Routing. Am I doing something wrong?

[Apollo]

OK so I've got my 1/16" slot cutter, it's definately on the right way, lol. The problem is when I'm cutting the slots in my ply I'm getting a hell of a lot of smoke and I mean a lot of smoke. I'm cutting fairly deeply so I tried doing one pass at a more shallow depth and then doing a second pass to finish but still loads of smoke. Am I doing something wrong or is this fairly normal?
Cheers.

[Apollo]

Well I don't seem to able to remove this thread but my problem is solved, thankyou.

[Tiger-Heli]

Well I don't seem to able to remove this thread but my problem is solved, thankyou.

What was the problem/solution?

[SirPeale]

Yes, please.  Always post a solution to a problem.  That way, others may learn from your mistakes.

[saint]

I would guess moving the wrong way from left to right or vice versa. Moving one way with the router you're going against the spin, the other way you're going with it.

[RandyT]

Hmmm, moving the router in the wrong direction shouldn't generate smoke.  Make it difficult to control, yes, smoke, probably not.

Where there's smoke, there's fire (heat).  If you see smoke with power tools that means friction, and lots of it.  Friction comes from dull tools or excessive contact with a rapidly moving non-cutting surface (the face of a blade, instead of the cutting edge.)

So, most likely this would be from an incorrectly installed, bent or broken bit.  Or pressure on the blade at an incorrect angle.  It could also mean that the wood on both sides of the blade is pinching it (due to incorrect clamping of the part) as you relieve the center of the material.

Or your router is about to catch on fire  

RandyT

[Tiger-Heli]

Where there's smoke, there's fire (heat).  If you see smoke with power tools that means friction, and lots of it.  Friction comes from dull tools or excessive contact with a rapidly moving non-cutting surface (the face of a blade, instead of the cutting edge.)

But if you're moving the router the wrong direction, aren't you moving the non-cutting edge of the blade into the work?

Not sure how a slot-cutting bit is set up, so that may be a dumb question.

[RandyT]

Where there's smoke, there's fire (heat).  If you see smoke with power tools that means friction, and lots of it.  Friction comes from dull tools or excessive contact with a rapidly moving non-cutting surface (the face of a blade, instead of the cutting edge.)

But if you're moving the router the wrong direction, aren't you moving the non-cutting edge of the blade into the work?

Not sure how a slot-cutting bit is set up, so that may be a dumb question.

Technically, yes, if you can move the router faster than 3 times the RPM of the router (or maybe 4 times, depends on how many flutes or teeth the bit or blade has).  But in practical usage, no.

My handeld router runs at about 14,000 rpm, and my slot cutter has four "teeth" so it would take a virtually unachievable feed rate to keep that from cutting.  If you do the math, it shows that a sharp part of the bit is striking the wood about 900 times a second.

Sometimes it is desirable to move the router in the opposite direction of the blade to give a smoother finish on the cut.  This is not recommended if cutting by hand because of the afformentioned control difficulty.

The direction of the blade is what does the cutting.  If you put the blade on upside-down, then you would be cutting with the back edge of the teeth (VERY BAD!).  Moving the router in the opposite direction of the rotation is not the same as this.

RandyT

[saint]

That's exactly what happened when I first used a router with a 3 wing slot cutter bit. I was routing away, but the wood was scorching and I was having to muscle it a bit. I switched directions and the router darn near ran away from me, no effort, no scorching, no burnt smell.

[Tiger-Heli]

Doggonnit, now I'm gonna have to go to Harbor Freight and buy a router and a slot cutting bit just to find out how it really cuts (j/k).

My SO will understand if it's just an academic exercise to figure out the mechanical aspects and not some underhanded plot to make more controls for those d'mn computer games, won't she???

[Apollo]

Yeah sorry about not posting the answer, bit embarassing really. I was going in the wrong direction with the router as some of you rightly pointed out.

[RandyT]

Ok, direct question:

Assuming that your router spins clockwise, as it should...

Were you traveling clockwise around the panel or counter-clockwise?



Traveling in either direction shouldn't cause smoke, but one way is going to be a lot harder to control.

If you are getting smoke by moving counter-clockwise, you have a different problem.  Most likely, the extra force required (which is also what helps keep the router under your control and out of your thigh) was causing the router base to lift from the board and making the blade bind.  Only the tips do the cutting, and if the router base tips away from the panel, the blade will start burning.  Do this a couple of times and the blade will be shot.  Yes, that's the voice of experience  .

RandyT

[Zakk]

I think saint gets the award for guessing this problem correctly.  My own guess, "wood gnomes", was obviously quite wrong as well.  

[Xiaou2]

 I think its also a case of pushing to fast and hard forward...

 If you set the initial Depth to deep and you push really hard forward...the motor will slow down due to the fact its having troubles cutting so deep... and since you are pressing to hard forward with it...  it heats the wood up to the point of burning it.  

 Going against the grain as saint said, will compond the issue... as the router has to work much harder to cut.

 So - use a few passes instead of one deep one,  and let the blade do the cutting rather than pressing forward too hard.  

 Wood Gnomes are scared away by the router scream... ^_-

[OSCAR]

Heh, here's my own story...

A couple years ago I purchased a slot cutter and when it came in, I put it in the router and started to cut a t-molding slot.  Well, it started to make lots of smoke and the router was jumping around like crazy.  By the time I turned off the router, 2 of the 3 teeth were knocked off the blades.  When I looked at the slot cutter more carefully, I noticed that the cutter head had been installed upside-down on the mandrel.  I didn't even think to check that first, I had assumed that the slot cutter would come assembled correctly.  Umm.....  no.

I felt so foolish about that one, I still don't like to talk about it.  

[danny_galaga]

Its funny. I seem to have had the opposite problem to you guys! To start off with I was going softly which seemed to produce heaps of smoke (on MDF mind you). So then I thought id go even more softly and wouldn

[ChadTower]

The only real problem I've ever had was running into weird solid materials in the wood (nails, or a super compressed bit) and having the bit just snap.

[MonitorGuru]

If you're routering MDF, it is quite easy to make it smoke. It burns like a fireworks punk actually... (Smolders with orange embers when blown on).  

But yes, move in the right direction, don't cut too deep, and use sharp bits.

Also, I've found it's always good to stop periodically and let the bit cool, because on 2 different routers I have (one plunge, one fixed) if the bit heats up, it starts working down and out of the router, thus ruining your cut or worse--flying out at 20K RPM