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What's On Your Workbench?

#4,122
A slab of maple from a boule I bought just over a year ago (here is the original post)

It has been air drying, ends waxed, stickered every 18", and under a roof to keep the moisture off. Things appeared to have been going alright so far. There is some checking in the ends, which I expected, but it was typically limited to the last 6" or so.

A couple of days ago I cut about 5' off the end of one of the sapwood slabs so it could finish reaching EMC in the basement over the next year. However, just hours after bring it inside it one of the end checks doubled in size to about 12":
checking.jpg


In addition, many surface checks also appeared. Aieeee!

I bought the boule mostly to make a large dining table, which should still work fine, but had also hoped some of it might be suitable for instrument building. Unfortunately it looks like a combination of a long delay between felling and milling, and fairly low RH while air drying, might doom my hopes of using any of it for a bass :crying:
 
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#4,124
Flamingo21 said:
First practice with my router.
View attachment 4487953View attachment 4487955View attachment 4487956
First time I ever used a router. I was aware of the usual horror stories about accidents and improper handling, so I was careful. Still managed to give myself a scare: I unplugged in order to change the bit, then plugged in again, and then I reached for the on/off button to verify it worked...
The router jumped an inch toward me. Always hold the router with two hands!

Questions:
1. Do you wear protection glasses when working with a router? I did, and it didn't seem necessary.
2. Do you use a router as a surrogate drill press?
3. What is this bit for?
View attachment 4487960
Click to expand...

You've had a lot of good feedback but I wanted to add a couple things.

With respect to the drill press question. A drill press used on wood will typically be spinning the bit around 2,000 - 3,000 rpm, max - if not slower. That's the speed that's best for typical drilling operations in wood. A router, on the other hand, is usually spinning between 10,000 - 20,000. Not really appropriate for drilling. There will be a ton more friction (the sides of the bit against the hole you're drilling). Not to mention it'll be hard to position the big precisely in order to plunge into the wood.

Looking at your test cuts - especially the first with the V groove bit - you're cutting off way too much in one pass - especially for a "slot cut" which is what it's called when you're cutting in the "middle" of the workpiece, versus cutting against the outside edge, or the edge of a pocket. The difference is that in a slot cut, the bit is essentially touching the wood on all sides except directly behind itself. Router bits are generally not intended for slot cuts, and chip evacuation won't be very efficient. The bit is pressed against the wood for roughly half it's travel, so it only has half of each revolution to eject chips. If you're ever doing slot cuts for real, it's a good idea to use a bit with a low flute count and ideally an upcut bit that will help itself pull chips up and out.

The only other thing I'd add to the good advice you have so far is learning the difference between a climb cut and a conventional cut. The difference is the direction you're pushing versus the direction the bit is spinning. Imagine there's a workpiece in front of you - just a plain rectangle (or a bass body!) and you're going to route around the perimeter. If you run the router around counter-clockwise, you're conventional cutting. Run it clockwise around the workpiece, and you're climb cutting.

When you're conventional cutting, the bit is spinning such that it's scooping up away from the workpiece as it cuts. In a climb cut, the bit is pushing down into the workpiece as it cuts. The difference is important in terms of the way the torque of the router will "fight" you maintaining control of the machine. In a conventional cut, the scooping cut direction tends to keep the router pulled tight against the workpiece and resists you pushing it along. That pulling and resistance actually makes the router much easier to control, since you have feedback that's "fighting" back against what you're doing. In a climb cut, the opposite is true - as the bit attempts to cut down into the workpiece, it tends to "climb" up out of the workpiece. This can be very difficult to control, since the router will tend to want to run away from you along the edge of the workpiece.

Most people that are scared of routers are scared of them because they didn't know about that difference, and they unintentionally climb cut something, and the router "suddenly jumped out of my hands" which can be really scary!

Routers are definitely the most important and most versatile tool in an instrument building workshop but they can be frustrating and scary too, so it's good that you're practicing before working on an instrument.
 
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#4,126
Flamingo21 said:
Thanks for your reply, dwizum. All of your points are well taken. One question:

What makes you think the V groove is one pass? It is in fact many passes. The V groove is the first thing I tried, and I initially routed about 1/32" deep. Then I went deeper step by step.
Click to expand...

In that case I take back my comment about too much - to me it looked like you'd dropped the bit all the way down, pushed it across the board, turned the router off, and snapped a photo - I guess I assumed incorrectly! 1/32" is plenty shallow enough. My general rule of thumb is to try to keep cuts at 1/16" max sideways and 1/8" max depth unless I know a particular bit and cutting position can handle different.
 
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#4,128
Some builders have had good success with a Wagner Safety Planer or its identical successor, but that was designed to run at drillpress speeds, and it's really only good for thickness planing or cutting rabbets. Routers do best taking away small amounts of material in multiple passes. I do use them freehand, riding on top of the work occasionally, but run them in a router table whenever possible. I am That Guy who lost control of a router during a climb cut, luckily it flew AWAY from me, but it could have been horrific. An intermediate approach is one of the small "colt" routers like a Bosch or similar. Thats all some builders use, and as long as you are taking small bites, maybe thats all you need. I always hog out as much as I can with forstner bits before routing anway. The Colt routers are limited to 1/4" shank though, I like the stability and less vibration of 1/2" shank bits.
 
#4,129
dwizum said:
You've had a lot of good feedback but I wanted to add a couple things.

With respect to the drill press question. A drill press used on wood will typically be spinning the bit around 2,000 - 3,000 rpm, max - if not slower. That's the speed that's best for typical drilling operations in wood. A router, on the other hand, is usually spinning between 10,000 - 20,000. Not really appropriate for drilling. There will be a ton more friction (the sides of the bit against the hole you're drilling). Not to mention it'll be hard to position the big precisely in order to plunge into the wood.

Looking at your test cuts - especially the first with the V groove bit - you're cutting off way too much in one pass - especially for a "slot cut" which is what it's called when you're cutting in the "middle" of the workpiece, versus cutting against the outside edge, or the edge of a pocket. The difference is that in a slot cut, the bit is essentially touching the wood on all sides except directly behind itself. Router bits are generally not intended for slot cuts, and chip evacuation won't be very efficient. The bit is pressed against the wood for roughly half it's travel, so it only has half of each revolution to eject chips. If you're ever doing slot cuts for real, it's a good idea to use a bit with a low flute count and ideally an upcut bit that will help itself pull chips up and out.

The only other thing I'd add to the good advice you have so far is learning the difference between a climb cut and a conventional cut. The difference is the direction you're pushing versus the direction the bit is spinning. Imagine there's a workpiece in front of you - just a plain rectangle (or a bass body!) and you're going to route around the perimeter. If you run the router around counter-clockwise, you're conventional cutting. Run it clockwise around the workpiece, and you're climb cutting.

When you're conventional cutting, the bit is spinning such that it's scooping up away from the workpiece as it cuts. In a climb cut, the bit is pushing down into the workpiece as it cuts. The difference is important in terms of the way the torque of the router will "fight" you maintaining control of the machine. In a conventional cut, the scooping cut direction tends to keep the router pulled tight against the workpiece and resists you pushing it along. That pulling and resistance actually makes the router much easier to control, since you have feedback that's "fighting" back against what you're doing. In a climb cut, the opposite is true - as the bit attempts to cut down into the workpiece, it tends to "climb" up out of the workpiece. This can be very difficult to control, since the router will tend to want to run away from you along the edge of the workpiece.

Most people that are scared of routers are scared of them because they didn't know about that difference, and they unintentionally climb cut something, and the router "suddenly jumped out of my hands" which can be really scary!

Routers are definitely the most important and most versatile tool in an instrument building workshop but they can be frustrating and scary too, so it's good that you're practicing before working on an instrument.
Click to expand...

All good advice. As noted a router is your friend and a very useful tool but it requires respect. Learn to use it effectively and it will reward your efforts. A drill-press, band-saw and router will give you the basic shop machines to work with.
 
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