Proper Feeding

OPERATION

The right feed is neither too fast nor too slow. It is the rate at which the bit is being advanced firmly and surely to produce a continuous spiral of uniform chips. A feed to fast produces large, individual chips and a feed to slow creates sawdust. If you are making a small diameter, shallow groove in soft, dry wood, the proper feed may be as fast as you can travel your router along your guide line. On the other hand, if the bit is large, the cut is deep, or the wood is hard, the proper feed may be a very slow one. Additionally, a cross-grain cut may require a slower pace than an identical with-grain cut in the same workpiece.

There is no fixed rule. You will learn by experience from practice and use. The best rate of feed is determined by listening to the sound of the router motor and by feeling the progress of each cut. Always test a cut on a scrap piece of the workpiece wood.

DIRECTION (EXTERNAL)

See Figure 19.

When routing, the cutter rotates clockwise. Therefore, you should feed the router into the workpiece from left to right. When fed from left to right, the rotation of the cutter pulls the router against the workpiece. If fed in the opposite direction, the rotation forces of the spinning bit will tend to throw the router away from the workpiece. This action could cause you to lose control of the router.

The router motor and bit revolve in a clockwise direction. This gives the tool a slight tendency to twist (in your hands) in a counterclockwise direction, especially when the motor revs up.

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

To guard against such a kickback, plan your setup 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 bit is moving. In short, the thrust should be in a direction that keeps the sharp edges of the bit continuously biting straight into new (uncut) wood.

DIRECTION (INTERNAL)

Whenever you are routing a groove, your travel should be in a direction that places whatever guide you are using at the right-hand side. In short, when the guide is positioned as shown in the first part of Figure 20, tool travel should be left to right and counterclockwise around curves. When the guide is positioned as shown in the

ROUTER FEED

DIRECTION

GRAINSFIRST	BIT	ROUTERFEED DIRECTION
ROUTEND	ROTATION
ROUTEND
	ROUTER FEED	Fig. 19
	DIRECTION	Fig. 19

GUIDE OUTSIDE

BIT ROTATION

THRUST

FEED GUIDE

GUIDE INSIDE

GUIDE

THRUST

BIT ROTATION

FEED	Fig. 20

second part of Figure 20, tool travel should be right to left and clockwise around curves. If there is a choice, the first setup is generally the easiest to use. In either case, the sideways thrust you use is against the guide.

SPEED CONTROL

In general, if the material being cut is hard, the cutter size is large, or the depth of cut is deep - maximum 1/8 in. (3.2 mm), then your router should be run at slower speeds. When these situations exist, turn the variable speed control selector until the desired speed is reached.

NOTE: Carbide cutters cut at higher speeds than steel cutters and should be used when cutting very hard materials. Keep cutters sharp at all times.