Direction of Feed and Thrust, See Figures 7, Bit

OPERATION

DIRECTION OF FEED AND THRUST

See Figures 7 - 8.

The trimmer motor and cutter revolve in a clockwise direc- tion. This gives the tool a slight tendency to twist in your hands in a counterclockwise direction, especially when the motor starts.

Feed the trimmer into the workpiece from left to right. When fed from left to right, the rotation of the cutter pulls the trim- mer against the workpiece. If fed in the opposite direction, the rotation forces of the spinning cutter will tend to throw the trimmer away from the workpiece, causing kickback. This could result in loss of control of the trimmer.

Because of the extremely high speed of cutter rotation dur- ing a proper feeding operation, there is very little kickback to contend with under normal conditions. However, should the cutter strike a knot, hard grain, foreign object, etc., that would affect the normal progress of the cutting action, there could be a slight kickback. Kickback could be sufficient to spoil the trueness of your cut if you are not prepared. Such a kickback is always in the direction opposite the direction of cutter rotation.

To guard against kickback, plan your set-up and direction of feed so that you will always be thrusting the tool—to hold it against whatever you are using to guide the cut—in the same direction that the leading edge of the cutter is moving. The thrust should be in a direction that keeps the sharp edges of the cutter continuously biting straight into new (uncut) wood.