Dumb Router Question - Which Direction....

[billw]

OK so I find the instructions on which way to move a router if you the cut is between you and the workpiece, or if the cut is on the far side of the workpiece - but what about routing grooves?! Right to left or left to right?

 

[custard]

Here's how I remember the correct feed direction for a router.

1. Make a "thumbs up/thumbs down" gesture with your right hand.

2. Imagine the thumb is the router bit. So pointing up is the router in a router table. Pointing down is the router hand held.

3. Then the direction that your fingers curl in, well that's the direction the router bit rotates.

Armed with that visualisation I can always figure out how to avoid a climb cut and get the correct feed direction.

Call it a rule of thumb. Ho, ho, ho.

 

[Doug71]

If I was cutting a groove with a handheld router using the guide fence for reference I would have the fence on the same side of the timber as me and work left to right, this way means the router is pulling the fence towards the timber if that makes any sense.

 

[billw]

If I was cutting a groove with a handheld router using the guide fence for reference I would have the fence on the same side of the timber as me and work left to right, this way means the router is pulling the fence towards the timber if that makes any sense.

Now curiously I assumed the same but tried and the router pulled away from the fence, so I did it RtL and it held perfectly steady.

 

[pcb1962]

Now curiously I assumed the same but tried and the router pulled away from the fence, so I did it RtL and it held perfectly steady.

Yes, feed from the right side of the bit when cutting a groove
(assuming that you're talking about doing this on a router table)

 

[Doug71]

You got me questioning myself now, quick google and found this which is the way I would do it and what I was trying to describe.

 

[billw]

You got me questioning myself now, quick google and found this which is the way I would do it and what I was trying to describe.

OK I understand now - so in that video the fence is attached to the router, so going left to right is pulling the fence into the workpiece and the router is trying to drift away from the edge.

I clamped my tracksaw track to the workpiece and therefore went right to left with the router - the router was trying to push against the separate fence.

 

[Argee]

Entered in error

 

[Illy]

First time I cut a groove wider than the router bit, using two passes on the router table, I fired a large piece of wood into the garage door at some speed !! That is a lesson I haven't forgotten.

 

[Argee]

Have a look at a page I wrote a while back, if you have time. It’s Routing - Some Beginners' Tips

 

[stuartpaul]

Have a look at a page I wrote a while back, if you have time. It’s Routing - Some Beginners' Tips

Ray, I've been routing for a while now but that's still a useful page.

 

[billw]

Have a look at a page I wrote a while back, if you have time. It’s Routing - Some Beginners' Tips

Thanks Ray, bookmarked it for a thorough read.

 

[MikeJhn]

In addition to Ray's very useful page, to maintain a gap at the bottom of a collet I put an rubber O ring in the bottom for the cutter to sit against, then just pull the bit up a perceptual bit and tighten.

 

[Spectric]

Hi all

The router table is easy but once you are let loose handheld then the easiest way to remember is just have a few sketches on the wall, and I also have it wrote on them as well. Outside is Anticlock and inside is clockwise. As for the woodrat "workpiece always moves clockwise round the cutter and the cutter clockwise round the workpiece".