Router Bit Help

randy street

Member
Messages
442
Location
Elgin, IL
I have just bought my first router and have a question. I have some wood thats 3/4" thick and want to round over the edges to look similar to the picture below. Which one of these bits would I get that are in the chart?

Round over bit.

Roundover1.jpg

Chart

Roundover2.gif

Thanks,

Randy
 
Last edited:
85594M, the 3/8" radius bit (assuming you have a 1/2" collet router). The pic you show could be 3/4" material with a 3/8" radius roundover, commonly called a 3/4" roundover. The area on the bit marked as "G" = 3/8".
 
Your original picture looks to me like the rounding comes all the way to the bottom of the board. If that is what you want, you need a 3/4" radius for a 3/4 inch board. Since you will be cutting the entire edge of the board, there is no place for the guide bearing to follow... the router would normally be mounted in a router table so you could use the router table fence.

In practice, almost all of the roundover work I do is with a 1/4 inch radius on a 3/4 inch board. In that case, there is plenty of edge left to guide the bearing and keep the cut straight.

If you are just starting, I suggest that you get a 1/4 inch radius roundover bit, and practice with that. For example, going around the corner (cut the end grain first, round the corners before rounding the top, etc.). If you really want a 3/4 inch radius like the picture, and don't have a router table, clamp another board under your work piece for the guide bearing to follow, but don't try that as your first cut.
 
Randy the only reason that I am posting is that I want to see if my eyesight is failing me or whether Glenn's or Charlie's is failing them! :rofl: I say that you are looking at a 1/2 in roundover. The upside of all of this is if this is your first router you can't have to many different roundovers in your collection. Let us know what it is, as a bet I have my very first Black and Decker router on the line here. That is if I can find it :)
 
If that is a 3/4" thick board in the example, it appears to me that the bottom 1/3 of it has a straight line on the edge, therefore leaving the top 1/2" radiused, So.........a 1/2" radius roundover would match the picture, (ie: the G dimension should be 1/2").
 
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