The Spinning Blade of Death
That’s what I call the monster router bit I bought to do the panels for the cabinet doors. I’m accustomed to working with little ogee bits and small rounder overs and straight bits. This thing must be 4-inches across and it has two sets of blades so it cuts the front and back of the panel at the same time.
I had to make a new fence for the router table because the original one was not big enough to accept this bit. I also extended the size of the table so the panel would have more area to rest on.
When you turn it on the bit makes this odd humming noise and creates a vortex that sucks in surrounding dust and debris. Then you kind of clinch up every muscle in your body and ease the board in to it. It cuts very nicely, but throws off incredible amounts of shavings and saw dust. Frankly, I was just glad when it was all over. 
The good news is, the doors are done and they are hung. This was definitely a learning experience for me. I’m thinking next time I’ll make a template out of quarter-inch MDF or something. I can use the template for both the face frame and the door.
Now that the cabinet is done there is nothing standing between me and paint. The good people at FedEx sent me an email telling me my tin ceiling will be here by Friday. Unless they are filthily, lying bastards I can start to put that up next weekend. That is, if I can get the room painted by then.
After that I have the floor, and I need to rewire a ceiling fixture. Then this baby will be done!
5 comments:
Neato.
I haven't used a large panel bit like that before. But I hear that you need to adjust the speed to be lower - did you do that and how did it work?
I can't help it... I have to ask... Is there a reason you didn't center the cabinet on that wall? Sorry, my anal retentive nature is kicking in.
I'm glad your doors are finally done. I can't WAIT to see the painted finished product!
Nick,
I went full speed. At first I was going to do it in two passes. First do a partial cut and then the full depth. Maybe when the bit is a little older and not as sharp I would do that.
Al,
I went back and forth on that. If I centered it, I would have a 4-inch gap on the left. There is another cabinet that goes underneath it that is the same width. It just seemed like wasted space and one more place for things to get lost in, and some place that is hard to clean.
Good call on the hard to clean :)
Good stuff that. Very nice job. Lots of dust.
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