glencross

not being too experienced with hand held routers, am hesitant to try rounding over his seven foot long laminated pine piece for my desk top on my router table...what would be the best way to accomplish this?

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Router is still my name

Depending on the size of the round over bit (match the speed of the router. the larger the bit the slower the speed) and how round/far in you want to go, either way, the trick is to make very small passes each time and taking off very little at a time.
this way if you mess up you van go slightly deeper and remove that. also move the router at a steady speed to avoid burns.
Make sure the round over bits bearing doesn’t go under the wood and go with the grain.

mpphoto

When you're routing the edge you want to avoid having your router tip over slightly because it will take a nice bite out of your profile.

You can clamp your board to a table. Obviously make sure the clamps aren't in your router's travel path. Now set up another pine board an inch or two away from the one you're routing (parallel to it) so that your router base can rest on it instead of floating in mid air. Or... similar way to achieve the same thing, take a small scrap of pine the same thickness as the one you're routing and attach it to the underside of your router using double-stick tape. This will support the part of your base that would normally be hanging over the edge.

And of course as mentioned above, several small passes.

Good luck,
Michael

kp91

an edge guide with a long bearing surface also works well to keep the router from tipping, or from causing a wavy appearance due to minor irregularities in the edge of the stock.

Practice practice practice.... try it on some scrap first to build up your confidence!

Also- make sure you're feeding in the right direction, and watch out for tearout if you're going to be cutting across the end grain

__________________
Doug
1 John 1:9

Woodnut65

The best way to do a seven foot long board, is with a hand held router. Put a round over bit with a bearing, in the router and take a cut going counter clockwise, going across the grain first then down along along the length, then across the grain on the other end.
For the first cut I would not expose to much of the bit. After the first cut you can take a fuller cut. Hope this helps Woodnut65

glencross

thanks to you all for your replies...will practice first!!!will let you know how things turn out!!

glencross

ok so i got chicken and just eased the edges by hand with a planer and sander!!

maybe i'll try again with a shorter piece!!

cluck, cluck!!!

kp91

No guts, no glory! But then again, no second, third, fourth trip to the lumberyard......

Find something cheap to practice on. I like to use the 4-7 inch wide x 96 inch long offcuts left from a sheet of MDF. They machine great, are cheap, and can give you a good idea of what your profile is set to. I'm always impressed how just a slight change in bit height can give a whole different look.

Poplar is another good wood to practice on. It's a relatively cheap wood in my area, and it's easier on the cutters than MDF.

Save your scraps, they're always good for setup or practice!

__________________
Doug
1 John 1:9

glencross

thaanks kp91...will definitely practice on some scraps...incidentally, the desk turned out real well and have an order for a similar one but heck..that's too much like work!!!