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Guy at the lumber yard showed me a router trick I'd been messing up for months
I was picking up some maple at the yard last Thursday and this older guy, probably a retired cabinetmaker, saw the router bit I was buying. He asked what I was working on and I said a simple raised panel door. He just shook his head and said 'you're gonna burn that wood with a 1/2 inch bit, you need a 3/8 with a sharper angle.' I brushed him off at first but after I got home and ruined two panels, I went back and tried his way. The finish was way cleaner and I didn't have to sand for an hour. Has anyone else had some random stranger save them time and money on a basic technique like that?
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charles_mitchell15h agoMost Upvoted
Hang on though, a bigger bit shouldn't automatically mean you burn the wood. I've run a 1/2 inch bit for years on poplar and oak and never had that trouble. It's usually about your feed rate and taking too heavy a pass that causes that scorching, not the bit size itself. That old timer might have been right for his specific setup but it's not a universal rule that works for everyone.
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