Cut in direction of grain!!!

[newood2]

I've heard this said many times by some of our more knowledgable partners on here. I've also found some articles on the web.
But I still run into problems when making final router cuts especially in edge profiles, stiles and raise panel. This is mainly with maple. With pine and oak it's easier to determine the direction of the grain.
With stile routing for example, it's after you start to cut you notice that it's going against the grain and your left with two options, sanding or discarding. You can't flip it around to cut in the opposite direction.
One other consideration I imagine would be to make the final cut about a 1/64" shave. I'm not sure this would help.
Test cutting sample on maple to determine grain direction can be a costly sacrifice.
So what am I doing wrong? How do you get around this?
Howie

[poolhound]

One other consideration I imagine would be to make the final cut about a 1/64" shave. I'm not sure this would help.

Howie

Taking off too much with each pass can cause problems with or against the grain. How much are you taking off with each pass? try more passes at less depth and yes a final "shave" cut can help.

Do make sure you are using good quality bits and that they are clean and sharp. 1/2" bits will be more stable than 1/4" (I would guess you already have 1/2" for raised panels). Hold the workpiece firmly, use featherboards to keep it snug against the fence and table.

Is your router firmly mounted in the table, likewise the plate and set SQ to table.

If you try and cut against the grain with some woods tearout is tough to avoid. Running a sample through to figure it out may sound expensive but less so than ruining a workpiece.

[Russianwolf]

You pretty much hit the answer that I use.

If I'm routing edges that I want to be perfect in the end, I make multiple passes. At least three with the final cut being a very shallow one. By making the multiple shallow passes, you are reducing the amount of leverage the cutter can put on the grain, so tearout is minimized.

[pecker]

You pretty much hit the answer that I use.

If I'm routing edges that I want to be perfect in the end, I make multiple passes. At least three with the final cut being a very shallow one. By making the multiple shallow passes, you are reducing the amount of leverage the cutter can put on the grain, so tearout is minimized.

I've never tried this with router bits, but when using a thickness planer on woods prone to tearout, brushing some water on the board and then taking a shallow cut definitely helps.

I wonder if wetting the board edge just prior to making that final, shallow pass might help in this case, too.

[Black wallnut]

I've been able to lessen chip out by creating a zero clearance fence opening.

[drumpriest]

It's not really chip out with maple, so much, as just rough fibers left on the curly material. I feel your pain. I have not tried wetting the wood either, but I'd be interested in hearing any results. I think you'd really need to do that just before the final pass, as in planing, only the surface needs raising. Small cuts is the best advise I can give, or avoid doing fancy profiles on wood prone to these issues.

[newood2]

It's not really chip out with maple, so much, as just rough fibers left on the curly material. I feel your pain. I have not tried wetting the wood either,

Yep, those rough fibers, I'll try the water damping before final pass.
Howie

[rnelson0]

The Freud QuadraCut bits are supposed to help with this. They have two up- and two down-cut blades which are designed to eliminate tearout and fiber fuzzies. I've read reviews that mark them highly, even considering their additional cost, but I have never used them myself.

I assume you're also, especially on a stile, cutting with a piece of scrap behind it just to prevent tearout in general?

[pecker]

One thing I did recently on some stiles, was to cut the full profile in one pass, then run that edge on the jointer to remove 1/32". Then back to the router table, where the stile bit re-milled the profile again. This is the equivalent of taking one last shallow cut without having to reset the router table fence.