Routing hardwood

[TUBEDUDE]

Anyone that routs figured maple use compression router bits to avoid chip tearout?

[cbass]

I work with hard maple almost daily. I do everything i can on a router table or shaper and make zero cleareance fences to avoid tearout. What you planning on doing with them? Pattern making? Dados? I've never used a compression bit I had to Google it

[Winder]

To avoid tearout at the end of a cut when going across the grain, I've used a sacrificial pusher with pretty good results.

[TUBEDUDE]

Hey Cbass,
I am routing a figured maple plate for the face of an amp. The maple is 1" thick. I need to rout several holes and heard maple is trouble. Chipping and tearout can be mitigated with a spiral bit. The up spiral and down spiral bits can be hard to control (hand held, no table) so i thought the compression bit might be safer and cut cleaner. I'll practice on junk wood, and do multiple passes as it's so thick.
Here is the template on the maple.

20190201_093821.jpg

[TUBEDUDE]

Here's the attachment i botched.

[Tony Bones]

If you're using a hand held router you can carefully climb cut the pattern using a conventional bit. Make shallow passes. The more figured the wood, the more shallow the cuts need to be. You might take one glancing pass in the normal direction for cleanup, but there's still risk of tearout with highly figured maple even if it seems like you're just removing some hair, so you might want to climb cut as close as you can and finish with sandpaper.

That almost always works for me.

[TUBEDUDE]

Almost. I hear ya. Conservative approach all around seems to be the best course, shallow passes included, unless i find the new bit works laser like on scrap from the same board. Thanx

[Tony Bones]

Even the best craftsmen run into trouble from time to time. It's how they handle the trouble that separates them from the hacks.

In any case, no matter what fancy bit I have in the router, I'd still climb cut.

[cbass]

if you aren't already. I would start with a fostener bit in a drill press and remove as much material as i could then switch over to a router and clean it up in one pass.

[TUBEDUDE]

Great idea Cbass, that will help i'm sure. If the scrap tests don't go well i might abandon the router and proceed with chisels, files and abrasives after the forstner bits, thanks.

[cbass]

i dont want to get an argument started but i would absolutely recommend against climbcuttinng with a hand held router.its not safe.

[TUBEDUDE]

Don't intend to. After cutting the waste board end, i'll either route it in one pass, or more likely forstner bit-file-sand.

[Tony Bones]

It's not nearly as dangerous as you might think. I've done it lots. A small bit is not a big deal at all. I used to climb cut oak with a 1.5" round over bit in a 3hp router every day. If I had tried to hog the whole cut in one forward pass I would have gotten tearout on almost every try. By climb cutting most of the wood and leaving just a quick skim in the forward direction I got virtually zero tearout.

Counter to intuition, I do not like to climb cut on a router table or shaper. But with a hand held router it's easy.

Have you tried it at all? Or are you just going by what you've heard?

[Geeze]

I'm not a router on figured wood fan for a couple of reasons - tearout and I'm lazy - multiple what?. I've done some work using milling machines and had very good success even using the 'wrong' cutters [4 flute spiral TiN coated carbide for metal] - no tear out on curly maple, padauk and zebrawood top solid bodies. I'm curious if the slower RPM - I think I was running 1800 - is part of the trick or not. On cabs I use an orbital sander for round overs.

Russ

[Reeltarded]

Fast rotation. Sharp heads. Shallow passes. Slow cutting. Don't burn the wood, but don't push it any faster than it cuts cleanly.