# Removing unwanted wood ...



## ixplorer (Jun 26, 2011)

Hi
Going to be routing a wavy line... about two metres long... and every thing above the line to to "go" ... whats below the routed line... stays... whats the easiest, cleanest and fastest way to remove it all... going to be about 10" by 6 ft long of 8-12mm thick cut away required... and i would prefer NOT to rout it all off... as that will mean about 500 "passes" with the router to get rid of it all and there will no doubt be little router join lines where i missed bits and it all has to be cleaned up... any ideas ?

Cheers from New Zealand

g


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## CharleyL (Feb 28, 2009)

Make a template of hardboard with the wavy shape that you want on your part. Attach it to the stock with brads or double sided tape. Rough trim the excess material with a band saw, etc. until it is within 1/4" of the template. Use a flush trim bit in the router to remove the rest with the bearing following the edge of the template.

Charley


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## ixplorer (Jun 26, 2011)

I possibly cut a corner on what i want... that would be a perfect answer for another application though !

How to explain... I want to rout the line down area to be say 2" thick... [so the wood remains untouched]... but from the wavy line upwards... the wood will be cut to a thickness of say 1 1/2" so for the top ten inch height of wood ... it will be that thickness down to the wavy line... i did think to rout the whole area... and then just use a sander to perfect the surface... but i see alot of work...

Cheers
g


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## TomE (Dec 17, 2010)

Is it necessary to actually carve out the wood or can you just laminate another 1/2" thick board with a wavy edged top to get the effect you're looking for.


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## ixplorer (Jun 26, 2011)

TomE said:


> Is it necessary to actually carve out the wood or can you just laminate another 1/2" thick board with a wavy edged top to get the effect you're looking for.


Yup i thought of this today... although it is doing something i didnt want to do... joining wood ...i want the routed edge to taper softly into the flat upper portion of it...  amazed no one has an answer to this problem that I would have thought was common.

g


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## CharleyL (Feb 28, 2009)

You need to better describe what you want to do. I thought that I understood, but you don't agree. Please try to explain it again.

Charley


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## TomE (Dec 17, 2010)

I agree with Charley, it's a little tough to figure out exactly what it is you're doing.



BTW, if you do laminate the wood, you can rough cut the wave on the 1/2" piece, apply it, then route down the rough edge to the desired level using whatever method and bit you had planned to blend the joint into the already smooth face of the 1-1/2" board. 

Similar process to a bowl turner stacking multiple rings of different woods in a rough shape then working to the finished product on the lathe.


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## CharleyL (Feb 28, 2009)

Removing unwanted wood is what we all do to build a project and we use all kinds of woodworking tools to do it. Somewhere inside those pieces of wood is the project that we can see in our mind and we use tools to remove the wood that doesn't look like what is in our mind.

Charley


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