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How to Safely Cut Arched, Raised Panels With a Back Cutter Bit

Arched, raised panels, which are often used for restaurant booths and bed panels, require the use of a router. Routers are woodworking tools that are used to round edges and cut grooves. A back cutter bit is a certain type of router bit that is used to simultaneously cut two grooves at once on both sides of a piece of wood. This is so the piece of wood can be decorative on both sides. Performing these cuts safely requires all the safety precautions that are involved with using a router in a router table.

Things You'll Need

Safety glasses
Tape measure
Arched panel
Router table with router
Back cutter bit

Instructions

- 1
  Measure the thickness of your arched panel and adjust the back cutter bit on the router table so its center grove's height is half the thickness of the panel.
- 2
  Turn on the router and move the arched portion of the panel over the router so you cut off half the panel's edge. This is a precut to prevent the wood from splitting. If your back cutter bit is 1-inch wide, the panel's edge will be a half-inch away from the center of the router bit.
- 3
  Turn off the router and look at the panel to make sure there are not any chips in the wood. If there are, turn the router on perform another cut, but only remove half of the amount you cut off in the previous step. If there are no chips, repeat the same cut you did in the previous step.

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