[harryn]

Hi, my router is a bosch 1613 evs with approx 3 - 3.5 hp and 1/2 in collet.

Most of my historical cutting work has been on an outdoor project on western red cedar, which cut remarkably slowly and dulls bits fast. (I have been told it is because this wood has a high sand content, but I don't really know)

Yesterday I was working on my DIY cnc router project and was (hand) cutting some 20 mm thick finish grade plywood (0.715 in - it is what H Depot had) with a new porter cable 3/4 in cutting diameter x 1.X long 2 flute straight cutting carbide bit. (no bearing) The bit spec'd 20 K rpm, so that is where I ran it.

I was really amazed by how fast and easily it cut, so I started to play around with moving the router faster and counting off seconds to cut. I moved the router faster until I could hear the motor tone change. I was able to cut both 1/2 depth and full depth through the plywood at approx 1 - 2 inches per second, so nominally 60 - 120 in per minute. This seems like a likely upper limit to my cutting speed for this setup.

2 Questions
- Is this about what is "normal" for a router with this kind of setup ?
- I read about industrial routers with 10 x that cutting speed. I assume these things are spinning at some amazing rpms or are they using bits with a lot of flutes and deep cuts ?

Thanks