Routing with SS

[Big John]

Hello. I bought the collet for the SS to use it as a router, but even at the highest speed setting it just isnt working. Has anyone had success without buying the speed increaser? Thanks. John.

[ericolson]

Hello. I bought the collet for the SS to use it as a router, but even at the highest speed setting it just isnt working. Has anyone had success without buying the speed increaser? Thanks. John.

I've only used it a couple of times. I always take very light cuts with it, as the speed (about 5,000 RPM) simply isn't fast enough to make finished cuts. However, I use it in the horizontal mode with an upcut spiral bit for making slot mortises. It excels at this.

[ricknwood]

Good Morning John, my name is Rick Davis and I am an instructor for the Traveling Academy. Router bits are designed to turn at 18,000 to 24,000 RPM bascially and are not going to give you the desired molded edge that you are looking for at 5-7,000 RPM. Even with the speed increaser you can only get 10,000 out of your headstock. You would be much better served with a router table and a variable speed 3 hp router. Three wing shaper cutters are more designed for RPM of 10,00 and below. If you would choose not to set up a router table, which you would never be sorry for, he shaper would be the better choice. A router table is far superior though, as the high RPM is more sustainable with single phase electricity. If I can be of any further assistance to you, please let me know. Happy Trails Fellow Woodworker, PURA VIDA, Rick

[Ed in Tampa]

Hello. I bought the collet for the SS to use it as a router, but even at the highest speed setting it just isnt working. Has anyone had success without buying the speed increaser? Thanks. John.

I was working with Cherry which will burn if you look at it funny. Using my router no matter what I did ended up burning the wood. I shifted to the SS using the same bit and it worked fine.

I'm not sure I understand the RPM thing. Let us say you move the wood pass the cutter in one sec and your cutter is turning 20,000 RPM with two cutter on the typical router bit means the cutter contacted the wood 667 times in one sec.

Now take the same piece of wood and pass it by bit mounted on the SS turning at 7,000 RPM to have the same cutter contact you have to move wood past the bit aboout 3 times slower between 3 and 4 seconds.

The idea is similar to these multi speed planes, they don't speed up the cutters they speed up or slow down the feed.

I will say you better have good bits if you want to use the SS as a router and feed slow and don't try to make the full cut in one pass. I have two pieces of formica that I use as a shim for my next to last cut. I make the cut using the shims and then remove the shim for my final cut. In Cherry I get baby smooth and burn free cuts.
Ed

[Bruce]

I'm not sure I understand the RPM thing. Let us say you move the wood pass the cutter in one sec and your cutter is turning 20,000 RPM with two cutter on the typical router bit means the cutter contacted the wood 667 times in one sec.

Now take the same piece of wood and pass it by bit mounted on the SS turning at 7,000 RPM to have the same cutter contact you have to move wood past the bit aboout 3 times slower between 3 and 4 seconds.

Ed,
It takes speed to slice the wood cleanly. At lower rpm's, it's more like a chopping action rather than slicing, no matter how slowly you feed the wood.

Bruce

[scottss]

Eric I am curious on horizontal routing to make mortise and tenon joints. Can explain or take picture of your setup?
thanks

[Ed in Tampa]

Ed,
It takes speed to slice the wood cleanly. At lower rpm's, it's more like a chopping action rather than slicing, no matter how slowly you feed the wood.

Bruce

Bruce you may be right but when you consider the small surface area and speed (7000 RPM is not slow) I don't think the cut is much different.

I think the amount of wood removed at one time is the factor and that is dependant on cutter speed and feed rate. Therefore if you slow your feed rate sufficiently you should be cutting the same amount of wood.

Again I fall back to the multi speed planners now on the market. In all cases to produce smoother cuts they slow the feed rate while maintaining the same cutter speed.

I have produced some baby smooth cuts using the SS as a router but it was slow going. I own multiple routers and have a router table but I will still use the SS if I working with cherry. I also use the SS for milling operations like slidding dove tails. I have found when setup correctly the SS is just like a "milling" machine for wood.

Notice my Avatar that was produced on the SS in router mode using Walnut and Hickory. I have the actual block setting on my desk.
Ed

[paulmcohen]

I thought your avatar was a Photoshop trick, how did you assemble it with dovetails running 90 degrees to each other.

[ericolson]

Eric I am curious on horizontal routing to make mortise and tenon joints. Can explain or take picture of your setup?
thanks

Scott;

I'll take some photos and give a procedure summary when I start doing the joinery on the nightstands I'm working on. It'll be a few days, though. I've got a cleaning crew tearing out my carpet right now and cleaning up the smoke damage from a little (thankfully) housefire I had a couple of weeks ago during our ice storm.

[Ed in Tampa]

I thought your avatar was a Photoshop trick, how did you assemble it with dovetails running 90 degrees to each other.

Paul it is basically two parallel dove tails slots. You then slide the wood together and cut out squares on the diagonal.

The two dovetails you see in my Avatar are actually parallel to each other and run to the front and back. The one on the left to the left back and the one on the right to the right back.

I then cut wood square so it looked like each dove tail was on an opposite side. The two blocks come apart if you push on the corner between the two dove tails.

The tricky part is cutting dovetails the right size that once you cut the square they optically look normal. If you make the square too big or too small the optical perspective of the dove dove tail causes them to distort.

Wait until you see my oak apple with a one piece hickory arrow through it. As soon as I get my hands on one of my kids camera I will take a picture.