Router feed direction - conflicting information

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Dave Bagwill
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Joined: Tue Dec 13, 2011 7:44 pm

Router feed direction - conflicting information

Post by Dave Bagwill » Wed Jun 26, 2013 10:48 pm

From the Router Table Depot:

It sounds basic, but when you invert your router into to your table for the first time it can be daunting to know which direction you should feed the stock.
Here is the tried and true rule
Feed the wood into the router from Right to Left.
You want to feed your wood against the rotation of the bit.

From Woodcraft:
On a router table, bits spin counterclockwise. For routing the outside edges of a work- piece then, you’ll feed the wood from the left side of the table to the right side. Doing this forces the bit to push the wood back against you.

I've looked at a number of websites, and find this conflicting information all the time.
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John Parchem
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Location: Seattle
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Re: Router feed direction - conflicting information

Post by John Parchem » Thu Jun 27, 2013 11:23 am

All of that right and left gets confusing, the line that I like from above is "You want to feed your wood against the rotation of the bit.
"
I would hate to have my hands pulled into the bit.

But yes the direction of feed will change if you are cutting on the inside or the out side of a board. If you look at a slowing spinning bit one side the cutting edges will be going away from you the other side the cutting bits will be coming toward you.

Kevin in California
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Joined: Mon Dec 19, 2011 4:19 pm

Re: Router feed direction - conflicting information

Post by Kevin in California » Thu Jun 27, 2013 1:01 pm

I just do what my little router table tells me. Printed on it says "Never feed from this side" (the left side).
I never argue with my router table.

Kevin

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