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Routing. Am I doing something wrong?
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 :D
RandyT
Tiger-Heli:
--- Quote from: RandyT on May 15, 2004, 11:31:58 am ---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.)
--- End quote ---
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:
--- Quote from: Tiger-Heli on May 15, 2004, 11:47:52 am ---
--- Quote from: RandyT on May 15, 2004, 11:31:58 am ---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.)
--- End quote ---
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.
--- End quote ---
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???
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