| Router Table Feed Direction It sounds basic, but when you invert your router into to your table for the first time it can be daunting to know which direction you should feed the stock. Take a chance and pick the wrong direction, and your wood shoots across the room. Here is the tried and true rule Feed the wood into the router from Right to Left. You want to feed your wood against the rotation of the bit. This can be a tad hard to find out if you do not have a soft start router. Most of the time you can see the bit’s direction when you turn it on. You want the cutting edges of the bite into the wood but not pull it along. In this way you can control the feed in which the wood gets fed into the working bit. This is where the safety is. Another good rule of thumb is to think about the size of the wood you are routing. If you are going to be routing small pieces of wood, be sure to use something to protect your hands. I prefer to use some small wood jig holders for this job or even some scrap wood that you can have good control over. Starting pins help when you are routing small pieces of wood. They allow you to feed the stock into the bit while leaning on the starter pin. This stabilizes the wood and that initial first bite of the router bit. Always be thinking about what the bit wants to do with the wood. Usually you can tell by the way the wood feels if you are about to feed it in the wrong direction. Always think where your hands are going to be after you feed the entire project through the router table. Feed Rate Now that you figured out the direction, some thoughts are needed on how fast to feed it over the bit. A lot of woodworker's try to shortcut the process by either feeding the stock to fast, trying to take off too much or using a dull bit. If you feed the wood too slow you will burn the wood. If the wood chips or blows out, your feeding it too fast. Burning can also be the result of trying to hog off to much in one pass. Adjust the bit height or fence to try and remove small portions at a time. This is easier on your router too and will help it to last longer. |
2007 Copyright protected by Router Table Depot. This article may not be
reprinted without specific permission.
reprinted without specific permission.
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