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Router woes

ScaredyCat

ScaredyCat

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I'm having a seriously sweary day today and I've been left wondering why I even bother trying with this hobby.

All started off ok, reamer for parf guide turned up so started with doing all the holes on the bench. Used the dogs to line up the the cut to trim the end of the top with my Titan tracksaw (Yes, not even a Triton, just a Titan [screwfix special]).

Then I moved onto the "make a cut out for the router plate at the far end of the bench. Right now I'm left with a hole where the router bit came out of the collet and burrowed its way out the other side of the top. I can recover the top of the workbench (I think) by repositioning where the plate will sit.

I'm using a pattern bit and I have a template for the plate, I need a 10mm deep 'shelf' and I guess about 5-10mm wide, for the plate to sit on material is 18mm MR-MDF

Can anyone offer any tips as to completing this task and not totally ruining the top?
 
Firstly find out why the cutter came out. If you did not tighten it properly then kick yourself in the collets and carry on.
If the collet is worn then replace it with a new one and throw out the knackered one

If you have a selection of bearings then fit your pattern bit with a larger one by twice the size of the rebate you want. and cut the smaller hole out.
Swap the bearing back to the original size and cut the rebate to let the plate in.

Ideally you would have a template for the smaller opening, use a pattern bit for that and then use a rebate cutter to make the rebate.

Bob
 
Cutting too much at one pass. The friction will pull a straight cut bit out of the collet.

Usually you would cut the central hole out with a jigsaw, to within a quarter inch of the finish line. Then use the router to trim to the line.
 
As Bob 9F said, figure out why the bit came out. Sometimes the mixup of metric and imperial shanks can confuse easily and you load a 6mm shank into a 1/4" (6.35mm) collet which is enough to work loose, an even worse effect happens on a 12mm shank instead of a 1/2" (12.7mm) shank into the collet.

Me? I've had a V-bit come out of a router before and sent across the workshop like a deadly spinning top of doom and destruction, but I hadn't tightened the bloody thing :eusa-doh:

As Bob SB said, cut as close to the line with a jigsaw if you've got one to remove the bulk of the waste and just trimming the rest is very good practice.
 
Ok, thanks for the tips. I'll check and see if I've got any other bearings.

I suspect it was user error, probably what sunnybob suggested, trying to take too much of at once.

My logic was that if I leave cutting out the middle section until last I can stick a bit of wood the same thickness as the template to the off side of the router bottom and it would prevent the router tipping. Once I'd created the slightly oversized lip I could come at it with a jigsaw.
 
Trevanion":3n8acb2f said:
Me? I've had a V-bit come out of a router before and sent across the workshop like a deadly spinning top of doom and destruction, but I hadn't tightened the bloody thing :eusa-doh:
Click to expand...
Similarly, when I was teaching a few decades ago, I was in the mw 'shop and had set the kids a bit of scribbling to do whilst I got on with a 'homer' :eusa-whistle: This entailed drilling a large(ish) hole in a big lump of mild steel (I think I was making a wine press at the time).

You know what's coming...yep, the drill bit grabbed the job and as I hadn't cramped it to the table, the bit propelled it at warp speed towards the kids, who had their backs to me.

Said lump of supersonic metal passed directly between two of their respective heads and landed with an almighty 'thump' on the bench in front of them!

A 'brown trouser' moment if ever there was one.

The Gods were definitely smiling on me that day, but they sure weren't a few years later :( - Rob
 
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