Whiteside Router Bits 3000 Template Bit with Ball Bearing

I have other bits but these are by far the best I’ve used and continue to use. I get them direct or from bitsbits with astra coating which is amazing.

I paid more for this single bit than I did for a whole set of cheapo imported bits. However, I use this bit a lot, and its a joy. The cheap bits are only used occasionally, so I dont have elevated expectations for them. They do work, however. This bit is beautiful to look at, and very satisfying to use. No chattering, and cuts wood like its butter.

I bought this bit to route using guitar templates, both on the neck and body. Since it only removes 1/4 inch at a time, you wont get any tear-out and it leaves a very smooth edge on your work piece. After you use this to route the top 1/4 inch, you can remove your template and use your top routed layer as your template, which removes the risk of wearing your template by running a bearing on it repeatedly. I use this on my hand-held 1/4 shank Makita palm router and it works flawlessly. Go slowly and it will get the job done. For the price, its an amazing little bit.

Needed to inset a router plate in the router table top I am making. And yet again I need a new tool, be cheaper to just buy a router table but hey the tool will come in handy sooner or later. Nice clean cut with smooth bottom, fit of the router plate matches fit in the template. I made it a tight fit expecting the cut would be a fraction wide. Nope its not, oh well it will wear in with some time. Not worth sanding out.

Cuts nice. Bearing is smooth. Bearing same size as cutter so I could use with pattern to cut out latch mortises. Still sharp after a couple dozen doors. Expect it to last years.

I purchased the same bit at three different cut depth: Whiteside model #3000, #3001 and #3004. Be aware they are not for heavy work like (typically found at) Carpentry but they have place for furniture and cabinet making. I love to have all of them as it is easy to work with quite similar bits with interchanged bearings. I just work with the smaller of them, the #3000 model and as expected it performed spotless even for very heavy ipe wood. I expect the other two bits are at the same quality level. Strongly recommended.

This bit was perfect. If you need to do perfect mortises off of a template this is what you need. I had another bit just like this one made buy one of the big companies that always made a mortise in need of fine tuning, this one was perfect from the start. Thanks to Stumpy Nubs for turning me on to this company. I will be sending them more business.

This bit did exactly what I bought it for (bought it for cleaning out the pins on dovetails). Whiteside bits are very high quality and this was no exception. Not the cheapest, but I think definitely worth it long term.

This thing is basically perfect and I cant really think of how itd be better.

Whiteside is my go-to for specialty router bits. Quality is always superb, and price is comparable to many inferior products.