Roundover Challenge

Peter Gunn

Dave: I was going for no roundover on the first 3 1/2" from the top curve on the inside edges--the back edge of the inside face and the front edge of the inside face. That may not be real clear. Probably best to post the finished product when I finish the product. Too busy building the last 3 days.

Jeff: Thanks for the info re weld.rb. That'll make a big difference.

Dave R

Peter, how are you making the stopped radiused edges for real? Are you finishing up the last little bit by hand?

Peter Gunn

Just marking the point on either edge where I want the roundover to begin and doing the deed on the router table. I do a climb cut on one edge because of the direction of the grain.

Dave R

So then the end of the cut would be as I drew it. Because of the spinning cutter, it won't stop with a flat face.

Peter Gunn

Dave: Oh, I get it now. Yes, the path is rounded out of the cut. Not like a stopped chamfer. So you drew that path in a scaled up model and used followme?

Dave R

Peter, yes. I drew the leg up to the point where I was ready to run Follow Me. Actually I drew it half thickness. I included a 1/4" radius are at the end of the path where the router would stop. Then I scaled it way up before running FM. I scaled it up by measuring the 7/16" thickness with the Tape Measure tool. I enter 1000 and hit enter to scale it up. After running Follow Me, Intersect and deleting waste, I measured that same line again, Entered 7/16 and hit Enter to scale it back down. Then I copied (Ctrl+Move) the half, flipped it, moved it into place and deleted the seam line.

When you are drawing these sorts of details think about the tool you would use in the shop and how it will move. Or how the wood will move relative to the tool.

I didn't do it in the example but if I were drawing that leg for a project of my own, I would probably redice the segment count for the roundover to no more than 6 segments. It won't look pretty up close but when viewed as part of an entire project, you won't be able to see the difference. It'll keep file size down and performance up.