[akrumsee]

I’m trying to mill some 3/4” poplar moulding on my CNC Shark HD5. I’m using Whiteside 1/4" end mills (I’ve tried compression and down cut) and speeds ranging from 12,000 rpm/60 ipm to 16,000 rpm and 75ipm. The bits are not knew but have been only lightly used. A Vcarve moulding toolpath runs back and forth along the length of the moulding. I have Vcarve set to a 1/8” depth of cut and a .1” stepover. Travel in one direction is then a conventional cut and then in the opposite direction it’s a climb cut. On the climb cut pass the machine sounds great and the end mill produces nice clean chips. But going in the opposite direction I’m seeing tearout the likes of which I’ve never seen before with maple/cherry/BB plywood. The bit, rather than cutting chips, tears out a long strip of wood along the length of the grain. Some of these strips are close to 2 feet long, the full length of the cut. As you might expect, the strips are 1/ 8" x .1" in cross section.

I’d appreciate any suggestions.

[ger21]

Either climb cut only, or take a much shallower cut. Poplar can be very difficult to cut cleanly.