Good router bit for use with a Sled (sledge?)

[Stevekane]

Is it Sled or sledge,,sled sounds a bit american? Anyway Im fed up working with out of square timber, I dont have room for thicknessers/planers nor the inclination to break out the rusty plane, so Im making a Sled,,Ive got some larger rebate bits with a dia of around 20mm but Ive been looking at “Spillboard” bits on ebay (whats a spillboard?) not yer fancy £40 jobs but the cheap Chinese jobbies around £9 inc,,these are 3 or 4 wing configuration and I think around 40 or 50 mm dia on a 1/2ins shank,,I want to surface some oak,,,anyone have any experience of these?
Steve.

 

[TheTiddles]

Are you thinking of a 1/2” shank cutter with a 50mm bit effectively freehand?

I’d not personally, sounds a little too risky for my appetite.

How much are you wanting to prepare?

 

[Fitzroy]

I use a Yonico bottom cleaning router bit 1 1/2 inch for flattening slabs. About £15 on Amazon. I use it to do three big slabs and it’s still going strong, no chipping in the edge so far.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Are you thinking of a 1/2” shank cutter with a 50mm bit effectively freehand?
I’d not personally, sounds a little too risky for my appetite.

He did say he's building a sled.

 

[Stevekane]

Many thanks to you both for the speedy replies, yes I agree, a 2inch bit does sound to be a bit of a monster,,but I think many are smaller,,ish!
Fitzroy, Yonico sounds familiar,,is it a 3 or 4 wing job,,this sounds just the sort of thing Im looking at.
Ive not got a tremendous amount to do, 20ft of 3x3 plus a similar amount of 6 or 7ins boards, it doesnt have to be a perfect finish but square would be less of a headache!
Steve

 

[Stevekane]

Ive just looked at the Yonico bits, not winged at all and look more sturdy as a result,,
Steve

 

[Fitzroy]

I think they do the winged ones but I have no experience so can’t comment. I’ve done two 2.5m x 0.5m slabs, both sides, one oak and one sycamore and it held up well.

Using the technique for smaller boards could be pretty annoying and more troublesome. Going back and forth with multiple passes is a chore, you have to set the board level and it cannot more as you go end to end, a large slab has lots of mass to prevent this. I still hot melt glued mine in place. Not sure how you can get edges at 90degs with the method.

The 3x3 I’d say get yer plane out. The 6/7 inch boards would be the lower limit of where I think the set up would be worth the faff.
Fitz

 

[TheTiddles]

He did say he's building a sled.

Yes, freehand. The router won’t be held down to anything, no increase in mass, no reduced acceleration.

 

[Ollie78]

I would suggest a bit with replaceable knives/ cutters, you can turn them 4 times and then replace them cheaply when they finally die.
They seem expensive but will be cheaper in the end.

Scott and sargeant have some CMT ones at pretty good prices right now, I was browsing router bits yesterday on their site.
They do different diameter ones.

It's spoiboard by the way, it's the sacrificial surface on a cnc router. It needs to be co planar with the gantry. So you take a few mm off every now and again to keep it flat.



Ollie

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Yes, freehand. The router won’t be held down to anything, no increase in mass, no reduced acceleration.

It's hardly freehand when you're following fixed fences.

 

[TheTiddles]

It's hardly freehand when you're following fixed fences.

Call it what you like. If the router isn’t attached to something that increases its mass, a catch will accelerate the router and there won’t… oh I’m bored.

 

[JJ1]

For the sake of £9, it's got to be worth a try. If you decide it's not good enough for your needs and decide to go for something a little better. I can thoroughly recommend the surfacing bits from Wealdon Tools. I believe they used to do two different types. I can't remember off-hand which one I bought as it was quite sometime ago. However it performed superbly and surfaced several several long lengths of hardwood perfectly.

 

[JJ1]

I stand to be corrected and I'm the first to admit I don't have a fraction of the experience of a lot of the members here. But when I used my big Triton TRA001 with a 50mm surfacing bit in a sled to surface long wide planks. I didn't feel in any way it was unsafe to do so, or I wouldn't have attempted it. After all, it's hardly freehand when the router is mounted on quite a substantial sled with strong support below and on either side. Just a little common sense is needed, i.e. select the appropriate speed on the router for the diameter bit you're using and take small amounts of wood off with each pass. No more dangerous, in fact, probably much less so than trying to manually feed an 8 ft x 1ft wide thick heavy plank across a router table.

 

[clogs]

as JJ1 said a little and often....
I had a huge 3-4 in thick slab of Oak at least 10ft long x 24" plus wide....I needed the live edge, so it wouldn't go thru my 20" Wadkin planer...grrrrr...
fixed /locked the slab down so it wouldn't move or rock......
for the sled I used an upturned off cut of kitch work top....nice n heavy...the rest was history......
I lived in France and couldn't wait for a bigger cutter so did it with a 25mm dia bit with a 3HP Hitachi router....
took a while but perfect result.....
just do it.....easy....

 

[Stevekane]

Many thanks everyone, Ive got an ebay £9 bit on order, chickened out with anything over 1.5inches and have to agree with Tiddles, there must be the possibility of very slight tipping with the bigger the bit the bigger the chance of it really catching, so Ive erred on the side of caution. Ive also gone for a Tri pattern 3 cutter type as these look to have quite a bit of mass behind the cutter bits,,but I will not be taking many liberties with it and light passes will be my intention. I will let you all know how I get on.

 

[Nelly111s]

If the eBay one doesn’t work, this one is good.
Wealden surfacing

 

[JJ1]

I really wouldn't be concerned with the router tipping. If the sled is well made, there's almost zero possibility of that happening.

 

[Stevekane]

I really wouldn't be concerned with the router tipping. If the sled is well made, there's almost zero possibility of that happening.

Yes I like the sound of that, well made and zero chance,,,thats a phrase I will try to remember,,,

 

[Stevekane]

Well its taken a week for the router bit to arrive and when it did I was mightily disappointed to find that the shank was very rusty and that there is a small chip on the corner of one tip,,Im waiting to hear back from the seller, he/she is uk based but clicking “contact the seller” connects you to the Chinese ebay site! Its a shame because apart from that its a good looking router bit. So Im stuck waiting, Sled is ready and Im raring to make the most of this glorious august weather!!
Steve.

 

[Stevekane]

Well its good news, the seller just repaid the paypal payment with an apology, and doesn't want the bit back,,,so Im planning on cleaning it up and give it a try,,it will be after the weekend now before Im free to get it all set up and will let you know how it goes.
Steve.