Routering

Well, we fixed the router. I used a broken chisel to take the point off the screw then used a screw extractor bit to remove the main part. This is the good news. The bad news is that one of my new bits got destroyed! See all the blades got chopped off somehow…

I worked on my dining table all day, the intention was to cut out 4 slots for the legs to sit in using the router. I built a jig out of pine, essentially 3 sides of a rectangular to act as a guide for where the router should go. I used the largest straight bit I had, a ¾” wide one, to cover the largest area at one time. As I wanted the cut-out to be ¾” deep and the bit was not that tall I did 3 sweeps with the router for each cut-out, each time lower the bit another ¼”.

In the end the slots turned out really well, the right size for the legs to slot into. But half way through the last slot the bit got destroyed as I showed above and I had to use a much thinner ¼” one. This meant the jig had to be jerry rigged and adjusted a lot. I have no idea why this happened to good quality bit. Well at least I got my slots done and I don’t have to use the router again on this project. This tool seems to be beating me, just when I think I’ve got the hang of it, it does something funny.

The herringbone end table top is all put together. Next for it is sanding and then assembling. Is it weird that I enjoyed cutting and placing all those little rectangles?

And now we know: actually I don’t know why the bit got ‘eaten’. Hopefully a diagnosis to come.