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ROUTING
See Figure 9.
Fig.9
For ease of operation and maintaining proper control,
your router has two handles, one on each side of the
router base. When using your router hold it firmly with
both hands as shown in figure 9.
_. WARNING: Keep a firm grip on router with both
hands at all times. Failure to do so could result in
loss of control leading to possible serious injury.
Turn router on and let motor build to its full speed,
then gradually feed cutter into workpiece. Remain
alert and watch what you are doing. Do not operate
router when fatigued.
RATE OF FEED
IMPORTANT: The whole "secret" of professional
routing and edge shaping lies in making a careful
setup for the cut to be made and in selecting the
proper rate of feed.
PROPER FEEDING
The right feed is neither too fast nor too slow. It is the
rate at which the bit is being advanced firmly and
surely to produce a continuous spiral of uniform chips
-- without hogging into the wood to make large
individual chips or, on the other hand, to create only
sawdust. If you are making a small diameter, shallow
groove in soft, dry wood, the proper feed may be
about as fast as you can travel your router along your
guide line. On the other hand, if the bit is a large one,
the cut is deep or the wood is hard to cut, the proper
feed may be a very slow one. A cross-grain cut may
require a slower pace than an identical with grain cut
in the same workpiece.
There is no fixed rule. You will learn by experience
from practice and use. The best rate of feed is
determined by listening to the sound of the router
motor and by feeling the progress of each cut. Always
test a cut on a scrap piece of the workpiece wood,
beforehand.
FORCE FEEDING
Clean, smooth routing and edge shaping can be done
only when the bit is revolving at a relatively high
speed and is taking very small bites to produce tiny,
cleanly severed chips. If your router is forced to move
forward too fast, the RPM of the bit becomes slower
than normal in relation to its forward movement. As a
result, the bit must take bigger bites as it revolves.
"Bigger bites" mean bigger chips, and a rougher
finish. Bigger chips also require more power, which
could result in the router motor becoming overloaded.
Under extreme force-feeding conditions the relative
RPM of the bit can become so slow-- and the bites it
has to take so large -- that chips will be partially
knocked off (rather than fully cut off), with resulting
splintering and gouging of the workpieee.
See Figure 10.
10