[phantomcow2]

I was wondering, do I need to use router bits for general roughing in wood? I have some carbide endmills, 4 flute, would these work alright as well?

[dertsap]

4 flt will probably clog up , if your spindle is at high speeds keep the fire extinguisher handy , i almost lit up some mdf a couple of weeks ago trying that

[lakeside]

With Wood You Have To Know If You Want An Up Cut Or Down Cut I Would Ask Ger21 About This He Knows What He Talking About For The Post Of His That I've Read a Lot More Than Us Metal Heads

[phantomcow2]

Clogging up was a concern I had also. I've got some 2 flute HSS end mills also, I think they will perform well. I will replace those with carbide though because I'm afraid they iwll dull too fast with the wood.
By the way, You Are Capitalizing Every Letter Of Your Post

[lakeside]

.
By the way, You Are Capitalizing Every Letter Of Your Post

YES CAP LOCK STICKS EVERYONE SEEMS TO SEE THIS BUT I'M A CHEAP YANKEE AND JUST CAN'T BRING MYSELF TO SPENDING $10 ON A NEW KEYBOARD

[Geof]

My experience is that HSS dulls very rapidly in wood, especially plywood and mdf. Carbide 45 degree helix two flute cutters work fine but they are close to identical to the carbide cutters made for wood. About the same price as well.

[ger21]

HSS bits for wood are rarely used, and you won't find ANY at any decent woodworking tool supplier. I've never tried using endmills, so I can't tell you how they'll work. It can't hurt trying them to see how they work out.

When you say general roughing, what kind of wood? Ply, MDF, hardwood, softwood? Feed speed and rpm can be very important.

[phantomcow2]

Yea, I figured HSS would be a no go. I will be doing mostly MDF and softwoods.

[spoiledbrat]

I have been using a set of 10 different solid carbide endmills for wood for a year and a half now. I have a 4 flute, 1/2 " flat mill, 1/2" Ball, 3/8" v cutter, 1/4", (sizes range between 1/2" and 1/16") The tools remain perfectly sharp after much use and abuse. After crashing into my clampbolts, a small nick or two has been removed from my 1/4". Most of my bits are 4 flute, and for the most part they do the job efficiently. In retrospect, now that I know a little more about chip-extraction and toolbits in general, I would have purchased all 2-flue bits. I must admit I have started one fire with some poplar, but I let the toolbit pause inside a deep cut the work for several seconds. More of a smolder than a fire, really.

I would not dream of using a standard routerbit to cut wood with my cnc. Just looking a a standard router bit, the low technology screams out to me "Inefficiency!"; kind of like trying to cut a 2*4 with a baseball bat. But the precision ground, advanced geometry of a solid carbide helix bit reduces cutting forces required, and requires little maintenance. (I scrape the built up crud off of mine with a razor blade. I wish I knew of a decent solvent for this.).

The solid carbide endmills, described as cutting aluminum, are usually perfect for routing wood. They are also not that expensive from M S C industrial supply. If I had to guess, and this is just a guess, I believe they last at least 5 times as long as standard router bits.

I also use them to cut aluminum plate, using small passes (.1" deep for a 1/4" bit") at 10,000 RPM using WD-40 as a cutting fluid. Very pleased with results.

Just my opinion.
Rob

[ger21]

Standard woodworking bits are designed to cut wood, and do it very well. If you want high tech woodworking bits, go to www.vortextool.com

[RTP_Burnsville]

I have also used metal cutting bits in wood for several years with no problems (2 flute).

A can of spray oven cleaner works great to clean the wood glue and other stuff off my bits.

[turmite]

spoiledbrat's probably gonna freak on this , but plain old two flute bottom cutting carbide tipped router bits work great, assuming you can get by with the shear cut. I have used about every kind of bit available to try to find whay works the best and last the longest. I have discovered there is no one bit that will do it all.

Try cutting some DymondWood with any bit and it dulls very quickly. This is a laminate made by impregnating the laminates with a phenolic resin and then cooking together to get a homogenous block of wood. Nearly as hard a aluminum and 10X more abrasive. Properly sharpened tool steel cut it like butter.....but didn't last as long. Solid carbide metal cutting endmills did not cut it as cleanly but lasted a lot longer. Carbide tipped bits worked nearly as well as the solid carbide but were a 1/3" less expensive.

For mdf the solid carbide router bits will probably give you the best overall results. On the softwood, personally I would buy three bits, one in each of the material, tool steel, solid carbide and carbide tipped and test them.

Maybe this will help.

Mike

[JRoque]

I recently finished a wood project and used all carbide with TiALN coating, 4 flute endmills. These are the same tools I use for aluminum and steel. Had no problems and the tools didn't seem to dull at all. The finish was very good and needed only light sanding on some rough spots.

JR

[joecnc2006]

I use two flute upspiral carbite endmills on mine, have been cutting alot of MDF and HDPE with not problems at all. 1/4" and 1/8"

Joe

[phantomcow2]

I think I am going to try 2 flute carbide end mills. To start, I will buy 1/2", 3/8", 1/4", 1/8", and 1/16" flat and round, maybe they have a good set somewhere.
Regardless, my workplace orders from MSC, perhaps I can order carbide end mills through my work at a better price

[spalm]

I noticed the mention of oven cleaner for bits. I have used this many years for bits and blades, but it is nasty stuff. Anyway, I thought I would throw out that EZ-Off has a new cleaner that is not nasty at all. You don’t need rubber gloves and such. It is in the blue can. Good stuff.

It also states on the front of the can that it is “Now OK for self cleaning ovens”. Huh?

Just a thought here. If Gerry says that he uses router bits, you might want to listen, at least a little. He CNC’s wood for a living.

Steve

[ger21]

Steve, if all these guys say the metal bits are working, then they must be working, right?

I believe that at the low feed speeds used on most home cnc routers, you may not see any problems. And good wood spiral bits are quite expensive compared to the endmill prices that I see. But I have to believe when you start taking deep cuts at well over 100ipm (especially when you get in the 300+ipm range), metal cutting endmills will definately not work anywhere near as well as tooling designed for cutting wood.

Whenever I finally get my home router done, I'll buy some endmills and do some comparison testing.

[ViperTX]

I have to agree with ger21....he is our woodchuck.......

Oven cleaner.....man that did a number on my Forrest WoodMaster II blade....now it looks like crap....and guess what it cuts like crap......

[JRoque]

Hey Gerry, can post a couple of links to the wood tools you use? I'd like to try and see. I think you're on to something regarding the feeds. I generally do well up to 60 IPM or so on plywood but trying anything faster, especially with cross-cuts, seem to do more ripping than I like. I attributed this to the relatively slow speed of 6 to 7K RPM. But maybe's the tool?

JR

[swarfmacdaddy]

I have to agree with jroque, I have cut hundreds of feet of Corian with 4 flute endmills in a router and they outlast any router bits i have found. Granted i am using tain coated endmills. And they are far cheaper too.