On Thu, 28 May 2020 13:42:21 +0100, John Rumm
wrote:

A decent bearing guided cutter rather than a pin type is infinitely
preferable IMHO. It gives a better result overall, and is much less
likely to burn with a low feed rate.

In my case, it was a bearing-type in a large Festo. Routed both sides of 19mm or
so, edge radius five or ten mm, put it up, saw it wasn't symmetric... aaaargh.
(Wasn't important or really visible to anyone but myself, so I left it for quite
a few years.)

Router table is the way forward for lots of thin bits. That way you are
not relying on the bearing or the pin to get the registration from the
edge, and the clamping problem goes away.

At the time, I had access to a saw-shaper, with a shaper head and also a feed
unit. That, a feather board or three, made from scrap and a bandsaw, and a some
time, and there's your idiot-proof production setup for repetitive work. And,
the pros warned me: sometimes you are making *many* of something. And once you
get from hundreds to thousands, everyone turns into an idiot: the mind wanders,
you lose count, and then you are already down at the pub in your head while
shoving the last hundred through.

Most of the stuff I made was for myself, small one-offs, didn't know if it'd
work, knock it together quick. So, "round off the edge" or "put a bevel on it"
was mostly "shove it against the edge sander" -- because that's the five-second
way forward:-) and gives good, consistent results (after many poor, inconsistent
results, i.e. practice.) But once in while, if the router were out already, I'd
hold the lath down on the nearest workbench, run the router round with the other
-- and was grateful for the soft-starter:-)


Thomas Prufer