[Cedarbarron]

Hello I have cutting 1" thick white cedar, I am using a 1.2" compression tool and I am getting compacted chips in the channels I am cutting. I am cutting in one pass at 16,000 rpm and at 600 ipm. per tool manufacturer advice. I am getting a lot of compacted chips and added a tornado chip extractor but that seems to plug because chips are big. I was wondering if anyone had advice? I was wondering if anyone uses air to blow chips away. The chips are piled in so much I thinks it interfering with the cutting because sometimes it pushes the stock off the vacumm pods I had jigged up. thanks

[ger21]

You can try compressed air, but you may need quite a bit of it, at high pressure.
You're only other option is to maybe make a few roughing passes, maybe two 3/8" deep passes, to get rid of a lot of the material first, than do the full depth finish pass.

[awerby]

Compression (upcut/downcut) cutters are good for avoiding chip-out on veneers, but if you're using them full-depth they don't leave anywhere for the chips to go besides into your slots. Have you tried using a regular tool with an upcut spiral on this stuff? If it's solid cedar it might work just fine.

[routalot]

I think I'd just use a plain straight cutter.The upcut or the upcut portion of a compression cutter operating in a shallow cut will both tend to drag splinters up and leave a chipped edge.Considering the high cost of a compresssion cutter,I really only use them on faced material.If you have a really powerful vacuum system it still tends to hold the shavings and dust in the cut after the cutter passes,regardless of geometry.