# Tear out when routing end grain cuttin board



## RealCom (Jun 18, 2009)

Hi folks,

I have been trying to put a 1/4 round on my cutting boards. One that I have the biggest problem is curley Maple and Purple Heart in a checkerboard pattern set up as end cut. When I route the edges they tearout pretty bad. Any ideas of what I am doing wrong?

Thanks in advance.

Ralph


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## curiousgeorge (Nov 6, 2006)

Ralph, I have a couple of suggestions...
1. Start your routing on the end grain first. That way if there is any tear out the pass along the sides will take care of it.
2. Take smaller bites and make several passes.


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## RealCom (Jun 18, 2009)

Thanks, I set it to take smaller bites and faster speed and it seems to be much better.


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## RealCom (Jun 18, 2009)

I ended up using a Roman Ogee bit instead of the 1/4 round and my cutting boards came out fine. The Ogee cut actually gives a little handle all the way around the boards. I would post pictures of the boards if I could figure out how to post pictures.


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## harrysin (Jan 15, 2007)

Ralph, it is permissible when finishing an end grain cut to feed in the opposite direction making sure if it's on the table to hold the wood firmly and have a starting pin or the fence to guide the wood into the cutter. If hand held the wood must be firmly clamped, I don't recommend so called router mats for this operation, and the router must be held firmly.
What George said about routing the end grain first is important and applies to all projects.


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## AxlMyk (Jun 13, 2006)

Use a scrap of wood as a backer block to help prevent tearout.


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## junyab (Jun 16, 2009)

harrysin said:


> Ralph, it is permissible when finishing an end grain cut to feed in the opposite direction making sure if it's on the table to hold the wood firmly and have a starting pin or the fence to guide the wood into the cutter.QUOTE]
> 
> This method was used when my father in law and I did a cutting board...worked great.


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## harrysin (Jan 15, 2007)

It's nice to receive confirmation that suggested methods really do work Jaimie.

Mike, being a cutting board I assumed that it would have round corners.


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## RealCom (Jun 18, 2009)

Thanks guys for all you help. 

Below in the end product (s). The first one is the one I was having a problem with. You can see that it is all end-grain and that I sanded down the corners because one of them got ripped off when first routing. The others are not and had no problem with them


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