Thread: My first router

Neil, while the cheap sets are handy to get you started off , I recommend you buy one at a time from now on, and only buy good ones (depending on intended use of course).

For dovetail bits, it is easiest to first fun a narrow straight bit through (narrower than the top of the dovetail bit), then use the dovetail bit.

If you are keen on sets of bits, you may find some boxmaking sets in the Carba-tec catalogue.

Originally Posted by Groggy

Neil, while the cheap sets are handy to get you started off , I recommend you buy one at a time from now on, and only buy good ones (depending on intended use of course).

For dovetail bits, it is easiest to first fun a narrow straight bit through (narrower than the top of the dovetail bit), then use the dovetail bit.

If you are keen on sets of bits, you may find some boxmaking sets in the Carba-tec catalogue.

This is all sage advice, Neil.

The only thing I will add is that the cheap bits are great to play around on, however when I started I found that the cheap bits have shorter shaft lengths (and therefore give you less plunge depth) and are generally not as sharp, or don't hold their edge.

If you want some "good" cheap bits, try have a look at the Econocut range of bits - whilst they don't compare to the top quality ones, as far as extremely cheap bits go they are the best I have seen so far.

There are many other alternatives - I quick search through this forum on "router bits" will give you far more information than you wanted, but might be worth it for fun.

I hope you have fun with your new router.

Good luck,
sCORCH

Originally Posted by 3 cav 84a

G'day, new bloke here, I bought my first router yesterday and today I am having a play with it to see what does what. In the instruction manual that comes with it they say to go down in about 3 mm intervals which on hardwood I can understand but I can't see how this works on dovetail bits. From what I see they would have to be done in one pass to keep the angle, am I missing something here. Also to start off with I bought a kit with 15 bits in it fairly cheap stuff to practice with. What would be a decent set to get for doing the basics ie making boxes etc, thanks Neil

I bought a set from Northwood tools on EBay , for $29.95 they come in a wooden box . Northwood claim they are C3 carbide and have balanced bodies.
They have them on buy it now sometimes for $49.95
I havent used them extensively ,but I have done some work with them and so far found them to be quite good.
For doing box joints ,you can make a simple jig ,use a straight cutter of whatever size ,and use it on a router table ,if you have one.

All the above advice is great and your deductins about the dovetail bit are spot on.
If you are worried about dovetailing then you have acouple of options:

• Take the cut slowly, there's not much wood to remove over a short distance.
• If you are really worried and it is a wide d/tail you could run a straight bit through first to remove some of the wood. I would say that this only applies to sliding d/tail grooves.