On 31 Mar, 14:07, Cicero wrote:

If you've got a bench pillar drill consider using that with a simple fence
and router bits for the long straight cuts.

That's damn dangerous, and has a track record of sprained or broken
thumbs in its wake.

The problem is that pillar drills are slow, so they won't work with
router tooling (just don't cut) and the tooling that does work with
them (now fortunately rare, but popular in the '70s) was large
diameter and with multiple teeth. These had nasty habits for grabbing,
throwing workpieces around and generally creating leverage injuries to
the operators hands.

You can still buy some of these (Safe-T-Planer ?), esp in the USA, but
they're even bigger and have fewer teeth. A bit better, but still too
hazardous IMHO.

On Tue, 31 Mar 2009 09:24:58 -0700, Andy Dingley wrote:

On 31 Mar, 14:07, Cicero wrote:

If you've got a bench pillar drill consider using that with a simple
fence and router bits for the long straight cuts.

That's damn dangerous, and has a track record of sprained or broken
thumbs in its wake.

The problem is that pillar drills are slow, so they won't work with
router tooling (just don't cut) and the tooling that does work with them
(now fortunately rare, but popular in the '70s) was large diameter and
with multiple teeth. These had nasty habits for grabbing, throwing
workpieces around and generally creating leverage injuries to the
operators hands.

You can still buy some of these (Safe-T-Planer ?), esp in the USA, but
they're even bigger and have fewer teeth. A bit better, but still too
hazardous IMHO.

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Sorry to disagree with you, but I've been doing this for about 20 years
without a single injury or mishap. As far as the coarse-toothed cutters
are concerned I think they're the ones to avoid. I have several
('Wolf' brand, I think) and I never use them now as it's difficult to get
a good finish with them. I do remember making a set of stair spindles with
them about 12 years ago in another house and I had to finish them off with
quite a bit of sanding.

Cic.
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Using Ubuntu Linux
Windows shown the door
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