Roundover Bit or Beading Bit?
George VondriskaDescription
Sometimes, if I’m in a hurry when I reach for a roundover bit, I end up with a beading bit in my hand instead. I’ve also had this happen in classes because students are confused by the differences between the two profiles. They’re similar, but not identical.
The beading bit
Beading bits, like the ¼” beading bit used in the video, have a detail that roundover bits don’t have. A beading bit adds a shoulder on the vertical surface, typically the edge of the board. Unlike a roundover bit, the cutting edge of a beading bit projects slightly past the ball bearing. That projection produces the shoulder.
A roundover bit
Roundover bits, like the ¼” roundover used, don’t project past the ball bearing. When properly set up the cut will smoothly flow into the vertical and the horizontal surfaces, with no steps.
Take a step
We know the beading bit produces a step adjacent to the ball bearing every time you use it. You can achieve the full beading profile by setting the depth of cut of the bit so you get the same step on the horizontal surface. This gives you a two-step profile.
Router roundover bits can also create a step, but only on the horizontal surface. This is done by setting the depth of cut so the top corner of the bit contacts the surface.
Lots of choices
The beauty of mastering the router is the huge array of cuts you can use it for, from edge profiles to joinery. There’s a dizzying array of router bits available. Narrow down your choices with our selection of seven must-have bits.
There have been a handful of occasions in my shop when I have students in here where they grab one router bit that they think they have the right one and it's the wrong one and where I'm going with this is round-over versus beating and when you stand back and look at those, they look really, really, really similar, but they are not the same and especially if you're after a round-over and you accidentally grab a beating, then it's not gonna be what you want. So let's do a cut and then it's gonna be easier to see what the difference is by looking at the material than it is really by looking at the bits. With a beating bit. Which is this one. We get the round-over, but it also introduces the step at the bottom. So on the other corner, this is the simple round-over and usually with that we're looking for it to fade from the top to the side with one fair curve. With the beating bit, we're fading from the top to the side but then we're also adding that shoulder. Now we can take this to another step literally. If I increase my depth of cut. Then we can get a pretty cool look. Which is the horizontal surface, a step, the round-over and a step and the step down here is controlled by the router bit. That's the distance from the bearing to the cutter. That's always gonna be the same. But what you would normally do is using the depth of cut of the router, you would control this so that this step is the same size as this one and you're symmetrical from the top to the edge and that gives you a different look. Now we can do kind of a similar thing with the round-over but like almost the same, but different. So if I increase my depth of cut here. I can get the step on the horizontal plane but I'm still not gonna get the step down here 'cause on the edge the ball bearing is even with the carbide cutter. So there's no way for me to introduce the step at the bottom. So at the end of the day, we've got two different things, round-over versus beating. Both are very useful, but you gotta make sure you grab the right one depending on what it is that you're trying to do because they do provide two very different looks on your project.
It would be so helpful and simple if bit manufacturers would simply label their bits. Even the really expensive brands don’t do this. It’s soooo frustrating!!
This would have been more helpful if you explained how to tell them apart so you pick the right one!
It would have been nice to see the bits compared side by side out of the routers for comparison.
My frustration is that the bits are not labeled. Such an easy solution to a frustrating problem, especially for those of us new to the craft! So many bits look similar!