routing problem

[LCHIEN]

OK, here's the problem:

I/m routing a 1/2" roundover on three sides of the end of basically a 2x4 for a table leg for kids stuff.

I'm using a fence with the roundover bearing bit because:
1. It's hard to do the short and skinny sides freehand - the safety pin can't be close enough to work
2. The long edge is a stopped roundover so I need the fence to clamp a stop block to.

THe procedure is that you do the short ends first so any chip out gets hidden.
Then you do the four long sides...
The problem is that you kind of expect the corners to be like a quadrant of a sphere but in reality you get a pointy thing. Because I think on the long edge instead of following the roundover around the end you go straight due to the fence.


The only reasonable way I could think of to get it to the expected nice round corner was to use a rasp and just visually make it right which was kind of slow. I tried a 1" belt sander and there was just too many degrees of freedom - it tended to make flat spot and looked awful.

I was hoping to find a power tool way to do this quickly and cleanly.

I think maybe I should have removed the fence, put the safety pin back in and ran the end of the long sides around the ends to round it off nicely.

Anyone have a comment about this?

[Cochese]

I think maybe I should have removed the fence, put the safety pin back in and ran the end of the long sides around the ends to round it off nicely.

Anyone have a comment about this?

My comment would be this is what you need to do. As long as the bit has a bearing, it's not really that awful of a job to do. I did a roundover on some scrap ply I had to transform into a manger and discarded the starting pin a minute or so into it. Use a small parts holder (clamped to a larger piece, what have you) and you won't have too much of an issue. Just remember not to climb cut.

You're probably going to still have to file a bit down, because the corner won't completely disappear if I remember the last time I tried it. The bearing needs to follow an already rounded corner.

[LCHIEN]

Yeah, I removed the fence and was able to freehand easily even without a pin. Whoa, you say, isn't that dangerous?

Not really, that little bit of a piece of wood left to be removed is very small and there's no tendency to grab at all, it's very easy to control in that circumstance.
Basically you can push a routed portion all the way to the bearing with any grabbing and then move just a bit sideways and around the corner without encountering significant resistance or grabbing.

I cleaned up my rasp work and it looks and feels a lot better. I feel better.