 pass method. Take off half, then use a top bearing cutter to remove the lower half.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

Far, far safer