Upcut v Downcut Spiral
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Steve Maskery
Established Member
Upcut.
Up means up into the router, which in this case is upside down.
Downcuts are useful when making housing in veneered board, so that the veneer is not pulled away.
Up means up into the router, which in this case is upside down.
Downcuts are useful when making housing in veneered board, so that the veneer is not pulled away.
Steve Maskery
Established Member
Upcut! 
Sporky McGuffin
Light entertainer
The Wealden cutters are very, very good, and they'll last. Expensive but good value, if that makes sense.
As for upcut vs downcut it's which side of the wood you want neat. Downcut makes a clean edge nearest the router, upcut is clean edge away from the router. Compression cut is neat both sides if you get it right.
Both also affect chip clearing and ease of handling.
As for upcut vs downcut it's which side of the wood you want neat. Downcut makes a clean edge nearest the router, upcut is clean edge away from the router. Compression cut is neat both sides if you get it right.
Both also affect chip clearing and ease of handling.
custard
Established Member
SteveF":1264c2vo said:
As long as you're cutting moderate hardwoods or softwoods (no MDF, ply, teak, iroko, rosewood, UF glue laminations, or other extremely blunting materials) then High Speed Steel router cutters offer an economical and practical alternative. For finger joints you could look at either upcut spiral or two flute straight cutters with a bottom cut. These are considered a bit old fashioned by many, but they genuinely give a cleaner cut in solid timber than TC cutters, and the straight cutters are easy to re-sharpen with a credit card sized diamond hone of fine or extra fine grades. Try Woodrat for HSS router bits,
http://www.woodrat.com/bits.html
Or hunt around on Ebay, just stay clear of the dirt cheap Chinese HSS cutters.
You'll find that the big problem with cutting finger joints with a router is tear out. Freshly sharpened HSS bits go a long long way to taming this. Incidentally, don't confuse "brand new" with "freshly sharpened", even on the most expensive cutters I can always improve sharpness and the quality of the cut with some careful honing.
If you're still experiencing tear out then backing boards can help, or, providing you're fairly experienced with using a router, then an admittedly complex routine of shallow "climb cuts" on the face side before cutting through form the other side will definitely solve the problem, but it's so time consuming it's only practical if you're looking for a superb finish for a special project.
Good luck!
Benchwayze
Established Member
I agree with the upcut answer! 8)
Eric The Viking
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I tried with a 1/4" straight Trend TCT cutter - brand new. The results were disappointing.
If you push a sliding jig, tearout happens on the right (as you look down at it), and on the left against the fence. Assuming the cutter made its own notch in the fence to start with, you can mostly eliminate the fence side sort just by clamping tightly (more than hand pressure). I've improved the other by scoring at the top of the cut, with a knife. You can also use scrap clamped in front. With all that though, it does get tedious, and worse if the joint isn't going to be 90 degrees.
For a right angled joint, the fence side has the best finish overall as the fence is "zero clearance" so if you can arrange that to be visible, you may get away with it.
Steve gets far better results with a spiral cutter, so forking-out for one may be the answer. I will probably try this next time. I still think scoring at the top of the slots helps though.
If you push a sliding jig, tearout happens on the right (as you look down at it), and on the left against the fence. Assuming the cutter made its own notch in the fence to start with, you can mostly eliminate the fence side sort just by clamping tightly (more than hand pressure). I've improved the other by scoring at the top of the cut, with a knife. You can also use scrap clamped in front. With all that though, it does get tedious, and worse if the joint isn't going to be 90 degrees.
For a right angled joint, the fence side has the best finish overall as the fence is "zero clearance" so if you can arrange that to be visible, you may get away with it.
Steve gets far better results with a spiral cutter, so forking-out for one may be the answer. I will probably try this next time. I still think scoring at the top of the slots helps though.
