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Palm Routers have proven to be the best power tool when it comes to woodcutting duties, craftsmanship or even DIYer’s. Besides, they play an important part in enabling you to get the best out of your projects. Additionally, they conform to places that other routers may not fit in such as creating profiles, trimming edges, cutting out joints and grooves, engraving surfaces, and many more. The lightweight feature might seem to be a limitation but that’s never the case since these routers are powerful enough to undertake the project at hand efficiently. Succinctly, these types of routers can be operated without any challenge.
What Are The Best Palm Routers?
To begin with, a router itself is an appliance that is used by woodworkers to get certain patterns and shapes. A palm router, therefore, is a wood router with a cognizant electric motor with a high spindle spinning power per minute and helps in reducing materials, trimming edges, creating profiles, freehand cutting, and smoothening wood surfaces.
Uses of A Palm Router
A palm router is subject to many uses despite being a small machine. It is the ideal tool to employ when handling numerous routing practices.
- it is used to produce fixed sizes of veneers with the help of flush trimmers
- helps in making clean cuts using laminate trimmers
- used by shops using CNC technology
How To Use A Palm Router
Below are the various ways through which you can operate the palm router to enable it to function effectively and efficiently.
Step1. Ensure Your Safety
Having yourself at the safest end of it is the fast and most important aspect to look into before beginning your work. This is done by wearing safety goggles, protective gloves as well as earmuffs. Also, you need to ensure that the router is rightly connected and has the required speed for work. After working on the correct settings then you are good to use the palm router.
Step2. Use a Sharp Router Bit
The inclusion of a sharp router bit ensures that there is a constant production of clean cuts and reduces the occurrence of tear-out risks. Besides, it plays an important role in ensuring the full potential running of machines with no energy wasted. When the bits are blunt, it means you will have to apply more energy to be able to move the router and it also does not produce a good impression of the cuts. You should also ensure that the bits are positioned correctly inside the collet to enhance the smooth operation of the machine.
Step3. Use Pilots
Being a beginner in the woodwork industry, you could be experiencing difficulties in cutting straight edges. It is commendable therefore that you involve the use of ball bearing and straight edge guides since it enables the constant maintenance of the workpiece and cutter distance. Most importantly, the product offers various options depending on the required distance.
Step4. Secure it on a Bench
Most woodworkers prefer running the router over the workpiece. This isn’t discouraged but it is advised that you position the router steadily on the table such that you can comfortably pass the workpiece without having any difficulties. This is ideal for ensuring that your piece of work is more versatile and of great design compared to when it’s done freehand.
Step5. Handle with both Hands
Based on the reality that these routers rotate when moved, there is a possibility that the machine will be resistant in some cases and therefore, you should use both hands to hold the appliance to ensure it remains steady when in use and to also prevent an unforeseen hazard from occurring.
Step6. Use Sacrificial Blocks
Sacrificial blocks are important when you want to cut a material as they enable you to identify the places to begin and end with. Also, ensure that you follow through with the mark slightly to realize the production of quality results. Place the sacrificial blocks and ramps at the beginning and the end of the workpiece not forgetting to start it off the workpiece.
How To Choose The Best Palm Router
Before buying any model of these appliances, you should weigh quite a good number of factors to be able to settle on a palm router that conforms to your demands at the workshop. We have outlined several factors and discussed key points to note under each one of them. Take time and read through keenly after which you have learned more about the key considerations of these tools.
- Size of the Router
This is a more essential part when considering the model to take home. If you need a palm router that you’ll be using for some light tasks then you need to go for the model that is easy to grip while a big size router is ideal for woodworkers who intend to employ it in their shops for various demanding projects.
- Power
The size could be used to distinguish the power production level under normal circumstances. This however is not the case with the palm routers because they can handle quite a good number of materials at ago without having to spend more energy. You should choose a model whose power is either 1¼ HP or more within a pocket-friendly price.
- Speed options
Having speed options fitted on the gadget enables woodwork finishing applications. Using a machine with no speed adjustment options can lead to the destruction or deformation of the piece of wood since various materials conform to various operating speeds. However, for most routers, there are two adjustment options which are variable and multi-speed adjustments. This makes it easy to operate the router during application?
- Ergonomic design
You should get yourself a model that gives you the maximum comfort when woodworking especially if you intend to have it for long-term use. It should give you working morale instead of fatigue and undue discomfort. The routers that can offer you this are those that have a flat top where your palm can rest.
- Base styles
These appliances are designed such that their bases are either plunge or fixed a factor that makes them suitable for use. These bases are determined by the role they are to play. For instance, a plunge base is ideal when you want to make various cuts like dado cuts, mortising, blind grooves, and fluting while a fixed base is essential in holding the tool firmly using knots and helps in edge mounting.
- Corded/Cordless
Palm routers are designed differently each either cordless or corded. Choosing the model to take home will depend on what you will be using it for. A corded router offers you off battery usage therefore you can still use it even when the battery is completely used up but restricts movement, while cordless allows you to move it freely in every direction but does not operate when it runs out of battery.
- Dust removal
When using a palm router there is a possibility that there would be dust produced and this would interfere with your operation by decreasing visibility. You should therefore go for the model that is designed with a dust collection gadget that helps do away with up to 90 % of the waste produced.
- Soft start
This is another essential feature that should be put into account by a beginner or a professional since it is the soft start that will make the woodworking operation interesting. Luckily, most companies have included this feature in their products. With the smooth start feature, you won’t have to worry about the router falling off your hands since the speed gradually increases.
- Durability
All users of palm routers want to take home a model that will be able to serve them ergonomically over a longer duration. This is only possible if you pick on a model that has been built using strong and pressure-resistant material and can also handle large-scale workloads comfortably. This is because the router might fracture when exposed to the torque.
- Electronic controls
Since palm routers are entitled to encountering varied loads when in use, the motor can strain a lot making it slow down its operation and at some point may even end up interfering with your project. This control system plays an important role in ensuring that the router detects heavy load and automatically raises the level of speed to counteract the situation making it efficient and reliable.
Conclusion
Your plan for the palm router is the key to enabling you to find the router that will serve ergonomically. Having the right router for the job makes it easy to realize efficiency, accuracy, and safety in project completion. Those appliances appear to have more or less similar functions but differ slightly in the manner in which they deliver. We believe that having read the article above if you are new to these products then you can be able to tell which palm router will be able to serve you best.
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