Scary story

[Pete Bac]

I've been a Shopbot user for around three years now and it's more of a little hobby for me than anything else.

This past weekend a was making a mailbox holder out of 4x4 posts and was going to mill out some material using by shopbot, instead of setting up a dado blade in my table saw.

I set up a 1" dia. straight cut bit, that I had first bought to even out my wood table. It cost me $45. So any way I chuck up this bit into my Jacobs quick change chuck and started up the router. No sooner did I walk away from the table and to the computer I heard a loud thud and my router shut down. I ran back over to my table and found pieces of my Jacobs chuck scattered around the garage floor, my bit missing and my 3hp P.C. router dead.

What a sicking feeling!!!

The only thing I can figure was that the bit caused a big vibration and caught the wood that was to be milled. It took me about an hour to find the bit, which was imbedded into a box that was just a couple feet away from where I was standing. I took my router apart and found a dislodged spring which I reinserted and was able to get the router working again.

I'm very thankful that I decided to move my brother's 1995 Mustang Cobra out of the garage before I started. It would have been in the path of the flying debri.

Just wanted to share that story so other people will be more careful when working with quick change chucks.

[sheldon@dingwallguitars.com]

I spoke to Jacobs a couple of weeks ago and they've discontinued the quick change chuck. They said for marketing reasons.

[rgengrave@aol.com]

Pete thanks for the tip, and glad it did not hit you.

Something I learned the hard way is if you insert anything in a router and it makes a funny noise? take it out fast.

If you put something in your router you better make sure it is 100% pure balanced.

Router bits will get hot and break at the weakest point, this happens when the bit starts to get dull and will heat up 5 times faster.

Porter Cables have a bad habit of popping out the brush spring screw, might be a good idea to check them now and then after a heavy work out?

Safety First is the way to go

Ron

[davidallen]

I've been using a miter-lock bit to flatten stock. it has a 1 1/2" bottom face and does well with shallow cuts. I'm using the RC eliminator chuck and haven't had any problems. I did have a problem with the OEM chuck and a dull bit.

I've found that cutting a little bit of wood and moving fast gives better results in about the same time.

[ron_cleaver]

I'm about to use a 2" diameter bit to flatten my table (from www.pricecutter.com, item P1707, $19.99).

After reading this I plan to proceed carefully the first time I use this bit.

I'm using the RC eliminator chuck and I've had good results in my tests so far.

[davidallen]

I have used a Saf-T-Plane (6" dia) in a router, but not the alternate chuck. no problem with running it, but the cut was so sensitive to the router being square that I couldn't get a good finish.

wider isn't always better.


da

[garbob]

I finally bought an Onsrud spoilboard surfacing cutter.
I had tried 3 cheapie bits (1/2" to 1" 2 flute carbide tipped) running from $20US to $45US. They pretty much just burned up trying to take off a 1/16th of an inch of mdf. I then bought a 2 1/16" spoilboard cutter with 6 cutting tips for $75 US. I planed half the table and it started burning the mdf - first use and it overheated. I found that all of these bits are very poorly finished and usually only one edge or area of a particular tooth is cutting - I have got my money back for most of these bits.
The Onsrud 90-002 is a 2 1/2" dia. cutter with 2 "wings" (using disposable, multi-use knives). It has a 1/2" shank and a cutting length of about 1/4" with an over all shank length of 2". The price up here was about $330 US. I have taken 0.22" off my partical board table surface running at 1" per second at 21,000 rps. It was noisy, BUT no burning, no smoke, lots of good chips, nice step free cut. I have since planed rough white cedar using the same bit at the same speed and depth. There are four edges on each cutting blade and after some nasty use I just changed to the second edge. Each set of two edges costs $0.80US. Onsrud are pretty much the best bits that I have found, especially this one. There is also another similar one with a slight upcut for a cleaner edge (90-004).

I hope that this helps.

[edcoleman]

David (or anyone else):

Does anyone have a source for the "Saf-T-Plane"?? Also, are they available in other diameters?

Thx

[swims@mindspring.com]

I thought that the Saf-T-Plane was only for use in a drill press. Putting one in a router sounds a bit scary to me.

I haven't checked, but you can most likely get one from Rockler, Woodcraft, or Stew-Mac.

[edcoleman]

Steve,

You're right, it is for a drill press, and that's how I was planning to use it. What I wanted to do was make a shallow circular pocket (3 to 6 inches diameter) in several pieces of wood. I thought that the Saf-T-Planer would allow me to do this, but after finding some pics and looking at the cutter layout I can see that it would not give me the flat bottomed pocket I was looking for. I wanted to do these cuts rather quickly in a production type enviornment, but I guess I'll have to do concentric circles with a smaller diameter cutter on the SB.

Thanks

-Ed

[waynesutter]

Ed, Concentric circles is a relatively slow method of pocketing. you could easily create a program that would rough out the pocket with a back and forth movement and then finish with an outside finishing pass. You could use a fairly large cutter (1 1/4") and do this very quickly depending on the depth you need.

Wayne

[danhamm@abccom.bc.ca]

I pocket out Fir tree limbs for "joke" lumberjack
coffee mugs, I have found that helical from center
with the last outside pass close together is the fastest.. multi passes for 4in.deep mugs..