I finished the little stepstool I wrote about a few days ago and had an
interesting experience while cutting the pins on the router table. The
stock was between the fence and the bit. I always feed from right to
left and was just nibbling at the piece, rather than making a full cut
to the mark. The bit pulled the stock out of my hands and sent it
flying. I elected to finish the task by feeding from left to right and
had excellent control of the feed. Any thoughts?

On 8/11/2011 5:42 PM, Z3Driver wrote:
I finished the little stepstool I wrote about a few days ago and had an
interesting experience while cutting the pins on the router table. The
stock was between the fence and the bit. I always feed from right to
left and was just nibbling at the piece, rather than making a full cut
to the mark. The bit pulled the stock out of my hands and sent it
flying. I elected to finish the task by feeding from left to right and
had excellent control of the feed. Any thoughts?


Right to left is the norm, but, when the bit is trapped in the cut and
cutting on both sides simultaneously, it's a crapshoot. I would
normally remove as much material as possible using either a straight bit
or the table saw. It greatly reduces the amount of "work" the dovetail
bit is doing.

--
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have to vote for someone else in 2012 to prove you're not stupid!"

On 8/11/2011 4:52 PM, "__ Bøb __" wrote:


On 8/11/2011 5:42 PM, Z3Driver wrote:
I finished the little stepstool I wrote about a few days ago and had an
interesting experience while cutting the pins on the router table. The
stock was between the fence and the bit. I always feed from right to
left and was just nibbling at the piece, rather than making a full cut
to the mark. The bit pulled the stock out of my hands and sent it
flying. I elected to finish the task by feeding from left to right and
had excellent control of the feed. Any thoughts?


Right to left is the norm, but, when the bit is trapped in the cut and
cutting on both sides simultaneously, it's a crapshoot. I would normally
remove as much material as possible using either a straight bit or the
table saw. It greatly reduces the amount of "work" the dovetail bit is
doing.


I guess I wasn't clear. I was cutting the pin, so was taking about 1/32
off the edge of the board. The bit, therefore, wasn't trapped.

On 8/11/2011 5:55 PM, Z3Driver wrote:
On 8/11/2011 4:52 PM, "__ Bøb __" wrote:


On 8/11/2011 5:42 PM, Z3Driver wrote:
I finished the little stepstool I wrote about a few days ago and had an
interesting experience while cutting the pins on the router table. The
stock was between the fence and the bit. I always feed from right to
left and was just nibbling at the piece, rather than making a full cut
to the mark. The bit pulled the stock out of my hands and sent it
flying. I elected to finish the task by feeding from left to right and
had excellent control of the feed. Any thoughts?


Right to left is the norm, but, when the bit is trapped in the cut and
cutting on both sides simultaneously, it's a crapshoot. I would normally
remove as much material as possible using either a straight bit or the
table saw. It greatly reduces the amount of "work" the dovetail bit is
doing.


I guess I wasn't clear. I was cutting the pin, so was taking about 1/32
off the edge of the board. The bit, therefore, wasn't trapped.



OOPS !!! My misread ... you DID say it was the pin you were cutting
.... for certain, you should have buried the bit in the fence and only
exposed enough of it to make the cut. You should never trap the stock
between the bit and the fence.



--
"If you voted for Obama in 2008 to prove you're not a racist you'll
have to vote for someone else in 2012 to prove you're not stupid!"

On 8/11/2011 4:42 PM, Z3Driver wrote:
I finished the little stepstool I wrote about a few days ago and had an
interesting experience while cutting the pins on the router table. The
stock was between the fence and the bit. I always feed from right to
left and was just nibbling at the piece, rather than making a full cut
to the mark. The bit pulled the stock out of my hands and sent it
flying. I elected to finish the task by feeding from left to right and
had excellent control of the feed. Any thoughts?


You always feed against the direction that the cutting edge is moving
unless climb cutting.

If your stock was between the bit and the fence you were feeding with
the bit spin direction and it would naturally pull the work out of your
hands and throw it.

On 8/11/2011 5:32 PM, Leon wrote:
On 8/11/2011 4:42 PM, Z3Driver wrote:
I finished the little stepstool I wrote about a few days ago and had an
interesting experience while cutting the pins on the router table. The
stock was between the fence and the bit. I always feed from right to
left and was just nibbling at the piece, rather than making a full cut
to the mark. The bit pulled the stock out of my hands and sent it
flying. I elected to finish the task by feeding from left to right and
had excellent control of the feed. Any thoughts?


You always feed against the direction that the cutting edge is moving
unless climb cutting.

If your stock was between the bit and the fence you were feeding with
the bit spin direction and it would naturally pull the work out of your
hands and throw it.


Aha! That makes perfect sense, Leon. This old dog appreciates learning
a new trick.

Larry

Z3Driver wrote:
On 8/11/2011 4:52 PM, "__ Bøb __" wrote:


On 8/11/2011 5:42 PM, Z3Driver wrote:
I finished the little stepstool I wrote about a few days ago and
had an interesting experience while cutting the pins on the router
table. The stock was between the fence and the bit. I always feed
from right to left and was just nibbling at the piece, rather than
making a full cut to the mark. The bit pulled the stock out of my
hands and sent it flying. I elected to finish the task by feeding
from left to right and had excellent control of the feed. Any
thoughts?


Right to left is the norm, but, when the bit is trapped in the cut
and cutting on both sides simultaneously, it's a crapshoot. I would
normally remove as much material as possible using either a straight
bit or the table saw. It greatly reduces the amount of "work" the
dovetail bit is doing.


I guess I wasn't clear. I was cutting the pin, so was taking about
1/32 off the edge of the board. The bit, therefore, wasn't trapped.

Doesn't matter how much you were taking off, you had the wood between fence
and bit; therefore, it was trapped. Big no-no.

Additionally, the wood being trapped and you feeding right to left, you were
making a climb cut. That too is generally a no-no.

--

dadiOH
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On 8/11/2011 4:42 PM, Z3Driver wrote:
I finished the little stepstool I wrote about a few days ago and had an
interesting experience while cutting the pins on the router table. The stock
was between the fence and the bit. I always feed from right to left and was
just nibbling at the piece, rather than making a full cut to the mark. The bit
pulled the stock out of my hands and sent it flying. I elected to finish the
task by feeding from left to right and had excellent control of the feed. Any
thoughts?

I remember going to a router class years ago at the local Woodcraft and the
instructor (a comical kind of guy) was explaining about the dangers of running
the stock between the bit and the fence, and how it could turn the stock into a
projectile. He said something like "... and the point in time when you know
when this is about to happen is when you look across the room and the board is
sticking out of the wall."

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