[TLKBones]

Completely new to woodworking, just got a bunch of tools from my gf's mom's basement... Most of it is brand new. I watched a few videos on using a routing table and wanted to do a simple project, trying to make a dice box for tabletop gaming. My plan was to cut a square and 4 sides and cut them all to 45deg angles and glue it all together.

The whole process is kicking my butt, but I got 2 nice smooth "square" bottoms cut and matched up sanded the edges so they are nice and smooth and ready to angle the edges. Then I ran the first one through the router... did the first pass on one side and it went okay had a small issue with one of the guards being slightly out of line and put a small gouge in the wood when it bounced on the bit. On the second side of the square I started hearing different sounds and knowing how dangerous these things can be I stopped the table and looked at the wood. The 45deg angle rode up the side of the wood like a ramp, very subtly but enough to leave uncut wood on the table side of the piece.

I took a minute to look over the router and made sure things were tight and moved the adjusted the height of the bit and tried on the 2nd piece of wood. My results are as follows... (assuming the pictures work) What the heck is happening, whats it called, and any links to solutions would be great. I dont even know what to call this or what the term for the problem may be so looking it up before asking is hard.

 

[Herb Stoops]

Is the collet tight, did the bit move up in the collet, or did the whole router move up, is the router motor locked during the cut?
You need to back up the cut to eliminate tear out at the end of the cut too. Use a backer board to push the piece through.

If the bit moves up and the collet was tight, make sure the collet and bit are the same diameter. Sometimes metric collets and 1/4" bits get mixed up.

Herb

 

[Stick486]

Welcome to the forums N/A...
Looks like the bit climbed... it may be loose...
what you are experiencing isn't climb cutting... (see the PDF's)
also the material appears to be too thick for the bit's capacity......
over the next several posts are some PDF's.. please take the time to read them..

 

[Stick486]

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[Stick486]

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[DesertRatTom]

Hi, the 45 degree joint is called a miter cut and is a genuine PITA to get just right, with opposite sides exactly the same length. That's + or - 0, exactly 45 degrees. If cut on a table, you can use a 45 degree bit that's at least 7/8ths tall.

IF you bottom out the shank of the bit, it can creep. Also, many collets tighten up, then resist, then you tighten a little more and they break loose. A final tightening is needed to hold the pit in place, however, not all brands do this so try it out first. I drop a 1/2 inch grommet in the collet so the bit bottoms on that, not the steel shaft.

Most routers have some lever to lock them in position (depth). If it's not tightened, it will creep. Check the instruciton book if you have it.

Hope that's helpful. Woodworking is a great past time. Hint, make stuff for your lady fairly often and she'll back you up when it's tool or accessory time.

 

[DesertRatTom]

I see Stick posted his collection of pdfs. Huge amount of helpful information there.

 

[DaninVan]

Hey, TLK; welcome!
If you don't have the manual, there's a manual section here with a pretty good selection to download from.

 

[TLKBones]

Thanks for the help, I also read somewhere that new bits can have some goo on them, these are brand new and have some sort of oil on them. Ill clean everything off/out and make sure it get it tight tomorrow when I pull stuff out again.

Also, Im trying to cut the square wood out of a large piece with a hand saw, like a circular but small and a 3 3/4 blade, has a spring loaded plate the blade goes down through... Been just clamping wood to the side of the table in the picture and putting an 90deg ruler against the fence and clamping it down the for plate on the saw to follow. Any better suggestions?

 

[woodknots]

@TLKBones - Welcome to the forum

First things first: in your first picture, is the bit set when you attempted this or is this after the cut?

Did you intend to keep that flat surface at the bottom of the 45 or did you intend to miter to 45 from top to bottom?

I see a couple of things that concern me and this is how I would fix them:
make sure the bottom of the cutter is even with the table top/bottom of your work piece
slide your fence towards your work piece and use the fence to guide the cut so that you don't take a full cut
then slide the fence back and do it again, taking another small cut
lastly, use a straight edge and line up the bearing on the bit with the fence, both infeed and outfeed and make your final cut
Also, use a feather board attached to the fence so that it holds the work piece flat on the table and doesn't allow the work piece to ride up - you can attach a feather board on both sides of the bit with some clamps and don't let the feather boards touch the bit, making sure the clamps are out of the way of your work piece

 

[Herb Stoops]

After looking at the 1st picture, Vince and Stick are correct, the bit is set above the table so the bottom of the bit is too high,and the material is too thick for the bit, and you are trying to take off too much material on the first pass.

Do like Vince says, and when you max out against the bearing, or fence , thats it all the farther you can go, but you will not have a full miter to the corner because the material is thicker than the bit will cut, need a larger bit to get a full thickness miter. If you have a table saw use it instead.
Herb

 

[DesertRatTom]

If you use a table saw, get a Wixey ditital angle gauge. Set it on the table, reset the zero, then attacch it to the saw blade and adjust the angle to a precise 45 degrees. That will get you a perfect miter. It's a little easier than a router cut. You can use a square piece of MDF as a backer to push the piece square through the blade. A table saw is a basic necessity for woodworking. But that's another topic. Table saws need very careful setup to align blade, fence and miter slots.

 

[TLKBones]

This is the only "table" I have. I was trying to do the "full" cut at once instead of easing into it a little at a time. I dont have another 45deg bit and I was okay with having the small bit of flat edge... which I intended to be on the bottom of the box. Dont have a feather board but I can probably clamp a small piece of wood to the side of the table Im on. I was at ACE hardware to get some bolts and a dust mask and they didnt have miter saws which is what I assume would be the best thing to get a full 45deg cut. I might check elsewhere for one in the near future, gonna try the router again with all the tips yall have given. Pretty sure the bit was just lose in the collet.

My bit set looks like this (but not this exact set). I have another one with 2 rows of 6 or 7.

 

[Stick486]

feather boards..

...

 

[DesertRatTom]

If you kit has quarter inch shanks, you'll need to take a little bit lighter cuts, which means starting with the fence forward so not so much of the bit will be exposed. Second pass, move the fence back maybe 1/8th, repeat until the cut is finally made. If you buy a chamfer bit (extra tall), get the half inch shanks. The larger the bit, the more you want the half inch shank.

This is called a chamfer bit and here's a page listing available sizes for MLCS bits. A 1 inch bit is pretty large, but the show an even larger one, which may be overkill. Price is pretty low. https://www.mlcswoodworking.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/smarthtml/pages/bt_chamf.html

If you get a bit this size, you will want to slow down your router speed and feed a little bit slower. Glad to hear you're wearing a dust mask. Keep it on until you leave the shop.