Ryobi R180 specifications Routing, Proper Feeding, Rate of Feed, Force Feeding, TOO Slow Feeding

OPERATION

ROUTING

For ease of operation and maintaining proper control, your router has two handles, one on each side of the router base. When using your router hold it firmly with both hands as shown in figure 9. Turn router on and let motor build to its full speed, then gradually feed cutter into workpiece. Remain alert and watch what you are doing. DO NOT operate router when fatigued.

PROPER FEEDING

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 — without hogging into the wood to make large individual chips or, on the other hand, to create only sawdust. If you are making a small diameter, shallow groove in soft, dry wood, the proper feed may be about as fast as you can travel your router along your guide line. On the other hand, if the bit is a large one, the cut is deep or the wood is hard to cut, the proper feed may be a very slow one. Then, again, 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. . . by listening to the router motor and by feeling the progress of each cut. If at all possible, always test a cut on a scrap piece of the workpiece wood, beforehand.

RATE OF FEED

IMPORTANT: The whole "secret" of professional routing and edge shaping lies in making a careful set-up for the cut to be made and in selecting the proper rate of feed.

Fig. 9

TOO FAST

FORCE FEEDING

Clean, smooth routing and edge shaping can be done only
when the bit is revolving at a relatively high speed and is
taking very small bites to produce tiny, cleanly severed
chips. If your router is forced to move forward too fast, the
RPM of the bit becomes slower than normal in relation to its
forward movement. As a result, the bit must take bigger bites
as it revolves. “Bigger bites” mean bigger chips, and a
rougher finish. Bigger chips also require more power, which
could result in the router motor becoming overloaded.	TOO SLOW	Fig. 10
Under extreme force-feeding conditions the relative RPM of
the bit can become so slow—and the bites it has to take so	TOO SLOW FEEDING
large—that chips will be partially knocked off (rather than
fully cut off), with resulting splintering and gouging of the	It is also possible to spoil a cut by moving the router forward
workpiece. See Figure 10.	too slowly. When it is advanced into the work too slowly, a
Your Ryobi Router is an extremely high-speed tool (25,000	revolving bit does not dig into new wood fast enough to take
RPM no-load speed), and will make clean, smooth cuts if	a bite; instead, it simply scrapes away sawdust-like particles.
allowed to run freely without the overload of a forced (too	Scraping produces heat, which can glaze, burn, or mar the
fast) feed. Three things that cause “force feeding” are bit	cut— in extreme cases, can even overheat the bit so as to
size, depth-of-cut, and workpiece characteristics. The larger	destroy its hardness.
the bit or the deeper the cut, the more slowly the router	In addition, it is more difficult to control a router when the bit
should be advanced. If the wood is very hard, knotty, gummy	is scraping instead of cutting. With practically no load on the
or damp, the operation must be slowed still more.	motor the bit will be revolving at close to top RPM, and will
You can always detect “force feeding” by the sound of the	have a much greater than normal tendency to bounce off the
motor. Its high-pitched whine will sound lower and stronger	sides of the cut (especially, if the wood has a pronounced
as it loses speed. Also, the strain of holding the tool will be	grain with hard and soft areas). As a result, the cut produced
noticeably increased.	may have rippled, instead of straight sides. See Figure 10.

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