We may receive a commission when you use our affiliate links. However, this does not impact our recommendations.
Minimize Router Burns
End grain burns easily on maple and cherry, and those
burns are hard to remove. After sanding my fingers to the
bone following one particularly unfortunate routing pass,
I came up with an easy solution that removes those
unsightly burns without requiring that I adjust the
bit’s height or fuss with an edge guide.
Before routing, I put three layers of
masking tape on the bottom of
the board’s edge, where the
bit’s bearing rides. Then I
make two passes. The first
pass produces the
rough profile, when
burning is most
likely to occur.
After making the
initial pass, I
remove the tape and
rout again. This very fine
second pass removes all but
the worst burns. If this method still
leaves scorches, your feed rate is too
slow or you need a new router bit.
|
This story originally appeared in American Woodworker August 2006, issue #123.
|
|
Here are some supplies and tools we find essential in our everyday work around the shop. We may receive a commission from sales referred by our links; however, we have carefully selected these products for their usefulness and quality.
