Sounds like you may have cocked the piece. Just a slight variance would cause it.
Can you use a miter gauge with a hold down clamp attached? Or a sled with a hold down clamp will work well, if you have no slot for a miter gauge.

 

Paul, not sure what you were doing. As I understand it, you were cutting 1 board into 2 pieces with one of the pieces between the bit and the fence? If so, that is a recipe for disaster, especially if you were climb cutting it!

 

I am with Duane, it sounds like you were using a router table as a saw. A table saw or band saw would be more appropriate for this type of cut.

 

I am not very experienced but sometime knots in the wood could do the damage

 

+1 with Duane and Mike. Sounds like you trapped a piece between the bit and fence.

 

+1 w/ Duane.

Do not cut a piece of wood with a router table. That is just not what it was designed for. Besides it wasting mass amounts of wood by a wide kerf that would tend to wander without a fence, doing it slowly because... I have to say it-- That is just a downright dangerous!!! I was going to go into detail, but why? A router's intended designed strength is in the capability of creating a "profile"... not in cutting wood into pieces. There are tools designed for that.

Kickback. Trapping an "unsupported" piece of wood between a bit's cutting surface spinning at 24,000 rpm and a fence... The math tells me that potentially with a 3/4" bit, that piece could reach 321 miles per hour. Another danger is breaking the bit and pieces flying at that speed.

I'm sorry. I'm fairly open minded and imaginative... And I see no version of that where cutting wood and trapping the unsupported offpiece between the bit and fence comes out with a good outcome. The risks greatly outweigh any inkling of any imagined benefit from that.

Wow. Scary. I am thankful that you (or anyone else) were not hurt in this education.

EDIT-- My realization with that... makes review other things I do and think is okay... Always good to err on safety.

 

I do have a question.

I use to see a decretive template/bitt set advertised in the wood magazines, that was a jumping dolphin routed into the wood face. I'd like to find that set. Any suggestions?

I'm a retired merchant marine captain. Never been so busy in my life. Retirement gives you way to many choices. I'm setting up a wood shop for myself primarily to do work on my personal boat, a 50' John Sampson design sloop. A lot of that work will be with routers.

Now I gotta get to work. Hope to get some help with the template/bitt set and best regards.

Bruce

 

If you had posted in Introductions, you would get a lot more responses, rather than posting in the middle of someone else's thread.

If I wanted one, I'd do some on-line searching.

 

Thanks to all for the advice and telling off. It seemed a good shortcut as not only did I get an accurate cut but a good finish all in one go. I see now that it was a stupid idea and to be honest, after that happened I went back to my saw, so I hope any other beginners read this and don't use the router in this way.

Still have a hole in my wall!

Regards

Paul

 

May I Suggest?

Re "I still have a hole in my wall..."

 

"Still have a hole in my wall!"

You are lucky that the hole is in the wall and not you. Walls can be fixed much cheaper.
I'm glad that you are OK,

Charley

 

I have been using the gripper 200 (microjig brand) for table routing, with high confidence. dropping the ledge on the table top and the main body of the gripper on the lumber

 

regarding dangerous- my first router a sears model with a cheap rabbit bit that came loose during routing, flew across the room and lodged into the wall. I left that bit where it stopped to remind me to make sure bits are secured in the collet. I am thankful for not getting hurt and that no one else was there at the time, to possibly get hurt

 

Nobody is perfect we all have to learn somehow you can fix the wall hard to do diy on yourself .

 

A tip....cut your board just slightly wide of the mark using the saw (table saw is it?). Then take it to the router table and set it to shave off the excess wood left from the saw. This will give you that clean look you wanted by removing saw blade marks and trim it to final size all at once. The only off cut from this will be shavings, not projectiles.

Keep in mind that a table saw can do the same thing. If your off cut is small enough and in between the blade and fence, the saw will sling it right out at you. I once ripped a narrow board leaving the piece between the fence and blade only about 1 1/2 inches wide. It flew back and nailed me right in the nads. Wow, that hurt!

Now, if I do run narrow pieces between the fence and blade, I make up a jig that works as a push stick and a hold down at the same time. I push it all the way through passed the blade.

On using the router to separate wood, I also thought of doing this but I decided it would probably be hard on bits, dulling them down fast from excessive heat buildup.

 

A tip....cut your board just slightly wide of the mark using the saw (table saw is it?). Then take it to the router table and set it to shave off the excess wood left from the saw. This will give you that clean look you wanted by removing saw blade marks and trim it to final size all at once. The only off cut from this will be shavings, not projectiles.

The safe way to do this is with the bit buried in the fence with just a bit of it exposed, and the outfeed side of the table built-up so that the jointed edge come solidly in contact with the fence. Never run a work piece between the bit and the fence.

Keep in mind that a table saw can do the same thing. If your off cut is small enough and in between the blade and fence, the saw will sling it right out at you. I once ripped a narrow board leaving the piece between the fence and blade only about 1 1/2 inches wide. It flew back and nailed me right in the nads. Wow, that hurt!

Now, if I do run narrow pieces between the fence and blade, I make up a jig that works as a push stick and a hold down at the same time. I push it all the way through passed the blade.

Ouch!! Yeah, never let go of the work piece until you are completely through the blade. Sounds like your jig is a similar concept to the GRRR-Ripper?

On using the router to separate wood, I also thought of doing this but I decided it would probably be hard on bits, dulling them down fast from excessive heat buildup.

A router table is not a table saw, don't expect it to work like one. You risk breaking bits, having projectiles shot out, and possibly having fingers/hands pulled into a spinning bit.