I am having trouble getting my homemade cnc router to make clean cuts in soft balsa and ply.
Soft balsa sometimes seems to tear itself apart along the grain as the cutter goes past. Harder balsa is OK, maybe the batch of wood that I'm using is particulaly soft?
Ply gets burned away rather than cut, so this fills the room with smoke - not nice!
My question is what type of cutter, router speed and feed rate should I be using and what does everyone else use?
At the moment I am using a 1/16" end mill in a 500W router running at 27000rpm. Feed rates are approx 6"/minute for balsa, and approx 3"/minute for 1/4" ply. I've tried a brand new cutter which did exactly the same thing.
Any suggestions?
Mark.