ROUTER BASICS

SUPPLEMENTAL NOTES

Modern routers are often used in place of traditional moulding planes or spindle moulder
machines for edge decoration (moulding) of timber and for machining grooves into the
interior of wood pieces. The tool usually consists of a base
housing a vertically mounted electric motor with a collet on the
end of its shaft. A collet is the part on the router that holds the
bit. The motor rotates at speeds in the range of 8000 to 25000
RPM for most routers. The speed that the router has to turn at
is determined by the size of the router bit. The bit protrudes
through an opening in a flat sole plate, usually via adjusting the
motor-mounting height. Control of the router is derived from a
handle or knob on each side of the device.

Classification of Routers:

Routers can be classified into three main groups; large, mid-size and trim. Within the
large and mid-sized groups there are more variations, plunge and fixed base.

Large Routers

A large router is best suited for a router table since they are
quite heavy and cumbersome to operate by hand. The
motors are around 3 HP and are designed to be used with
large bits that remove a lot of wood, bits like raised panel
bits. A variable speed motor is recommended since it allows
you to reduce the speed as you increase bit size.

Mid-sized Routers

This is the all-purpose family of routers that are often the first ones
bought by woodworkers. With motors size ranging from 1-1/2 to 2-
1/4 HP they can be used with a wide range of bits. They are also
the most versatile of all the router families, easily used by hand or
mounted in a table.
Trim Routers

Trim routers are the babies of the router family with motors sized at 1 HP
or less. Trim routers are equipped with a 1/4 inch collet thus are only able
to be used with smaller bits that remove small amounts of wood at a time.
Their small size and light weight makes them very easy to use by hand
but have insufficient power to be used in a router table.

Router Bases:

Routers are available with either a fixed base or plunge base.

Some routers can be purchased with both types of router
bases for maximum versatility.

A fixed base router requires you to unlock the base from the
motor, adjust the depth of the bit and secure the lock, fixing the
depth of the bit. Since the base is often removable on a fixed
base router it allows easier changing of the bits. A fixed base is
ideal for template work and for profiling edges.

A plunge base router allows the motor to move up and down along two guides. With the
motor locked on the base a level lock controls the depth of the bit.

The main advantage of a plunge router over a fixed base is it allows the motor to come
up to speed before making a cut. The bit can be lowered into the stock allowing cuts to
be made that are in the center of the stock. Cuts like mortises and dadoes are best
performed with a plunge router since the bit can be raised out of the cut once you reach
a stopping point.

Router Speed:

Routers are available as fixed speed or variable

speed. Generally smaller routers are fixed speed and
larger routers are variable speed so that they can be
used with larger diameter router bits. As the diameter
of a router bit increases, the speed of the router has
to be slowed down.

Collect Size

Modern routers have two collet sizes to accept the two main router shaft
diameters. Smaller router bit profiling and grooving bits have a ¼” shaft
size. These are for general purpose light duty service. Larger diameter router bits and
those intended for heavy duty use will have a ½” diameter shaft. Interchangeable collets
on routers increase their versatility.

Router Bits:

Router bits are cylindrical cutters shaped to apply a specific profile to the edge of wood
or for machining grooves. There are two main types of router bits. These are edge
forming and groove forming.

Edge Forming Router Bits

Edge forming router bits are distinguished by the bearing or pilot tip on the router bit.
Pilot tip router bits are not common with the development of miniature bearings
mounted on router bits.

A pilot tip is basically a smooth surface on the router bit that acts as a guide. The sharp
cutting surfaces bite into the wood, but once the pilot tip touches the wood, the router bit
cannot cut in any more. As the router is moved along the edge of the wood, the router
bit will cut a consistent profile on the edge of the wood as the pilot tip follows the edge
of the wood. The disadvantage of a pilot tip is that as it heats up from the friction of the
router bit cutting the wood and the friction of the tip spinning against the edge of the
wood. This will burn the wood.

Router bits with pilot bearings help to mitigate

the burning problem since the bearing does
not spin as it runs along the edge of the
wood. The bearing type of router bit is the
most common type of edge forming router bit.
The bearings on the router bits are
changeable and also available in different
diameters. One use of different bearing
diameters is for rabbeting. One router bit with
a range of different sized bearings can be
used for rabbets with different depths.

Groove Forming Router Bits

Groove forming router bits are designed to machine grooves and profiles through the
face surface of wood. These can be staright grooves used to make a dado joint for
supporting shelving or to machine decorative flutes in the face of the wood.
These decorative fluting bits are also known as ovolo bits. They are available in
a wide range of profiles.
Routing Methods:

Routers can be used in a wide assortment of applications to achieve the desired

machining operation. Routers can be used freehand, using a fence, mounted in a router
table, used with a template, or with a guide bushing/template configuration.

Freehand Routing:

In freehand routing, the router is guided by hand. In order to profile edges evenly, a pilot
bearing is used to produce a consistent edge. Rough removal of wood is accomplished
freehand, but care must be taken not to have the router bit catch and pull itself where
wood is not supposed to be removed.

To profile an edge,the router is placed on the face of the wood to be profiled with the
router bit slightly away from the wood. The router is started and then fed into the wood
edge. Once the pilot bearing touches the wood, the router bit will not
cut into the wood any more, and the router is guided along the wood
edge, with slight pressure applied to keep the pilot bearing against the
wood edge. Moving the router too slow will cause burning as the bit
heats up. As the router bites into the wood, the wood chips act as
coolant to keep the temperature of the bit below the burn threshold.
Moving the router bit too fast can cause it to rip the
wood edge resulting in tearout of the finished edge. At
corners, climb cutting is acceptable to keep the profile
consistent. Climb cutting is the process of operating the
router in the direction the bit spins. In the case of edge
profiling, the router would be moved clockwise to clean
up the corners.

Note: When profiling the edge of wood, the router must be used in a counter clockwise
direction.

Fence Routing:

To cut grooves (including decorative fluting such as ovolos)

across the face of a piece of wood, a fence is the best
method of keeping the router cutting in a straight line. A
home-made Tee-jig is the least expensive method of
accomplishing a groove/dado. The jig is clamped down to the wood to be machined.
Start the router against the jig with the router bit slightly away from the surface to be
machined. The edge of the router baseplate is run against the Tee-jig. The router
should be moved in a left to right direction when cutting through the wood face.

Router Table Routing:

A router table includes a number of features which makes it a versatile accessory for
use with the router. The router is mounted upside down below the router table so the bit
protrudes up through the router table surface. Since the router is mounted to the router
table, the wood to be machined is moved past the bit.

Note: The wood is always moved in a right to left direction when using a router table.

With a router bit attached that has a pilot bearing, it is

possible to perform template cutting on the router table. By
having the router fixed to a table, you don’t have to clamp
and re-clamp as you work your way around the material to
be surfaced.

A handy feature on router tables is the fence. The fence allows a setup with a portion of
the router bit exposed for edge profiling, or a specific distance for grooves. Also, with
stop blocks, a piece can be machined with start and stop points that are located inside
the wood piece, away from the edges.
Template Routing:

There are two types of templates that are used for template routing. One type uses a
router bit with a pilot bearing and the other relies on a bushing that is attached to the
router that is used to follow the template.

Template routing with a pilot bearing:

In this type of routing, a template or pattern

has to be made/bought that the pilot bearing
of the router must follow to attain the desired
profiling. The router is guided by the pilot
bearing on the router bit running against the
template edge.

Template routing with a guide bushing:

A guide bushing is mounted on to the router base plate. This bushing has a
small lip on it that runs against the template. Since this mounts close to the
router bit, the jig can be a lot smaller and allow for more detailed machining
than relying on a jig that the outside of the router base plate runs along.

The bushing is shown here running along a template. Note that the
template has to compensate for the thickness of the bushing as well
as the distance the bushing is away from the router bit. In most cases,
the compensated distance is either 1/16” or 1/8”.

A very common type of template routing

with a guide bushing is making dovetail
drawers. Commercially available router
jigs provide a guide pattern for making
both mating surfaces of the dovetail
joint using one router bit setup. In most
dovetail jigs, the two edges to be joined
are machined at the same time making
this a very accurate type of joint that is also extremely strong.

The corners of this tool chest have been dovetailed using a dovetail
bit, a router bushing set, and a dovetail jig. This joint not only looks
good, it also is one of the strongest corner joints. The dovetail jig
has “combs” or fingers that the router bushing is guided along. The
bushing, dovetail bit, and combs on the jig must all be designed to
work together or the joint will not fit together.

The size of the dovetails is changed by

selecting a different comb size and router bit
size. As seen on the right, there are selections
of comb profiles to suit the dovetail application desired.

Common Router Bit Profiles:

There are a wide range of router bit profiles that can be grouped into edge forming, face
surfacing, and cabinet door sets.

Edge Forming:

These can be broken down to two groups, decorative, and joinery bits:

Decorative:

Cove

Ogee

Roudover/Bead

Chamfer
Joinery:

Rabbet

Drawer Lock

Finger Joint

Face surfacing:

Dado/Groove (also considered a joinery bit)

Dovetail (also considered a joinery bit)

T-Slot

Fluting/Ovolo
Signmaking

Fluting/Corebox

Cabinet Door Sets:

Cabinet door sets of router bits are matched sets of router bits that are designed to make the
interlocking joints necessary where the rail (horizontal pieces) and stile (vertical pieces) meet.
Since these joints are structural, the mating surfaces must be machined with great precision to
keep the door strong. There are various styles of cabinet door router bit profiles. The two most
common are the mortise and tennon and ogee.

Mortise and Tennon (also known as shaker)

Ogee

Raised Panel Bit

When raised panel bits are used to profile the panel for cabinet doors, the router speed must be
reduced drastically compared to regular router bits. This is due to their large diameter. The rim
speed of a large diameter bit, which is the speed the outside edge of the router bit moves
through the air, can triple the rim speed between a 1” and 3” router bit. If the rim speed of a 1”
diameter router bit is 100 KPH, the 3” router bit would have a rim speed of 300 KPH. This is
very dangerous as the router bit spinning at this speed could set up a dangerous vibration
resulting in personal safety dangers as well as poor cut quality.