Another routing disaster to fix.

Sean Farrell

I wanted to make a picture frame..but again i went off with my router bit on the lip where the photo goes.....if u see the photo. Its a bit difficult to put in a dovetail replacement ...its 19mm Pine veneered MDF and I am trying to conceal the restored job....I wanted to dye the veneered mdf pine a teak colour...so the dye job might show up the join even more. I know i'm going overboard here and almost to the point of getting a prof. restorer to solve it:)..but again its a shame to waste hard effort ive done on this. I have a few photos attached to give u a better idea of the mess i want to repair.,Please help!

tabby aspreme

First option is to do all the other corners the same and make a feature of it , second opinion is to route out to the nearest edge using a straight edge on each side clamped to the work, you don't need to go more than about 10 mm deep , it will have to taper slightly on the upper side , third option is make the whole frame slightly larger and mount the photo on some card .

Sean Farrell

your 3rd option looks the best Tabby,Cheers...the 1st option would involve making the exact same mistake three more times...I'm not that good at being that bad if u know what i mean.:o Im not sure if i got u right on the 2nd option...by my understanding that would leave the symmetry of the frame out of skew. I'll post up my results...i just have to get my jigs more aligned next time...practic, practice ...practice

recipio

You could get a 25mm plug cutter ( unless you have a lathe ) and drill it out and then plug and re- rout. Were you using a template underneath the piece. ?
Its a small bit of veneered MDF and sometimes you have to write it off as a bad job and start again. :rolleyes:

Sean Farrell

"Were you using a template underneath the piece. ?"
I was Recipio...i ended up extending the fences all around the template 5mm or so to get rid of the error...i then took it out of the template...gave a roundover along the frame edges....putting the frame back into the template this time reversing it. I extended the fences again another 5mm from their last position. I then used a straight cutter to cut deep enuf to create the recess for the photo. it resulted in a bigger frame as Tabby said...but his suggestion was the best. Result is ok....i had to sand down some blemishes along the lip...u can notice it slightly,,,but its ok i think. Its 19mm pine veneered mdf and creates huge amounts of dust...i wonder if i could get a better result with veneered plywood..but i expect it would chip out a lot.Photos give a better idea.

Sean Farrell

ok i sanded around the frame for the photo..it was too bad a job when looking at it last time round. I gave it some teak wood dye and thats the result. If i was going to make a batch of these i would consider making 2 templates for the front and reverse sides of where the photo goes...each template would sit on top of the work ..,thus avoiding the tendency to scratch the veneer .

magicbastarder

i'm rooting for the idea of routing these routing disaster posts to a dedicated thread, as they're becoming routine.

Sean Farrell

magicbastarder wrote: »

i'm rooting for the idea of routing these routing disaster posts to a dedicated thread, as they're becoming routine.

Yes good idea...and we should have Jonathon (Woss)Ross as moderator.:)

recipio

LOL - the last photo says it all.:D
Routing these internal ' holes' is not as easy as it looks. I tend to make the template as one unit instead of moving a straight edge around the periphery. Also, use a 'backrouting' technique ( go anticlockwise ) which gives a cleaner cut to the veneer. Still, well rescued.