I want for make a lot of 4 inch square blocks for the corners of door and window trim. I don't care for the typical rosettes you can buy in the big box stores. I want something a bit more unique for my house. I have a Milescraft router pattern maker and have chosen a daisy flower design that is about 3 1/2 inches in diameter. The blocks will be painted so I chose poplar for the wood. However, the cuts are not smooth and require a lot of work after the routing phase. I have tried going around the pattern twice in both the forward and reverse directions. All it seems to do is make the grooves a bit wider. The problem is that the rotary pattern requires some cuts with the grain and some across the grain. The latter are rough!

My last thought beside junking the idea is to go to a harder wood. Has anybody used this beast (Milescraft ..) with good success? Is there a hidden secret to it that I should know?

Len