Thread: cheap practice wood

Well for what it's worth, the incra has nothing to do with the cut so it's either your router bit (they are not all created equal) the timber or it's not being supported properly, in that order.

So if your bit is cheap or old I'd look there first. I assume the pine is clear grained ?

If it were me I'd find a small piece of something else, say eucalypt of some sort, and run that over your bit and see if it tears up. You only have to make one pass it'll work or not so the timber need only be small. If you can get some a small piece of rock maple, it's dense but tends to be pretty homogenous so if that tears anything will it's your bit. Mahogany works well ...

If other stuff works it might be your timber, but it's unusual. Pine machines ok as long as it's straight clear grain. Anything messy can machine unpredictably...

2c

From the Incra FAQ's
How easy is the system to learn? A: For the general routing you’ll be doing most, it takes maybe ten minutes to become familiar
with the system, and the accuracy and repeatability will spoil you on the very first day. For box joints and dovetails, give it an afternoon and practice with poplar before you get into the middle of an important project. The joinery instructions are clear, and the video is a fantastic companion. It’s not much different than learning to use a conventional dovetail jig.

Poplar may be a bit easier to get where you are.
Are you using a backing board? Try varying you feed rate into the bit.

The other thing that occurred to me is the bit support. If the collet or the router aren't right that could cause excessive tearout. Still most likely the bit or the wood.

okies, i've now gone out to my local wood store a preped a few diff types of wood. I've got soft maple, walnut, and poplar. I've tried the maple and poplar and i'm still getting the small fibers left on the wood. Perhaps i'll take some pics a show you all. Can some of you all list your perfered type of bits that work well for you?

I use the Whiteside Incra bits from Prof Woodworking. They are excellent

I have found that Pine is prone to leaving fibre edges depending on the router bit profile being used.
I was using a standard two cutter straight bit and getting copious edge fibres until I changed to a spiral bit. No more fibre edges.

Mike