Bad edge when routing wood piece

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fixit7

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When I routed this, it produced a bad edge and it "kicked" back.

What am I doing wrong ?

Thanks.

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Were you going the right direction for the router to cut the wood? It didn't do it on both sides, I assume you routed one side, flipped the piece and routed the other.
 
How do i know which direction to go?
 
Look at how the bit spins. It should spin so the cutters are going into the wood in a forward motion. You go around the piece in a counterclockwise direction to have the cutter engage the wood on the cutting edge and not the back edge. You should be able to feel the difference.
 
In metal working terminology we call it climb milling or conventional milling. Climb milling is as it sounds the cutter wants climb and feed itself into the work. Conventional milling is when the cutter is pushing back against the feed.



An example is a table saw pushes the wood back and does not try and suck the wood thru. On the other hand a radial arm saw with the saw back away and pulling it out to you is climb cutting and an awkward feeling when you first do it as it is part pulling the saw across and part holding it back.

Try on a piece of scrap both ways and you will see and feel the difference.
 
Bud gave a great example that most people that have never done this before are not going to get.
As soon as you started routing you should have been able to notice somethings wrong and just go in the other direction.
 
Another thing to keep in mind and to test on some scrap of the same wood in your project is how the bit will cut both with the grain and doing end grain.
 
When routing an outside edge, always “rout to the right”, as in run the router in a counter-clockwise direction around the edge of the piece.

You should practice on scraps before trying to get good results on an important piece.
 
When routing an outside edge, always “rout to the right”, as in run the router in a counter-clockwise direction around the edge of the piece.

You should practice on scraps before trying to get good results on an important piece.

Rout to the right, I like it. Easy to remember.
 
Conventional routing direction is what you would normally follow EXCEPT with certain wood that splinters when routing, In that case you can carefully route that piece/section with climb routing and it wont grab the splinter and tear it off. BUT, it has to be done carefully and practice beforehand.
 
What is "climb routing" ?

I think my rough edges may have been due to a dull router bit.

My older router bit

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My newer bit did this work.

RouteredWood.jpeg
 
Climb routing is when you move the router in the direction of the bit rotation instead of against the rotation (into the cutting edge). Only use climb when routing difficult grained wood and then sparingly and slowly. Practice, practice, practice.
 
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