Craftsman 315.175170 Operator's Manual page 21

FEEDING TOOSLOWLY
See Figure 21.
It is possible to spoil a cut by moving the router forward
too slowly. When you advance the router Into the work too
slowly, the revolving cutter does not dig into new wood
fast enough to take a bite; instead, it merely scrapes sway
sawdust-like particles. Scraping producas heat, which
can glaze, burn, or mar the cut and In extreme cases, can
overheat the cutter, dastroy'mg its hardness.
When the cutter is scraping instead of cutting, controlling
the router is more difficult. With practically no load on the
motor, the cutter revolvesat close to top RPM, and has
a much greater than normal tendency to bounce off the
sides of the cut (especially if the wood has a pronounced
grain with hard and soft areas). As a result, the cut pro-
duced may have rippled, instead of straight, sides.
Feeding too slowly can also cause the router to take off in a
wrong direction from the intended [(neof cut. A(ways grasp
and hold the muter firmly with both hands when routing.
You can demot when you are feeding the router too slowly by
the runaway, high-pitched sound of the motor or by feeling
the wiggle of the cutter in the cut.
TOOSLOW Fig. 21
DEPTH OF CUT
,SeeFigure#22- 23.
Depth of cut is importantbecause it affects the rate of
feed that, In turn, affects the quality of the out and the
possibilityof damage to the tool's motor and cutter.
DEPTH
0FCUT
WIDTHOFCUT
Fig. 22
2ND
PASS
A deep out requiresa slower feed than a shallow one. A
cut that is too deep will slow the feed so that the cutter
is scraping ratherthan cutting. A too deep out can cause
sma((ercutters to be broken off. Cutters that are 1/16 (n.
in diameter are easily broken off when subjected to too
much side thrust. A largeenough cutter is not likely to
break, but attempting a out that Is too deep may result
in s rough cut, and it may be difficultto guide and con-
trol the cutter as desired. It is recommended that you do
not exceed 1/8 in. depth of cut in a single pass, regard-
lessof the cutter size or the softness or condition of the
workpiece.
2ND
PASS
18T
PASS
Fig. 23
To make deeper cuts, make as many successive passes
as needed, lowering the cutter 1/8 in. for each new pass.
To save time, perform all the cutting necessary at one
depth setting before lowering t'necutter for the next pass.
Thiswill Insure a uniformdepth when you complete the
final pass.
NOTE; Do not remove more than 1/8 in. in a single pass.
Excessive depth of cut can result in loss of controland the
possibilityof sedous personalInjury.
21