When you put more than one profile on the same edge with a bearing guided router bit, the order you cut them in decides whether the second cut works at all. I relearned that on a pair of figured walnut drum caddies, and it is the most useful thing in this session.

The bearing needs something to ride on

Each caddy gets a rabbet so it can sit into its shelf, and a small round over on the top edge. Both cuts use a bit with a guide bearing, and that bearing rides along an uncut part of the edge.

Here is the trap. Cut the wrong profile first, or set the second bit at the wrong height, and the bearing drops into the space the first cut just removed. Now it has nothing to follow, and it will happily eat the rabbet you just made.

So before you turn the router on, look at the edge and ask which surface each bearing is going to ride on, and make sure the earlier cut leaves that surface alone. On these I left enough meat for the round over bearing to run below the rabbet. I have messed this up more than once, which is how I learned it.

Measure your stock before you write the CAM

I cut both caddies on the Onefinity from a Fusion file I had already proven on a scrap of oak bookshelf. What I did not do was measure the walnut. Fusion thought it was 3/4. It was 7/8, about 22 mm.

The cut still came out, but now the part was too thick for the flush trim bit to clean up comfortably. The fix was to run both pieces through the planer down to a true 3/4, which is what I should have done before any of this. Measure twice, cut once applies to the stock setup too.

When a program works, do not touch it

For the second caddy I could have adjusted the model for the thicker stock. I did not. I ran the exact same program, because I am still new to CAM and it had just worked. I would rather do a little cleanup by hand than rock the boat.

And I cut two. This one is for a client, so there is a spare in case one goes sideways.

Holding an odd shaped blank

The plan was double sided tape. That did not work well the last time I tried it on this machine, so these ended up clamped down with a mix of regular clamps and 3D printed hold downs, plus the reference pins on one corner. Printing your own clamps is a cheap way to experiment before you buy anything. You do not have to build the perfect workholding setup all at once.

The clamps got in the way of dust collection, so for one run I just held the hose. Not elegant. It worked.

Use the wood furniture cannot

These blanks are highly figured walnut from where a branch meets the trunk. That flame figure comes from compression in the tree, and it carries a lot of tension. When you mill it for furniture it tends to hockey stick, so you end up cutting it off.

Small parts like drum caddies are the perfect home for it. It is how I justify dragging all that wood down from the farm and milling it myself.

Put the good bearing on the good bit

I had a cheap no name rabbeting bit that came with a nice set of bearings, and a Bosch rabbeting bit that was set up for something I rarely do. The bit on the cheap one was bad. The bearings were fine. I moved the bearing onto the Bosch bit and it cuts much cleaner.

Router bits need to cut cleanly, because a bit that grabs is how you get hurt.

Metric, imperial, whatever works

Fusion will convert units for you. Type a dimension in whichever system you measured in and it handles the math, so you are not converting by hand every time. The real hurdle is training your brain to know how long 220 mm is. I think in millimeters more and more, mostly because so many tools ship with both scales now. I am an IT guy. Everything is a tool for a job.

My go to tape has both scales on it, and the numbers read the same whether you hold it left or right handed.

Grandpa Carver and the pocket knife

I keep an offcut on the wall marked with my own blood from a table saw mistake in 2020. Push sticks and grippers live right next to it. I come by the act first, think later gene honestly.

My grandpa Carver was born in 1916 and grew up farming. The story he told us grandsons was that a bull bucked while he was working with his pocket knife, and he stabbed himself in the leg. He drove himself to Miltonvale, Kansas, the doctor was out, so he drove on to Concordia, and by the time he got there the blood was crusting in his boot. After he passed, the family version came out: Grandma drove him, and he passed out on the way. Either way, he lost a lot of blood. There are a lot of stories like that about Grandpa Carver.

So: use the push sticks, and wear the gloves.

Tools from this session

Links below are Amazon affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases, which costs you nothing extra and helps keep the shop running.

• Bosch rabbeting router bit
• 1/8 inch round over bit
• Flush trim bit
• FastCap ProCarpenter tape, metric and imperial on one blade
• Double sided woodworking tape
• GRR-RIPPER push block
• Leatherman Skeletool and Leatherman Micra, the two I carry

Follow along

One guy in a small shop on his father-in-law’s property in Lindsborg, Kansas. IT Director by day, maker by obsession. Equal parts problem solver, craftsman, and curious human. If you’re the kind of person who takes things apart to see how they work, or watches people who do, you’re in the right place.

Uncut shop sessions go up on YouTube and I stream on Twitch. Everything is @carverwoodworking. There is merch in the shop, or you can buy me a coffee.