Hi

I am looking for a 1/4" dia compression bit w/ chipbreaker. I have been on Vortex and don't think they have something such as that? Their drop down menus are large so I may have missed something. I have found a 1/4" chipbreaker upspiral from Amana although it looks more of a rougher than a chipbreaker. Also, in terms of rough percentages, what are peoples experiences with surface speed increases from finish to chipbreaker to rougher?

Thanks
Dave

Order a bunch direct from a Chinese manufacturer like RicoCNC.
https://www.ricocnc.com/products/18-Best-CNC-Router-Bits-for-Melamine-Laminated-Wo
oden-Board-Nesting-Cutting.html

I placed an order from another manufacturer on Alibaba (there are a 100 different ones offering the same stuff) and they have been working well. Being only carbide tip, with a 1/2" steel shank, they are inexpensive (like $10-20 each max).

And here comes all the people who will blast me for suggesting Chinese bits. A bunch will say I am just a ChatGPT bot, or a shill for the company, or whatever. Al I know is that when my machine had an error yesterday and the spindle did not turn on after changing to one of these bits and it broke instantly, I did not shed a tear because I didn't overpay.

Never seen a 1/4 and I'd be worried about the strength.

What are you cutting?

I run only 3/8 and 1/2 chip breakers. They cut cooler and last longer. We're running 16.5mm deep cuts in baltic birch at 750 IPM with no trouble. We run all ply so don't worry about finish. If you're cutting melamine and have a edgebander with premill I think you'll be OK.

Mathew

Thanks. I will take a look at that website.

Dropout. I am cutting plywood and the edge finish is irrelevant in this case. I am kerfing parts on the cnc for bending and so the kerfs are completely hidden. I was running a finish 1/4" upspiral at 18000rpm and 360 ipm and the bit pulled out of the tool holder. That may have been a function of a worn out collet, but nonetheless I would like to figure out how to run faster as these are repeat parts and a lot of kerfs.

Thanks

Do you have a torque wrench for tightening your collet nuts? ER 32 nuts are recommended to be torqued to 80-100 ft lb. I took the basic short stamped wrench that came with my machine and welded a 1/2” drive collet onto the wrench just back from the collet side so that I could attach a torque wrench. It’s the poor man’s collet torque wrench adapter and only took 10 minutes of prep and weld time. I can still use the stubby wrench as well.

I would stick with an upcut, but get a new high end collet and clean it well and tighten to the recommended torque. No way is it coming loose on a cut like that if everything is perfect.

How deep is the cut?

We're cutting 1/2 deep in ply with a 7/8 flute length 3/8 chipbreaker at 900 to 1100 IPM.

Pay attention to your non cutting movement too. Sometimes that's more important than cutting.

Does the CNC raise the Z at the end of the cut and go back to the other end for the next groove or just move over to the next one and cut in the other direction?

I would make one path by connecting the alternating ends of the passes to eliminate raising the Z axis at the end of every cut.

I have done kerfing on our Rover 24 and I use the saw blade, either the saw on the drill block or an aggregate with a slotting saw.