What Router Bits Should You Buy?

hey there David teal in the pop wood shop and it's time to talk to router bits so you just spend 120 bucks or so on a new trim router excellent good choice you're gonna use it a lot now the question is what bits do you buy you're in the store you're gonna find this maybe fifteen dollar set for around 50 bucks seems like a pretty good deal and it really isn't a bad deal because you've got a lot of different bits in there that you'll use in many many times there are even better deals out there too here's a 75 piece set for 70 bucks that's a pretty good deal but you can look at other sets there are five pieces for a hundred dollars now that should make you go hmm and wonder why there's a difference well there is a difference because bits are made differently they can be made with different carbide carbide itself can be made in a different formula the molecular bonding can be different the thickness that's in the carbide can be different it can be a smaller piece that doesn't go all the way across the bit and it will make a difference because I've got a few pieces here it will show you quite a bit of difference here's an example of a bit that has a little less than perfect carbide it's been used a fair amount no question about it but you can see where the carbide itself has just chipped away there's not a whole lot of carbide to set into the base of the the wing cutter in this case but with use it starts to chip away that's a cheaper carbide so that's something that well you're gonna pay for twice and you'll want to do that better carbide this is a 15 year old bit that may have been touched up once or twice but you can see that carbide is still in great shape bonds all the way down to the lengths here it's a good fit piece of carbide and it's gonna hold an edge for a long time that's worth your mind one other option of course you'll see these bits well there's no carbide on this guy this is a high speed steel if you're lucky yet that doesn't even have a bearing on it to get a guide it this is some well it didn't sharp anymore you're not gonna cut wood he can't even cut your fingers so this may be a great economy bit but walk away from it so that's carbide in a nut let's look at something else while 72 bits may sound really attractive let's be serious there's a few a handful I'm gonna say 5 bits that you really need all the time and those are the bits that I think you should start with and you should buy good quality that's right off the bat some of them come in sets honestly it's actually pretty tricky to find these five bits in anyone's starter set so you may not be able to find it in one package you may need to buy them individually a bit to start with is a straight foot and you're gonna find straight bits and different diameters this is a believe a 3/8 bit which I actually think is a good place to start although you could get a quarter-inch bit now this is for making grooves if you're making dedos and grooves that say you want them to be three quarters of an inch you may be tempted to buy a three quarter inch diameter pitch that's gonna cost you more money it's bigger bit and let's be serious if you take a 3/8 bit and make two passes you've got a three-quarter inch groove and that's a good thing if you have a quarter inch bit and it's a better deal you take three passes and you got three quarters of an inch to preside what size you want you can gauge it up to mix and match to get whatever size you finally do one so that's the street fit that's a good place to start and if you've got your guide set on it correctly you can use this as a trim bit tool to get veneer right up against the edge of something laminate in some cases too so this is a multi-purpose bit the next is a round over bit and you'll notice that there is a bearing on top of it you're gonna find round over bits in different diameters different radiuses as a matter of fact that's a 3/8 this is a half inch different realities what you need well you can make your round over bits do multiple things by backing them away you're gonna find out that it really is the profile that you're going to ultimately end up with that you want so you may actually need a couple of these but pick the one that you're going to use most often if you're working in 3/4 material there's a better bet that around over that the quarter-inch are 3/8 at the most is what you're really gonna need that's plenty a 3/8 inch on a 3/4 inch piece you'll have a full bonus round over on that front edge so that's more than enough so look for the smaller and work up to what you really need and then you need an OG this is fun now they come in different sizes and different shapes and the nice thing about it is they're a great profile and you get you can do fun things with them to dress up a piece the other fun thing is you don't have to use the whole bit you can use parts of the bit to get different profile styles so if you want to pick and choose this part right in here that's great just used it a tip use the whole thing use this round over to make a little bit of a Cove set it up the way you want and you'll notice again it has a piloting bit on here the bearing so that's nice and useful you can run it right up against the edge the next bit you written need is a ravening bit this guy here is a pretty healthy lap rabbeting bit and the nice thing about this is one rabbeting bit will actually do multiple purpose as well because you'll notice this big old bearing on top here well it has an out little allen screw on top if you take this bearing and put it on here you take a much deeper rabbet you can have a set of bearings that can work into the same rabbeting bit and different sizes will be achieved comfortably so a good rabbiting bed is a good thing to do one more profile bit it's a chamfer bit and again these are gonna come in different angles and sizes so you might want to figure out which one you want and take it from there you may need more than that more than the one but a couple of sizes won't kill you pick the one that you like the most so this is my quick five piece set that i think that you could start with now let me say something about routers quick before we leave so on your trim router which will do most of the things that you want to do in the world you're going to find out that it has a quarter inch shank college that's great you can do an awful lot of things with a quarter inch bit there again hundreds and hundreds of profiles that will work fine in that quarter inch shank now you're going to hit a point where there's gonna be too much mass in that router bed to work in a quarter inch comfortably something like this this is too much bit for a quarter-inch that's why it has a half inch shank it's not gonna work in this router you're gonna need to look for something that's a little bigger like this guy here this is a horse and a half router it has the capability to run that half inch bit but you know what it also has the capability to run the quarter inch bit because these are sold with both quarter inch and 1/2 inch Kaulitz so you get a great tool for that - doesn't mean you have to start there but eventually you may want to get there so that's our quick look at router bits or at least the router bits that you should start with again that five piece set or the individual pieces to become your five piece set it's a great place to start buy decent quality and they'll take care of you but if you see the fifty dollar set and it's just really really tempting yeah it's not a bad deal either I'm saying both about that thanks for watching [Music]

Channel: Popular Woodworking

Views: 283,784

Keywords: Popular, Woodworking, router bits, routers, starter bits, choosing, straight, ogee, chamfer, rabbet

Id: _e277Joarvo

Length: 6min 57sec (417 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 11 2018