Routing a moulding

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br549
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Routing a moulding

Post by br549 »

Before I attempt something I have never tried before, I would like to hear if what I plan to make is feasible and can be done safely.

The bit I have purchased is this:
Rockler 2141.jpg
Rockler 2141.jpg (120.93 KiB) Viewed 3141 times
The material to be used is cedar, or possibly white pine (1"x 2").

With Shopsmith in drill press mode, bit mounted in router chuck, rip fence between bit and way tubes, stock should be fed from back to front? Move fence closer to bit after each pass (cutting no more than 1/8" each pass) until profile complete and guide bearing is rubbing against stock?
edma194
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Re: Routing a moulding

Post by edma194 »

I would start out by using wider stock, routing the profile on one edge, then cutting off the narrow piece of molding. This is the kind of thing that is easy to do with a handheld router if you have one and then you can leave the Shopsmith in table saw mode to cut off the finished molding.

I prefer not trapping the board between the fence and the router bit but if you do them I think passing the board left to right should be done. A right to left pass in front of the bit would be preferred, and since you have a guide bearing a fence is not really needed.

Pine and cedar should be easy to cut. Do you have a PowerPro or are using a conventional headstock limited to 5200RPM? It's a fairly wide diameter bit so should cut well at the top but the bottom shape is somewhat delicate, you could watch for tight straight grain at that edge, and of course avoid knots on that edge.
Ed from Rhode Island

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thunderbirdbat
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Re: Routing a moulding

Post by thunderbirdbat »

Be careful of feed direction as it depends on direction the router bit is traveling, you want to feed the wood into the oncoming router cutting edge. The router bits are designed to rotate clockwise, if you are routing between the way tubes and the bit, right to left feed and if in front of both the way tubes and bit then left to right feed direction.
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DLB
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Re: Routing a moulding

Post by DLB »

br549 wrote: Tue May 24, 2022 9:05 am Before I attempt something I have never tried before, I would like to hear if what I plan to make is feasible and can be done safely.

The bit I have purchased is this:

Rockler 2141.jpg
The material to be used is cedar, or possibly white pine (1"x 2").

With Shopsmith in drill press mode, bit mounted in router chuck, rip fence between bit and way tubes, stock should be fed from back to front? Move fence closer to bit after each pass (cutting no more than 1/8" each pass) until profile complete and guide bearing is rubbing against stock?
I feel like I'm kind of reading between the lines a bit. Are you planning to fully profile a face of the 1 X 2? (1-5/8" profile, 1-1/2" stock) Which won't work the normal way because you are cutting away the reference surface that should ride the fence. And for that reason you are wondering about cutting with the material between fence and cutter as opposed to burying the cutter in the fence.(?) I've never done that, so a general comment: cutters of this type pull the material into the cutter, which is normally buried in the fence so it just helps guide the material along the fence. If you cut the other side of the material it is going to try to pull into the cutter and away from the fence. That seems bad, and I doubt the bearing's effectiveness if that happens.

If my assumptions are right, I think Rhode Island Ed had the best idea, cut the profile on larger stock with the bit buried in the fence and cut down to finished size after it is profiled. There may be some other ideas on utube or something, I've never done anything like this on a face away from the fence. I've always thought of it as one of those things you don't do.

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Hobbyman2
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Re: Routing a moulding

Post by Hobbyman2 »

A profile of your completed piece would be nice , the bit only shows the cut you are after not the entire profile of the finished piece ,this could make a difference in the way you go about it , is this on the edge or face of the stock ? how thick is the stock or how wide is the face ? practice on a scrap piece .. make several passes dont try to take it all off in one pass . oh and there will be dust !!
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BuckeyeDennis
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Re: Routing a moulding

Post by BuckeyeDennis »

The issue of trapping a workpiece between a router bit and a fence came up a several years ago. Check out this thread, and see if it sheds any light on the subject.

If it were me, I’d either use a shaper fence, or add a deep facing to the regular rip fence, such that the bit can be buried in the facing. If you have a 520 fence, that could be as simple as mounting a couple of short pieces of a 2x4 to the side T-slot, with one piece on each side of the bit.

I’d also mill the profile in multiple passes. On the final pass I typically use a straightedge to set the fence facing flush with the guide bearing, although there’s no real harm in the bearing being proud of the fence on that pass. I just prefer the solid feel of full-length fence support.

And as has already been suggested, I’d start with oversized stock that is still stable when the profile is fully routed, and later cut the molding free in table saw mode. To minimize material waste, you can probably produce a molding on both sides of the oversized stock.
br549
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Re: Routing a moulding

Post by br549 »

Thanks for all of the insights, suggestions, comments and questions. You have all given me several things to think about. I'll try to answer all questions in the order they were received:

edma194: I do have some wide stock I could try using a hand-held router on, and then rip the finished profile to width, so I will give that a try. My Shopsmith is a Mark V 500, so the faster RPM of hand-held router should also help. My thought to use the Shopsmith, even with it's slower speed, was because I didn't think a bit this large could (or should) be used in a hand-held router.

thunderbirdbat: Yes, feed direction was one of my main concerns. After others' comments about feed direction, if I try using the Shopsmith, it will be with the bit "buried" in an auxiliary fence, and not with the workpiece trapped between the fence and the bit.

DLB: My initial thought was that the stock will be a rough 1 x 2, so greater than 1.5" tall. I may not be able to cut the entire profile of the bit. After drawing a more detailed profile of what I want, I may have to use a larger piece to get the size I need. The idea of cutting the profile on a wider board and then ripping the profiled edge off is seeming more and more like the better way to proceed.

Hobbyman2: My initial thought was the cut would be on face of a rough 1 x 2, or the edge of a rough 2 x 6. The desired finished profile and size is now this. The full 2" height is not completely necessary, but I do want to be able to slope the top piece of the moulding enough to match the slope of the pyramid shaped cap for bearing and gluing surface. It will be trim around a 6 x 6 post cap for a fence post. (Posts are a rough 6 x 6, so an "off-the shelf" post cap for a S4S 6 x 6 is too small.)
Post Cap.jpg
Post Cap.jpg (57.43 KiB) Viewed 2995 times
BuckeyeDennis: The thread about trapping the workpiece was quite informative. My rough 2 x 6 cedar may wind up getting ripped into rough 2 x 2's and the profile cut on 2 faces before being ripped in half to get two pieces.

I'll post my test run results after I get to that stage.
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BuckeyeDennis
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Re: Routing a moulding

Post by BuckeyeDennis »

Your bit also struck me as pretty big to use in a handheld router. I didn't know what the "official" advise was on that, though, so I Googled it just now.

This Woodworkers Guild of America article says "Bits larger than 1” in diameter or longer than 1-½” should not be used in a freehand router—switch to a router table for those cutters." Your bit exceeds both dimensions. But those dimensions are undoubtedly just a rule of thumb. If you have an edge guide for your router and adjust it to take to take several light cuts, I expect that you'd be OK.

Capture.JPG
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That edge-guide setup kind of blurs the line between handheld routing and table routing.
edma194
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Re: Routing a moulding

Post by edma194 »

Thank you BuckeyeDennis, those are good guidelines to follow. br549, I think you should be ok with a handheld router on pine or cedar taking several passes, if you have an edge guide, but don't do this if you are not comfortable with it. The article linked above is a good guide to follow. If you use your ShopsmithI think the advice to use a shaper fence to rout in front of the bit is a good idea.
Ed from Rhode Island

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Hobbyman2
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Re: Routing a moulding

Post by Hobbyman2 »

JOM ,,, by rearranging the head stock and table carriage and making the cut from the bottom sounds a lot more stable than making this on a face cut , simply remove the table and carriage, remove and flip the head stock around and reinsert the table and carriage , stand it up as the drill press , this brings the quill in from the bottom of the table , add a shaper table insert and then add a good sacrificial fence to the table fence ,the bit will be burried into the fence and the guide bushing should be flush with the fence , this will operate close to a router table and it will give you a stable support for the stock, my guess it would be easier to make the cut on a 2x stock and then like ED said just cut off to the desired thickness . if you are painting the wood ,, the grain wont be seen . you can make a wood table insert to fit the bit if you dont have one . this is only opinion because the other advise will work as well .
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