Routing a 30° Chamfer

Drawing On a recent project, I wanted to rout a 30° chamfer on the edge of a workpiece. But my chamfer bit (and almost all chamfer bits) will only cut a 45° bevel. With a little modification to my router base I was able to make the 45° chamfer bit work.

As you can see in Fig. 1, the solution to this problem was to replace the router base plate with a 15° wedge. This simply changes the cutting angle of the bit from 45° to 30°. The wedge should be wide enough and long enough to provide a stable base for the router (Fig. 1a). And it can be screwed to the router base plate using the existing mounting holes.

The only trick to routing the chamfer is to keep the wedge flat on the workpiece and parallel to the edge.

Good woodworking,

Ted Raife
Online Editor, Woodsmith

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Printer-Friendly Version Routing a 30° Chamfer On a recent project, I wanted to rout a 30° chamfer on the edge of a workpiece. But my chamfer bit (and almost all chamfer bits) will only cut a 45° bevel. With a little modification to my router base I was able to make the 45° chamfer bit work. As you can see in Fig. 1, the solution to this problem was to replace the router base plate with a 15° wedge. This simply changes the cutting angle of the bit from 45° to 30°. The wedge should be wide enough and long enough to provide a stable base for the router (Fig. 1a). And it can be screwed to the router base plate using the existing mounting holes. The only trick to routing the chamfer is to keep the wedge flat on the workpiece and parallel to the edge. Good woodworking, Ted Raife Online Editor, Woodsmith Send for a preview issue of Woodsmith magazine More Tips & Techniques Index of Tips by E-mail More Tips & Techniques WoodNET, Woodworking on the Web Subscriber Links Update your Email Preferences Subscribe
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