Router question - tray with raised panel bit?

[deancruse]

Hello everyone! I'm trying to figure out how to make a tray that gradually angles out from the center to the sides - sort of a shallow tray that be used for serving food/snacks. Longish and slender - approximately 6 x 18 and 3/4 thick. I don't want to use a bowl bit and a template because I don't want a 90 degree side - more like 20 degrees or so from the bottom.

I could use gouges and scoop it out, but I plan on making a series of these for gifts and would prefer an approach with a bit more scale.

I thought I'd try a raised panel bit (without a bearing) on my router table with a fence and hollow out the tray. But, it seems dangerous and I would be taking out a ton of material with a big piece of steel. See the attached pic for the panel bit I had in mind.

Any ideas?

[gMike]

I've done a couple of these shallow type trays using a small angle grinder (King Arthur Merlin 2).

http://katools.com/merlin-minature-cutters/

If you are not going to do a bunch of these it is kind of an expensive solution.  It works well but takes quite a bit of time to keep the thickness even.  I'm not sure how a panel raising bit would work but it certainly might be worth a try.

[Steve N]

Use a straight cutter first and start shallow and gradually approach where you want to be. Keep it similar in depth to what you expect you want to follow when you switch to the panel raiser. It will be painfully slow, and still I wouldn't do it. Using the grinder with an appropriate head for dishing as suggested will get quicker, safer results IMHO. With the router bit keep in mind a panel raiser is working on an edge, it is not entrapped, and allows for waste to easily exit the side, plus you are making a consistent cut with an odd shaped cutter. Entrap it, and if you run into a spot where you go from taking a little off, to your suddenly hogging out a lot of wood, expect for movement, but you may not see it coming, because the bit is stock is hiding where the bit is going

Another possibility is use a BS to cut strips of wood the length you want to be, and band saw out the contour, once cut to the profile you want, glue it up, and finish with sanders, grinders of scrapers. The ones I have seen were alternating woods, but you could make it all the same. Cut it from a large blank, and joint and plane the faces, and you may not be able to tell you've sawn it up.

[Cecil]

route two 1/2 pieces and glue up.  Clean up the seam after glue-up.

[BloomingtonMike]

Have access to a cnc router?

[newbiewoodworker]

How about trying to run a piece of wood sideways through a table saw?

[deancruse]

Thanks, everyone. 

Alas, no access to a CNC, Mike. I wish. 

Steve - you've better described my concern about the bit being entrapped and suddenly moving on me (especially on the cross grain). Your idea of cutting strips on the band saw is interesting - I've thought about doing something similar with alternating woods.

I'm think I'm going to build a jig to hold the piece and then use featherboards and start/stop blocks on the router table. If that doesn't work, then I may just bust out the grinder with an Arbortech blade or something similar. That mini grinder looks cool, Mike, but a little pricey for this project.

I'll report back - thanks again!

[JGrout]

completely different approach

use a RAS and  blade as a coving cutter to remove the lions share of the material then work the edges to meet your angled design. a 8" blade should do the job nicely and the cleanup is far less than an arbitrary router bit without templates

[gMike]

Thanks, everyone. 

Alas, no access to a CNC, Mike. I wish. 

Steve - you've better described my concern about the bit being entrapped and suddenly moving on me (especially on the cross grain). Your idea of cutting strips on the band saw is interesting - I've thought about doing something similar with alternating woods.

I'm think I'm going to build a jig to hold the piece and then use featherboards and start/stop blocks on the router table. If that doesn't work, then I may just bust out the grinder with an Arbortech blade or something similar. That mini grinder looks cool, Mike, but a little pricey for this project.

I'm report back - thanks again!

I agree completely about the price of the mini-grinder but I've found a bunch of uses for it now that I have it.  You can get a Rol-loc adapter for it which allows you to use the 2" sanding discs, which are great for non-flat sanding.  They also offer 3M bristle sanding heads which work well in transitions from flat to sculpted areas.  I didn't think I'd use it as much as I do when I bought it but now I'm glad I spent the money.

[deancruse]

Welp, even with a sturdy jig and small bites, the entrapped bit = blowout.

I'm rethinking this project - Mike's mini-grinder idea, or even a kutzall with my angle grinder might be the ticket.

Thanks for the comments, everyone!