Hi, I just got my CNC wood router up and running. I bought cheap style cutters that the hardware sold, but the smallest cutter they had was 1/4" Dia. Also their cutters are unable to plunge unless I use the ball end ones. These are all just standard router cutters.

Where could I find something more of and end mill style like on real mills(spiral flute). But for cutting wood, or even just ones with a 1/4" shank.

Thanks for the help.

www.vortextool.com
www.eagle-america.com

Thanks to all the helpful people here at CNCZone.Com, I've found these sites to be helpful for selecting cutters for wood and other materials. Feel free to let us know of any other suppliers you find!

http://www.ekstromcutter.com/highspeedsteelrouterbits.htm
https://www.onsrud.com/
http://www.carbidespecialties.com/Products.htm

DIY-Guy "Reinventing the 'newbie' process of learning DIY CNC."

http://www.kbctools.com/can/main.cfm

these guys are fairly reasonable in price and i would imagine shipping wouldn t be too bad , at least you wouldn t have to deal with cross boarder brokerage fees if things are shipped thru a courier
winnipeg is booming in manufacturing so there must be some decent tool companies around you , if your close to the city

Hi,
This place has good prices, and has plunge cutting carbide bits.

http://www.mlcswoodworking.com/

Thanks for the info, and a couple additional questions.

I just got the CNC up and running a couple weeks ago and was thinking about experimenting on 2x4's. However it is looking like an expensive thing to run even as an experiment.

A friend of mine from winnipeg tells me that wood cutters dull fast. So I was wondering if it was true that they dull that fast, of course, my bits are HSS but his factory probably uses at least HSS. Some of the toolpaths I want to run are fairly big, eg. larger wood signs, so this has become a worry.

Ordering from the states is always a pain, so if I order something it would be nice to get it right the first time.

ps. my router tends to burn the work, even at 25 IPM.

HSS bits dull extremely fast in wood, and should be avoided. Bits dull due to heat, and to get the longest life, you need to cut much faster or use a lower rpm to minimize the heat. Depends on bit diameter and type, but a 1/2" bit should be run at 100-300ipm at ~10-15,000 rpm for decent tool life. 25ipm will kill bits in a hurry.

Hi,
The burning (depending on what you're cutting) is probably a dull
cutter, too slow ipm or a combo of both. Hss cutters take a better edge
but carbide lasts longer. How they dull depends on how often you use them and on what.
The adhesives used in mdf are quite abrasive, as are woods with a high
silica content (like makore for example).
Try going out and finding material for test cuts and practice.
In a lot of areas, there is usually a way to do it cheaper if you think about it.

ger21, I just noticed you happen to be just up the road from where I live.
I'm in Wyoming. Isn't there a club in Shelby that has an open mike night?

I'm north of Detroit, and you're near Grand Rapids? not too close, I think you have the wrong place. :)

Try Ebay with the search "solid carbide spiral". Can usually get a better deal over there.

I'm using 2-flute spiral upcut bits and have over 100 hours on some of them cutting soft and hard woods as well as MDF. Plunge works fine. When not in use I soak them in a jar of acetone to dissolve any residue accumulation from the previous session.

Be aware that the same physics that lifts the chips up out of the hole will also exert forces that pull the workpiece up from the table. Make sure everything is clamped securely.

I'm guessing that carbide allows me to cut with whatever RPM but at a low feedrate in wood without dulling as fast.

My machine can only go about 30 IPM tops. Being stepper motor driven. There is no way it'll go 300!

Carbide will still dull pretty quick at those speeds. One thing that helps is to clean the bits with a bit cleaner after every use. Removing the buildup reduces heat, which is what causes dulling.

This is something I've been scratching my head over - that those of us with hobbyist machines can't run at linear speeds that are fast enough for the RPM speed of the router.

The problem of course is that lowering the speed on the router just chops the AC voltage, and therefore lowers power.

Having recently taken apart a router to do some fixes, I was surprised how simple it was - a single spindle with a bearing on one end, another bearing towards the other (with the collet thread at that end) and the motor winding in the middle.

I was wondering how practical it would be to make a second spindle with a collet and two bearings, then run a toothed belt to the router spindle. With a 2:1 reduction, the router could be run at full speed, say, 22k RPM, giving 11k at the cutter, but with the router's full horsepower. Has anyone already done this?

Just buy a variable speed router. Hitachi's are only about $125 and can run at under 8000 rpm i think.

Hi Gerry,

Assuming we're both talking about the same thing (and for $125 I suspect we are) then wouldn't that router suffer from the same problem?

All my routers are what I understand as 'variable' - that is they have a simple AC chopping circuit to reduce the voltage to lower the RPM (on a brushed motor). The problem (I believe) is that they don't raise the current to compensate, so the delivered power drops at lower speeds.

Spindles (with VFDs) change the frequency of the AC supply in order to change the speed (on an induction motor), so you don't get a drop in power (always full voltage).

What I'm proposing is using a variable speed router (say 11-22k RPM) with a reduction belt of perhaps 1:1.5 to give a cutting speed of 7.3-14.6k RPM. This way, you can get a slower max speed, but still get the full power from the router, and I suppose probably some mechanical advantage from the belt reduction, allowing for friction losses.

I was just wondering if someone had already done this with a router, and if they found it useful.

My tool collection includes a couple of old New Hermes engraving machines. Their motors turn at 10K RPM and are coupled to the spindle by a tiny toothless belt gearing the speed down by 1.5 : 1 .

The tool load is less for engraving compared to heavy duty routing. It should work well for your application if the belt/pulley arrangement was scaled up.

Ebay always has a few of these machines listed. There is most likely a photo or two where you can see how the spindle is powered.

I've had a lot of good luck with the Chinese imported solid carbide bits I get from wt tool (http://www.wttool.com/). Their online catalog isn't the most user friendly, but their prices are good. Their paper catalog is much easier to use.

My tool collection includes a couple of old New Hermes engraving machines. Their motors turn at 10K RPM and are coupled to the spindle by a tiny toothless belt gearing the speed down by 1.5 : 1 .

The tool load is less for engraving compared to heavy duty routing. It should work well for your application if the belt/pulley arrangement was scaled up.

Ebay always has a few of these machines listed. There is most likely a photo or two where you can see how the spindle is powered.

So what exactly should I be searching for? What name do you punch in.

Search for "new hermes" including the quotes. Best to search in the business and industrial sub section.

Ok from what I understand I'm looking for a geared down router?

What came up in the search was engraving machines. I realize this takes some work to find probably but if you can't purchase a good enough variable speed router it starts to look impossible to get this project going again.

Unless servos were installed which isn't happening. Now somehow a belt/gear system could be rigged up probably... so I guess the machine has to be redesigned to allow for this?

ps. thanks for the link anyways.