Hi,
I wanted to rout a shallow recess in 18mm MDF to sink a small round watch type battery which measures about 11mm across by 3mm thick.
I had a look through my small collection of router bits and picked out a 1/4" shank, single flute, straight cutter. I measured the router bit with a digital calliper and it measured 11.13mm across.
That'll be just fine I thought. I popped the bit into a Bosch POF600A router and did a couple of test holes. I measured the actual holes and they measured 11.80mm across.
I thought I would try the same bit in my Triton TRA001 router. I fitted it and went ahead and routed three test holes, or recesses to be precise. These measured anywhere from 11.98mm to 12.10mm.
This got me wondering why there was quite a marked difference between the actual bit size and the actual hole size and also the difference in hole size between the two models of router.
The routers were hand held, as opposed to table mounted. The MDF was securely clamped to the top of a workmate with a couple of clamps. To ensure the router base didn't move during the cut, I even clamped the routers down with three clamps.
The Bosch router was purchased by me some time ago and was second hand then. I can't say how much use it's had in it's lifetime but it seems to work perfectly and is in pretty good condition. The Triton router is only a few months old and has had very light use during that time. It was fitted with a 1/4" collet, as opposed to a reducer. The collets on both machines were clean and relatively dust free, as was the router bit.
The collets were tightened to roughly the same amount as far as I could tell.
One thing that was obvious is that on the newish Triton router the bit slipped in nice and easily. On the Bosch router I had to use a bit of pressure to get the router bit in properly.
It's no big deal and the size discrepancy certainly isn't a major issue in this instance but I'm intrigued more than anything why there is such a difference between measurements. Does anyone have any idea?
PS. I was contemplating possibly going for some router drills in the future. They're quite expensive and I'm now wondering if perhaps they wouldn't be such a good choice due to the above accuracy issue.
I wanted to rout a shallow recess in 18mm MDF to sink a small round watch type battery which measures about 11mm across by 3mm thick.
I had a look through my small collection of router bits and picked out a 1/4" shank, single flute, straight cutter. I measured the router bit with a digital calliper and it measured 11.13mm across.
That'll be just fine I thought. I popped the bit into a Bosch POF600A router and did a couple of test holes. I measured the actual holes and they measured 11.80mm across.
I thought I would try the same bit in my Triton TRA001 router. I fitted it and went ahead and routed three test holes, or recesses to be precise. These measured anywhere from 11.98mm to 12.10mm.
This got me wondering why there was quite a marked difference between the actual bit size and the actual hole size and also the difference in hole size between the two models of router.
The routers were hand held, as opposed to table mounted. The MDF was securely clamped to the top of a workmate with a couple of clamps. To ensure the router base didn't move during the cut, I even clamped the routers down with three clamps.
The Bosch router was purchased by me some time ago and was second hand then. I can't say how much use it's had in it's lifetime but it seems to work perfectly and is in pretty good condition. The Triton router is only a few months old and has had very light use during that time. It was fitted with a 1/4" collet, as opposed to a reducer. The collets on both machines were clean and relatively dust free, as was the router bit.
The collets were tightened to roughly the same amount as far as I could tell.
One thing that was obvious is that on the newish Triton router the bit slipped in nice and easily. On the Bosch router I had to use a bit of pressure to get the router bit in properly.
It's no big deal and the size discrepancy certainly isn't a major issue in this instance but I'm intrigued more than anything why there is such a difference between measurements. Does anyone have any idea?
PS. I was contemplating possibly going for some router drills in the future. They're quite expensive and I'm now wondering if perhaps they wouldn't be such a good choice due to the above accuracy issue.
