schrodinger Posted July 30, 2021 Report Share Posted July 30, 2021 Hey guys, first time builder here. Today I routed out my tele body. Good news is that I managed to do so without any tear out. The bad news? I have some major router marks and burns. It looks like I've laminated 3 pieces of wood on top each other. I'm not quite sure any amount of sanding will fix this; i tried today with 80 grit and the marks are still prominent. I have some coloured wood stain (along wiith wood filler) on the way - maybe that will hide them to an extent. Can anyone advise? I know what caused the burn marks - basically slowing down and allowing the router bit to settle too long on one spot. , But what about the marks around the entire perimeter? I used a decent 1" amana tool router bit so i don't think it was down to a poor quality bit. Tempted to buy a new body blank! https://i.postimg.cc/L5nyBWhs/65-A2289-F-3-F05-495-D-87-E8-8-D452-B7-A5-BC8.jpghttps://i.postimg.cc/2yM0HxB7/7-C28-F900-BE98-4866-BD65-272-AD35035-E0.jpghttps://i.postimg.cc/tRMvC9mn/954-DE869-3-B56-4867-ADC8-E2338-AF0-A210.jpghttps://i.postimg.cc/XJN1Xqbd/A3277016-22-F5-45-C7-8-D56-ED83372-D525-A.jpghttps://i.postimg.cc/85yKvGp3/C3271-BA9-7-DFD-4-AE8-B080-C4737-E6-C1442.jpg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
schrodinger Posted July 30, 2021 Author Report Share Posted July 30, 2021 pics no.3 & 4 show the worst of it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drak Posted July 30, 2021 Report Share Posted July 30, 2021 You just quit too soon, it takes a while to sand that out. Its normal, it happens, to more or lesser extents. No need to start over, its completely savable. I'm guessing you don't have a bench sander or belt sander. If you have an orbital sander you can use that to get most of them all out. If its down to you doing it manually, use a block of wood to keep things perpendicular. And yeah, if doing it manually, that's an afternoon of sanding. That's more than 10 minutes right there. But that all will come out, just not as fast as you would hope for. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muzz Posted July 30, 2021 Report Share Posted July 30, 2021 40 minutes ago, Drak said: You just quit too soon, it takes a while to sand that out. Its normal, it happens, to more or lesser extents. No need to start over, its completely savable. I'm guessing you don't have a bench sander or belt sander. If you have an orbital sander you can use that to get most of them all out. If its down to you doing it manually, use a block of wood to keep things perpendicular. And yeah, if doing it manually, that's an afternoon of sanding. That's more than 10 minutes right there. But that all will come out, just not as fast as you would hope for. That advice is spot on, use some of this and those scuff marks will come right off 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bizman62 Posted July 31, 2021 Report Share Posted July 31, 2021 As others already said, nothing to worry about there. Another good hand tool is a cabinet scraper, it can be both faster and smoother than sandpaper. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andyjr1515 Posted July 31, 2021 Report Share Posted July 31, 2021 Yup - that will all sand out. It takes a while and you feel you are getting nowhere but eventually it will get there Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
schrodinger Posted July 31, 2021 Author Report Share Posted July 31, 2021 Thanks guys, I’ve been spending the day sanding the body and it’s now smooth as a baby’s bottom :) 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted August 1, 2021 Report Share Posted August 1, 2021 Routers are not intended to take wood to the finished size. You'll always lose a couple tenths of a mm sanding if you've got burning. Ideally you want to rout close to size so that the router bit doesn't need to take a big cut on the finish pass. That also allows you to reduce speed somewhat, and perhaps even use a specific bit that you "keep" for the clean final pass. If none of this is an option, you should just spend time sanding from 80 grit through every other grade to about 240 grit; 80, 120, 180, 240. Just make sure you use sanding blocks where appropriate, and don't dwell in areas or on edges where you might cause additional reshaping. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drak Posted August 1, 2021 Report Share Posted August 1, 2021 I've always run my router in the opposite direction while removing the bulk of the material. Then when I'm down to a hair's breath distance from done do I run it forwards for the final pass. Don't exactly know why I adopted that, but I've been doing that for decades, works for me. Much, much less tearout and risky digs and chips that way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prostheta Posted August 1, 2021 Report Share Posted August 1, 2021 Climb-cutting whilst removing material? That's hella risky. I wouldn't do it with more than a half mm of material left to remove, however it depends on the cutter, grain direction and all that. I guess that by now all of this either raises a flag or helps you know what is safe. I pretty much climb cut everything on the CNC purely because of the stability of the spindle. Until my workholding decides it sucks, immediately preceded by vibration in the cut.... I think the main takeaway about routing is that material buildup in the flutes, dirty cutters or not moving smoothly around the workpiece causes heat. That's to be avoided at all times, both for the sake of the workpiece and your tooling. This is also another excellent case for the use of router bushings....one sized as tight to your cutter as possible allows for full control over depth of cut (since the bearing edge of the bushing isn't tied to the cutter) plus you'll be 2-3mm or so from the final cut size. From there you don't have to worry so much about the load presented to the cutter. Also, slow your speed down. I dial my speed up on my hand routers, both so I can judge good slow speed and reduce resonance when the sound sounds "comfortable". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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