Cabinet wood choice.

[George Yetka]

I started my kitchen cabinet project with hard maple. These will be painted cabinets. My thought was for the strength. Im mostly done I have the island, refrigerator surround, and end panels/faceframe of a full height pantry to go. Would there be any harm in switching to poplar at this point. Im getting very tired of fighting the weight and the tear out of maple.

[jack duren]

Soft maple

[George Yetka]

Soft maple

I guess that makes sense

[Lee Schierer]

I would suspect that the blade or bit is getting dull, has too few teeth or has chipped teeth. For cutting hardwood I prefer a 60+ tooth blade. Change your zero clearance insert. If a router is causing the tear out, you need to look more closely at grain changes along the length of the cut. Sometimes you have to either climb cut, reduce the amount of material being removed, flip the piece end to end or roll it 90 degrees to avoid tear out.

I purchased a Freud Quad cut bit and it has much less tendency to to produce tear out than bits with only two cutting edges. All my new bit purchases wil be quad cut types if available.

[George Yetka]

I would suspect that the blade or bit is getting dull, has too few teeth or has chipped teeth. For cutting hardwood I prefer a 60+ tooth blade. Change your zero clearance insert. If a router is causing the tear out, you need to look more closely at grain changes along the length of the cut. Sometimes you have to either climb cut, reduce the amount of material being removed, flip the piece end to end or roll it 90 degrees to avoid tear out.

I purchased a Freud Quad cut bit and it has much less tendency to to produce tear out than bits with only two cutting edges. All my new bit purchases wil be quad cut types if available.

Lee im good on the table saw. Jointer/planer has limited tear out. The router table is my downfall. I am doing traditional rails and styles with a 1/4" flat panel instead of raised face(a little more detail then shaker but more modern than raised face). Its a new whiteside set. What I propably should have been doing is cutting 90% and doing the last 10% on a second pass. Maybe that could eliminate some.

[Robert Maloney]

To reduce tear out from the router table, you can mill your pieces a little wider than needed. Run your profile, then take off about 1/16" on the table saw. Then rerun your profile. It's a trick I learned from Charles Neil. I use it on all my moulding and door profiles. Comes out a lot cleaner as you are putting less stress on the bit. Less sanding also.

[George Yetka]

To reduce tear out from the router table, you can mill your pieces a little wider than needed. Run your profile, then take off about 1/16" on the table saw. Then rerun your profile. It's a trick I learned from Charles Neil. I use it on all my moulding and door profiles. Comes out a lot cleaner as you are putting less stress on the bit. Less sanding also.

Thanks Robert thats a good idea

[Lee Schierer]

I don't know which brand bits you use, but the Freud Quadra cut bits are much less prone to tear out.

[George Yetka]

It was a new Whiteside set

[Tom Bender]

Since you are considering changing species, are you painting?

[George Yetka]

Since you are considering changing species, are you painting?

I am painting. I decided to stay with the hard maple as im now nearing the finish line. Over the weekend I tried Roberts technique of 90/10 on the router table and it worked perfectly. I just wish I tried it earlier. Only have 30bf or so left to mill for the project. Need to do 2 sets of doors for pantry, FF for said pantry, End panels for said pantry, and FF for refrigerator surround.