Tear Off Wood In Router ....

[Prostheta]

From my experience with routers making up their own minds about what kind of "cut" they want to give you and where they want to fly off in the workshop, I think the best thing you can do is to have a well set up bandsaw to remove excess material as close to the final surface as possible. Despite routers being designed to remove material, it's the thing they should do the least of!

If your router sounds like it is labouring then your cut is either too large, your router underpowered (although overpowered isn't always good either for many reasons), your bit isn't sharp enough or your cut needs more care.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=287bJgToGQk

I asked Matt (whose video this is) about that cut and apparently it was a new sharp bit (forward to ~1:28).

I suspect that the labouring was caused by a combination of the wood being white Oak and the router being pansy-ass.

Edited December 5, 2010 by Prostheta

[Our Souls inc.]

I always use a saw to get the body shape and then sand it to final dimensions...... I used a router ONCE to get a body shape cut out....... never again , lol. I found that slow RPM's on the router bit will cause tear-out quick! Fast RPM's and gentle pressure is the 'safest' way to route but it's like anything else , Snafu's will happen.....

Be careful out there.......

[theodoropoulos]

I always use a saw to get the body shape and then sand it to final dimensions...... I used a router ONCE to get a body shape cut out....... never again , lol. I found that slow RPM's on the router bit will cause tear-out quick! Fast RPM's and gentle pressure is the 'safest' way to route but it's like anything else , Snafu's will happen.....

Be careful out there.......

i hope next time i will reply here to have the fingers to do it LOL

[Woodenspoke]

I havent read this whole post but the first response is the correct one. There is no easy answers to wromg direction. Climb cutting wich is using the router in the wrong direction is a viable option to some chipping situations. But this requires some skill from the user.

The proper way to look at a router and bit is like paper. Each layer in the wood is like a single sheet of paper. But the sheets lay in a certian direction but change as you travel around the guitar. Push the paper in the wrong direction and the sheets (wood layers) seperate from one another. In the right direction they stay together and get pushed down against one another. Now imaging its a router bit pushing against the paper. If the paper seperates you get tearout if the paper stays together no tear out. As you work around a guitar especially ones with less than a normal shape the direction of the grain does not make it easy to follow the nornal pattern. Most end grain work also causes headaches.

Simple solution is use two bits 2" long. This allows you to use a pattern on one side and avoid climb cutting. Since ideally you will need to flip the guitar to chage direction you do not want to remove the pattern. So two bits with bearings on opposite sides solves this delema and allows a proper non climb cutting motion. A long trim bit with bottom bearing and a long pattern bit with top bearring. the 2" lenght allows you to always ride the pattern. Because of the lenght of the bit a table is recommended even if its just a hole in a piece of wood and the routers screwed to it, its still a router table.

Another tip is always plunge your router bit directly to the pattern edge at 90 degrees (push the guitar straight into the router bit or visa versa for a hand held router). Trying to angle into the work will not be pretty.

[Mattia]

I'll concur with most of what Wes and Spoke have said.

Personally, I bandsaw close, then generally flush sand until there's only maybe 1/32" (1 to 0.5 mm) left to route, and route that in a normal, full pass. For all other routing (thicker wood) I climb cut some of the sections first. Basically, never, ever route 'uphill' if you've got wood that you're worried will tear out - work from wide parts of the guitar to narrow parts. This does mean climb cutting, which has its own danger of tearout, so practice on scrap and get to know your equipment. Having a properly powerful router and the right bit (1/2" shaft is pretty much essential, minimum 1/2" cutter diameter, and I prefer 3/4") will help with stability of cut as well. You don't want the bit slowing down on contact with the wood.

Also, take heart; I'm guessing there isn't a single person here who hasn't experienced tearout on a guitar body when routing at some point in time.

[Helldunkel]

ok,ok i got it...in other words you mean to wet the area which is supposed to be routed...interesting....

i bet it works....

So I have been using this technique today and did wet the area which I was going to route...

In this case routing an ebony top and had to cut extremely clean bevels on the mahogany body...

All went perfect with no tear off, here are some pics... (edit: next post)

[theodoropoulos]

EXCELLENT!!

today i worked with my router and everything went well.you know why???because i had the router in my hands and not upside down in router table..

with some experiments the table destroyed all the woods i worked(and my rosewood tele )

so working this way helped...i will wet the area next time....

thanks for this info my friend!!

Edited December 12, 2010 by theodoropoulos

[Helldunkel]

EXCELLENT!!

today i worked with my router and everything went well.you know why???because i had the router in my hands and not upside down in router table..

with some experiments the table destroyed all the woods i worked(and my rosewood tele )

so working this way helped...i will wet the area next time....

thanks for this info my friend!!

Better pics, sorry for the shitty ones from yesterday

[theodoropoulos]

congrats!!!!!!!!!!