garyb

If you look at picture bridge_13a.jpg you'll see I secured the piece to be milled with small boards at the side. I try and never use clamp boards thicker than half the finished thickness of the piece being milled. In this picture it was 1/8th inch ply with wire brads. If you don't take more than you can chew at one time, it doesn't take much to hold things in place.

One thing I missed explaining was how to keep the piece from rocking on an uneven bottom for the first pass. I just use old business cards snugged up under the gaps. Just enough to keep it from rocking if it got loose.

As for the router bits, those shown in bridge_08a.jpg are probably two or three years old and miles of routing. For the most part, some light sanding after the finish pass and you're ready for stain. I've never had a carbide tipped bit go bad except for those I dropped. I don't own any high speed steel or hardened steel bits. Like anything else, you get what you pay for.