Could someone please help me to determine which feed direction is correct when cutting dados in laminated particle board. I am using a new 1/2" compression bit and getting some chipping in the laminate. Should this be a conventional or climb cut?

Thank you for any help

It may be your bit choice that is causing the chipping. How deep are your dadoes? If the cut is not deeper than the up cut section of the bit then you will get chipping. Is the chipping happening on ramp in? Can you plunge in the waste area of the sheet. You can use a down shear bit and check your tooling often as laminate is hard on carbide.

Could be feed and speed issues or
could be a collet issue also. Tom is correct on the
depth of cut as well. What bit are you using?

If you are using a compression bit to cut shallow dadoes, the lower section of the bit is like an uncut and top is downcut. Use a downcut only.

Ditto RichC. A compression bit is for when you are cutting all the way through and you want a clean cut on both top and bottom surfaces of your material.

BH Davis

Depending on compression bit, the upshear portion is 3/16 to 3/8” in length and if your depth of cut is less than that your going to get chipping as the cutting edge is lifting the edge of material as it cuts. The best option is to assign a down shear tool for that process. We originally used a 1/4” down then went to a 3/8” down and set our dado width to 3/8” and it can do it in a single pass.