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Here are a few tips I would pass on.1) Us a piece of scrap to get the bit height right (you must be very precise here), then save the scrap for future use (i.e. I use a Craftsman 2.5 hp model at approx. This will get you very close - cut another scrap piece the same thickness you need for the real thing, to make sure, then cut what ever you need.2) Use the rip fence on the table saw to guide the piece through. You may need a bit of practice, but after a few cuts, you will know what to do. I bought this bit a few weeks ago.
Using the bit did involve a learning curve, but so far, so good. save a 3/4 scrap board for future 3/4 boards you want to glue up). If you are not sure, slower is better.4) Use a router with enough power. 22,000 rpma and it works fine.This bit is sharp, and with care, you last a long time. I use it with a Bench Dog Pro-Max router table extention I installed on by Ridgid Table saw.
Use the scrap board to align the bit height by laying the cut edge along side the installed bit and fitting it to the bit. Good luck. I use both fences (the table saw fence and the router fence) as a guide, but all you really need is the table saw fence.3) Use a nice, even feed rate - too fast and you risk tearout, too slow and you risk burning.
Then push your router down until the blade touches the surface, and lock it down.2) Measure--precisely--the thickness of the wood that you are joining. Add that to the wood thickness (22), and you get 30 mm.4) Now, using your router adjustment, raise your router base by the amount calculated--in the above example, 30 mm. But my hands-down choice for big pieces like tabletops is the glue joint bit. Major stress reduction.Hope that these suggestions are comprehensible and useful.
With a good glue and a straight cut line, the joint is plenty strong, automatically aligns your wood, and creates a practicallly invisible glue joint. It helps--greatly--to have a thickness planer to ensure that your boards are all of the same thickness.To set it at the correct height, here's a way:1) After putting the bit in your router, find a hard, flat surface (like a flat board or the surface of your table saw). EXAMPLE: The wood you want to join is 22 mm thick. First, you don't need a router table to use it. Happy woodworking.
Add this thickness to the thickness of the pieces you want to join. I use the finger joint occasionally for short pieces (like cutting boards), and when I use it, I usually dilute the glue to make it easier to spread and squeeze out. It speeds up the whole operation because you won't waste your time trying to get the pieces aligned while your glue is drying. There are some things you should know before purchasing. While a finger joint provides more surface area, it also provides a very long path for the glue to navigate when squeezing the clamps, and the glue takes more time to get into a finger joint, meaning it can start to set up.
I use the Eurkekazone guide, but you can get by with the edge of a commercial piece of plywood if it's well-cut.Now, the whole key to using this bit is setting it at the correct height, because you want it perfectly centered, as you will be routing half your edges from the top and the other half from the bottom. This is one of my most-used bits. A micrometer is nice for this.3) Take the thickness of your wood, subtract it from the thickness cut by this bit (1.5 inches, or 38 mm), and divide by 2. Subtract that from 38 to get you 16. I would not join a tabletop together without it. The bottom line is that when you clamp over a finger joint, excess glue may not completely squeeze out, and the glue line can be more obvious.
But you will need a straight edge, as long as your joint. Divide that by 2 to get 8. If after routing your joints and pushing your pieces together, you find that your pieces are slightly staggered (every other one alternately high or low), pass the appropriate side through the planer to even things up to perfection before gluing.I have a finger joint bit as well, but for most applications, I prefer the glue joint bit. This will center the bit exactly if you are careful.If you are joining multiple pieces and some have to be joined on both sides, always route the glue joint for that piece of wood from the same side (that is, either top or bottom).
It also enhances the surface area moderately, thereby adding some strength. In plain words, a flat top without irregular seam ridges to try and sand out. Clamping is of course an answer, but is only effective if you clamp the heck out of nearly the entire surface. I had bought this Freud reversible glue up joint bit as part of a cabinet set.
In conclusion, use this glue up joint bit to align your boards, and mildly enhance the glue surface. Normally when clamping, one board might sit a little higher, or lower than the one next to it. It appears that the finger joint bit would do the job of increasing surface area a little better. You must take the time to get the registration right. Although I admit that you are slightly increasing the amount of board surface to glue up, it is not really significant enough to make a substantial difference in the strength of the joint. This glue joint bit is excellent for aligning board surfaces.
The problem is getting the glue seams on multiple boards to sit flush. If you are fortunate enough to own a huge drum or belt sanding stationary machine, you enjoy the advantage of being able to pass your table top through the sander to level the edges. The advantage of the Frued glue joint bit, is that it will give you a perfect alignment of the boards. From what I see, most people are considering this bit to be an alternative to biscuit joinery. For further strength, use it in conjunction with biscuits. Since most of us don't have that advantage, it would be reassuring to know that the irregular face of the bit forces the alignment of the individual boards.
Adding biscuits would give you even more strength.Hope this helps. To prep to use this bit, is to plane the boards, all at the same time, to a final even thickness, and then used the reversible glue up joint bit, you would wind up with a table top that would only need a light sanding.
Once set up, it was very clean and precise over the entire length of panel. It also produced a jointed like edge on the mating surfaces after routing. That is great. This bit is nice, however, it was a little bit hard to set up. When I raised the panel after glue up, the joint was invisible. Very nice. No glue lines visible.
If your're off by a hair, your error is mutlplied twice by the same error on the other board. If you are interested in this type of edge glueing you might also want to take a look at the company's other offerings, particularly the finger joint edge glue bit. I assumed it was 1/2 the overall height.To be fair, this is a well made bit with plenty of heft. More glue surface means a stronger joint.The problem is that one must be exact with the positioning of the bit.and I mean exact. The concept is appealing.
Running it around 18000 rpm produced the best performance. Treat your edges with this bit and glue them together. In addition, the cut of the bit takes off about 1/8" off each board. This bit does not need to be exacrly centered but raised or lowered 7/32" to provide a match. It also would have helped if the company published the center point of the bit.
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