Horizontal or Vertical Router Bit

[pcombs]

I am planning in building raised panel cabinet drawer fronts. I have a 2 1/4 hp router.

From experience, what is safer/easier - horizonal or vartical router bits? I am planning on buliding about a 1" to 1 1/4" length to about 1/4" deep raised panel.

[pelligrini]

I believe a horizontal bit is better for the panels. It's not easy standing a large panel on edge. One drawback with a horizontal bit is that some need a fairly large bit opening in the table. Verify your clearances before spending a bunch on a set of bits, unlike I did when I picked up a nice CMT set.

[LCHIEN]

its always easier to lay the large area on the table flat and not have to stand it on edge.

Thus a horizontal bit in a conventional table OR a vertical bit in a Horizontal table (like the one sold at www.mlcswoodworking.com) is best.

Other than a special table, using the vertical bit allows higher RPM cutter speeds and a smaller opening in the table, both some advantage to that, you just need the special table.

If I were doing a lot of edge mortises and raised panels I'd get or build a vhorizontal mount router table.

If I only had a standard vertical mount table, I'd probably use the horizontal bits to keep the panel flat on the table.

[dbhost]

Horizontal, and take a couple of light passes before the final cut. Cut accross the grain first so you can clean up any tear out...

[pcombs]

How about the table saw method - a good combination blade?

[Popeye]

How about the table saw method - a good combination blade?

I've done it, making cove cuts with a special fence and the bevel panel cuts. It works, a bit more sanding though. I did all 15 of the drawer fronts on my kitchen cabinets with a vertical panel raising bit in the router table. I attached a taller fence to my router fence and made the cuts in three passes. Alot of time standing in the same place but I had very little sanding and the results were great IMO. Pat

[leehljp]

ON a vertical fence, place two 1/8 in pieces of ply against the fence with a cutout at the bit. Run the boards through, remove one of the 1/8 boards, run again, then remove the last and run again. If you are confident of your work, use a single 1/4 piece of spacer plywood against the fence.

This way, the bit stays perfect in relation to the fence and final output and you don't have to keep re-setting the fence.

You could do the same thing for a router table top by adding a 1/4 ply spacer sheet for the horizontal bit and then removing it for the second pass.

[Tamarack]

I gave this subject a lot of thought myself and decided to bite the bullet last week when MLCS offered their horizontal mount router table on sale, it arrived monday but is not assembled yet. I got the horizontal raised panel bit set in the package and talked them into adding the upcut spiral bit set with the same type of big sale discount. I didn't want to try doing a lot of raised panels by holding them vertically against the fence. It seems that Murphy (as in Murphy's law) lives in my shop and the walnut I hope to be using is too expensive for excessive errors.

Paul