Cutting advice

[studysession]

Hi
I finally have all three axis working on my DIY machine. I need some cutting advice.

I have some MDF I am using for practice cuts. For the spindle I am using the base of a Hitachi M12VC plunge router from Lowes. The table has a cutting area of 6 ft by 4 ft. I have a lot of router bits with 1/4" shanks.

I am practicing some engraving and it looks ok.
I want to cut designs all the way threw the wood. Do I make multiple passes or do it all in one cut? Also when making a nice pretty edge how to do I do that since a lot of the router bits have bearings and won't cut down into the wood?

Sorry if these are to elementry, but I am new to working with wood like this and want to make some pretty plaques to hang on the wall. Have some friends who work for sherif's dept. and would love to make something for their office.

Thanks for the help.

EDIT: What affordable CAM softwares do people use? Everything seems so expensive.

[lgreeves]

How are you holding your work?

[studysession]

Screwing it down on the corners to a scrap MDF board under the one I want to cut.

[tajord]

When cutting wood through it is advisable to do it in multiple passes, i also have a hitachi and i've went as far as 1/4" per pass using a 1/4" straight bit at 60ipm and it goes well, others recommend 1/4" spiral upcut solid carbide bits as it clears the chips as it cuts.

I want to try 5/16" per pass to see how it goes as i use a lot of 5/8" thickness wood, so i can just make two passes, keeping my fingers crossed on that one, i too am look for some good software for engraving and stuff, i looked at a few demos but haven't really seen much i like, there's one called Lettercam that has a 15 uses trial, you can try that one, vcarvepro is what i'm saving towards, a little pricey, but for what you get, it's more than worth it, it'll do all i need and a little more, there's also a demo for it where you can cut their sample files, you can even make your own designs and save them, but you can't run them.

As for those edges, IMO i think it's best you head to the old router table for that and manually do them, it's probably quicker that way unless you have an Automatic Tool Changer and a good vacuum hold down system.

Just my 2 cents.

Edit: Can we get a few pix of your machine and what program did you use to do your engraving?

[studysession]

As for pics of the machine - maybe later. Just don't have camera handy right now.

The engraving software - I bought some clip art off ebay and it came with DXF files that I can open and edit in AutoCAD. Then import them into Mach3. I do not have nice software for the engraving yet. But want the vcarvepro you mentioned. Need some extra money first. Also want a nice but inexpensive CAM software for doing tool paths and stuff.

Still would like to do the nice edges on the machine though. Thanks