I am building a wall-board that will hold pamphlets (measures about 4 feet wide by 3 feet high). The shelves will be mounted on a 3/4" oak plywood. As edging for the plywood, I took 1" strips of 3/4" solid oak and cut a 1/4" rabbet slot it in and the edge of the plywood. I then cut 1/4" strips of solid wood for the spline (or loose tenon) to glue them together and line the faces flush. The top edging doesn't have a 1" straight edge (as do the left, right and bottom), but is rather curved upwards. It starts at 2" thick on the edges and works its way to about 4" in the middle.

To finish, I would like to route all around the framed edge and have selected a beading bit with guide bearing. The actual router bit and cut it will leave can be seen at Amazon. If you go there and type in "Grizzly C1168" you will see the bit. (Sorry, the router forum would not let me post a URL)

My question to all the experienced router folks is this: Before I glue this up, should I route the solid wood edging as lose, individual pieces on the router table, or should I glue the whole thing up first and then route around the unit using the fixed base and hand? Keep in mind, that I used 45 degree angles to mate all 4 corners.

I'm wondering which way would best prevent tear-out?

Many Thanks!

I don't believe there is a single 'best' way for everyone.
You will probably get as many answers to this as there are people who answer -
and they will probably all be right

Your project sounds pretty typical of the stuff I do most often.
What works best - for me - is to mill (route) my trim first - before I do any cutting other than maybe rough lengths.

Then I miter it to length just like I would commercial stuff.
If your main concern is router tear out -
- doing it in this sequence - any tear out is going to be on your scrap.

addendum-
I just re-read your post and may have misunderstood your need.
If you are talking about edging what amounts to the face frame on your piece rather than pieces of trim that will be added ---
My vote - and my usual procedure in those cases -
is to do it with hand held router after the frame is in place.


Many other answers will be forthcoming - pick what feels right to you.
And good luck -- sounds like an interesting piece.
Look forward to pictures.

Thanks DC - I agree that I should have milled all the pieces first before cutting them on the miter. I was just not thinking and moved too quickly to the assemble phase before I realized what I did. I'm now stuck with perfect sized miters and am afraid to tear up the corners...

OUCH
Been there.
My biggest problem in that case hasn't been tear out -- but letting my bit slip around the end of my piece and roundinig over a spot that shouldn't be.

With that in mind -- I would tend to wait and round it after everything was in place. The only downside there is
-- if you have any inside corners --
they are going to be rounded to match your bit -- unless you go back and do some hand work.

If you do decide to route first -- and the pieces are small enough to handle easily on a table. I would probably go that way --- making shallow passes and using either the fence or a guide pin (in addition to your bit's bearing) to help you steady the piece and avoid the problem mentioned above.

Anyway -- that's my .02
I'm sure there are others who know some tricks to avoiding tear out and roundover that I am overlooking ---

Exactly! I was just thinking that last night when I was looking at the whole thing. I managed to get the sides and bottom routed fine - no tearout. Just went really slow.

To prevent the rounding over the top curved edge, I was thinking of putting one tiny dowel at the end of the edge and have it go into another piece of wood, so it wouldn't round over while I route it. Basically it will continue down the line... If worse comes to worse, I may just recut the top, but I can tell that it will be a burden as I would need to re-align the center spline precisely.

I'll let you know how it ends up...

Thanks for the tips!

One technique is to put a "backer block" on the trailing "out-feed" edge of the miter as you route it. This will help control tear-out. You will want to position the backer block so that it continues routed surface with the grain in the same direction as THE PIECE YOU ARE CUTTING ON. Use the backer first in one direction then move it to the adjacent perpendicular piece.

For example: Think of your frame in terms of N,S,E,W, etc. Route from E to W along the top (N), with a backer-block clamped in place along the W vertical side, aligned flush with the N-most edge of the W side. Then route S to N along the W side of the project with a backer-block clamped along the N side of the project butted up against the W edge, and so on. Can't describe it better without a drawing.

Since you are routing first in a counter clockwise then a reverse direction, you will be "climb-cutting" in one direction. Make adjustments in feed speed etc. for this OR make your "out-feed" extensions long enough to facilitate normal cutting vs climb-cutting for the entire perimeter.

Also, virtually all miters yield with-the-grain cutting vs. cross-grain cutting. It may not tear out at all with a sharp bit and proper fed speed. Practice on a "scrap" miter made from the same wood. See how it goes before laying metal to the real project.

Good luck.

Steve J.
Portland, OR

Steve, I think that you missed the date on this old post!