Does anyone out there have experience with a lock miter router bit. Bought a Freud and have never used one or seen one used. Looking for hints on set up in a router table and also operating tips.. Thanks guys.
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Once ya get it dialed in, save some off cuts for the next time, makes it go much faster.
Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations
They kill Prophets, for Profits.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dj_oEx4-Mc4
Yes. Make sure your wood is perfectly perfect and clamp featherboards tightly onto the table both sideways and vertically when you send it through the table. The important thing is not to let any wandering into the cut. I know that should always be the case, but with this, there's no forgiving because you have to mate the two.
Otherwise, it works great. I know the quality can vary from where you bought it from.
Jer thanks for the input. You said something that has me puzzled. You said the quality varies on where you bought the bit. Did you mean that one Freud bit might be different from another Freud bit depending on where you bought it from or just that different manufactures might be different?
I agree with everyone (Boy, I must be a really nice guy to be around!) about saving scraps. And don't be ashamed to buy the pre-cut setup blocks -- they're WAY cheaper than the time it’ll take you to get there without them.A few more points:1) If you can run the wood on a shaper, do it.2) If you've got a power feeder, use it.Either or both of the above will lead to a cleaner cut/better fit.3) Also, one of my pet peeves is that these bits are ground perfectly. That's a problem? Well, yeah! -- Don't you back-cut your miters a bit? Chop a little hollow into your dovetails?My solution is to set up the cut a little out-of-square: use a sacrificial auxiliary fence, and shim it out at the bottom with a slice or two of an index card, coffee-stirrers, etc. The narrower the board, the less you’ll shim.As long as you’re subtle, you won’t weaken the glue joint. The very tip (the only part you’ll see) will be tight, and it’s so thin that it’ll bend as the rest of the joint is clamped all the way home. Theoretically, the corners will flare out a hair, but you’ll be sanding that corner down anyway.The only catch is that you still want to glue up square. If you’re gluing a four-piece post all at once, just check it with a square as you’re clamping. If you’re gluing up only two pieces at a time, use internal blocks, either temporary or permanent, to keep things square.AitchKay
No, different manufacturers make a difference is what I meant. Like buying a DeWalt 10" blade or a Forrest. A world of difference.
So who are the ones to buy from? Who should we steer clear of?
Are you talking about the miter lock bits or router bits in genereal??Live by the sword, die by the sword....choose your sword wisely.
Amana Tooling makes CNC bits that are really high quality, they use the better carbide and the tooling is dead on. I think that's what my lock-miter bits are.
Freud isn't bad, I have a bunch of their bits.
I have wondered about Woodtek but never tried them.Steer clear of the Taiwanese specials offered in various catalogs like Northern Tools or Harbor Freight. I have been taken in by these many times over the years and the carbide doesn't last, or it's tooled badly. The worse is to get a bit where the shank is actually skewed a little....very dangerous that. It happened to me once. Most of my router work these days is with the smaller bits that have 1/4" shank, straight cuts, round-overs, chamfers etc and for those I don't mind getting what I can at the local hardware or box store. They wear out, I get new ones. Since I've moved to this area I can't seem to find s good sharpening service that really knows how to handle router bits.But for the bigger production jobs that require router table only, I try and always get the higher end bits. You're usually pushing miles of material through them.A good router table is great, but for ongoing shop work a shaper is the thing to have.
There's a GREAT sharpening service ( or was) up on Spinnerstown Rd. In Spinnerstown. Go to RT 663 from 309 in Quakertown, head towards the PA Turnpike, Spinnerstown is just on your right. I thik there is a light at Milford Square.
Anyway, make a RT on Spinnerstown Rd, and up a few miles on the Left is the shop, they also do custom welding IIRC. Sorry I can't recall the name anymore.
Also around Souderton or Telford was a shop that did all the sharpening for Shelly and Fenstermacher's millwork shop, It WAS called Landis Sharpening, but I think Glenn sold it to a new owner..I went to HS with Glenn and he was very good, I'm sure the new owner would be of the same caliber.
I finally found a good guy here, it only took what? 4 yrs?Spheramid Enterprises Architectural Woodworks
Repairs, Remodeling, Restorations
They kill Prophets, for Profits.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dj_oEx4-Mc4
Thanks man. I've got it saved on my 'puter.
http://www.amanatool.com/jointing.html
Jer- thanks for the clarification. The reason why I asked is that in searching for that bit I found the price from $115 to $47. Pays to shop I guess.
There is another one that I use...Whiteside bits. Made in the good 'ol USA. Not real cheap but high quality.http://www.routerbits.com/cgi-routerbits/loadpage.cgi?1225541898_15969+home.htm
What Duane said.
(he always has better ideas and thinks of the obvious, obtuse & abstract all at once.)
Go here: http://www.jesada.com/instructions/lock_miter.html
Have "fun"! Make sure you have LOTS of scraps to use for setup. ;-) <--- evil grin
Mike Hennessy
Pittsburgh, PA
Edit: Here's the one I was looking for, but it took me a while to find: http://www.woodshopdemos.com/cmt-lm5.htm
Here's another I just found. I've never seen this tool before, but it may be worth a try. It looks kinda cool, actually. Heck, anything is worth a try to simplify the setup of these suckers. http://www.ptreeusa.com/freud_easy_set.htm
Edited 10/31/2008 7:34 am ET by MikeHennessy
Edited 10/31/2008 7:55 am ET by MikeHennessy
I bought locking mitre bits from Eagle America and they came with plastic blocks that were cut to the same profile. When you set up your bit on the table use the plastic "guide" then the fine tuning is all done for the matching cuts that you do on the mating surfaces.
You can do the same thing with scraps. I'm inexperienced and chose the easy way.
First, make sure all your material is the same thickness. It'll work if its not; its just much easier if it is.
The trick I read somewhere is to run a test piece thru on flat, cut it into 2, flip 1 over, and see if the faces of your workpiece then line up. If they don't, adjust the height of the lock miter bit until they do. This is where you'll need a lot of scrap, at least the first time.
Once you have the height set, adjust the fence so you get a knife edge on your workpiece.
Then run your pieces.
It took me over an hour for setup the first time I used a lock miter bit. I saved some pieces for gage blocks, so its much faster now.
Take a look at these instructions for the Lee Valley lock miter bit
http://www.leevalley.com/shopping/Instructions.aspx?p=51601
Go to this great woodworking and tool review and demos site, and find the sequence where the author shows, in pictures and words, exactly how it is done without a set-up block.
It is exacting work done right, involving a height adjustment to the thousandths of inches. Very frustrating, too, without some advice like what the guy at Demos gives.
Hire some assistants, too, like he does.
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"A stripe is just as real as a dadgummed flower."
Gene Davis 1920-1985
Nice site. I'll have to browse it some more.And that technique does look faster for setting bit height. But that's only one of the settings. I wonder if he does a similar run with two vertical test pieces to set the fence, or if he just figures that the height adjustment is the harder one to make, and the fence adjustment will be easy once the height is right. (?)Next time I run some lock joints, I'll play around with his technique.But I'll still cheat the fence out of plumb to backcut my miters!AitchKay
With a lock miter bit, once you have height, the rest is easy as pie.
I never make the whole cut with one setup, but move the fence so as to take it in two or three passes.
And of course, the primary thing is to have your stock milled to the same exact thickness.
I've never tried a fence tilt. Lock miters, when cut with a square fence, seem to go together with hairline precision.
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"A stripe is just as real as a dadgummed flower."
Gene Davis 1920-1985
Part of what I was up against was that I was making fairly tall columns. And I was using maple, where the glue joints really show up. I'd imagine that with furniture-size work, it would be a lot easier.Mission oak furniture would be even more forgiving.AitchKay