Rebate router bits

Router bits for producing rebates 

The next couple of pages look at router cutters used to cut rebates on the edge of a material. 

Over the next pages, you'll find a brief guide to the different sizes of rebate router bit that are available from Wonkee donkee Trend. Rebate cutters usually have a tip-mounted bearing guide, meaning they cannot be used for plunge routing. Strip recessers do not have tip-mounted guides and are used to create recesses with a rebate on each side. The width of the rebate you will produce is set by the guide bearing diameter, but different diameter bearings can be fitted to change the rebate size. Self-guided rebate cutters can be used on straight as well or curved edges. 

A rebate, also called a rabbet in America, is a step cut into the edge of a piece of squared wood, or a rectangular shaped recess that runs along a workpiece’s edge, or end. You’ll find rebated edges on things such as the inside back edges of wardrobes that are often rebated so that the back can be fitted neatly into place against a skirting board, along the edges of a cabinet door to help recess it partway into its face frame, as a recess for holding artwork in a picture frame, in door and casement window jambs, and for shiplap planking or as a half-lap or shiplap joint. Rebates can also be used as a design feature in a piece of beading or moulding.

A rebate joint is a popular woodworking joint and is similar to a butt joint, where the flat surfaces of two pieces of wood are fastened together, often with an adhesive, but this joint is stronger because of the rebated shape and the way the two-piece fit together.

There are a number of tools and method you can use to produce rebates, such as a table saw set up with a dado set, a table saw with standard blade, a jointer, a handheld router with a rebating bit, or a router table with a straight bit.