Hard and Exotic wood routing?

[Crushmonkey]

Does anyone CNC-Route hard and exotic woods like wenge or coconut?

If so, what feeds and speeds do you use for your range of bits ?

[ger21]

It depends on a few things. Type of tooling, power of spindle, and rigidity of machine. On a commercial machine, using spiral chipbreaker tooling, you should be able to cut as fast as any other hardwoods. I cut a lot of maple, and I've cut hickory on our CNC. Based on using hand tools on exotic woods, I'd say they should cut very similarly to other hardwoods.

[fyffe555]

Can't talk about coconut but I did a large project with wenge last year. Lots of routing by hand mostly though. It has resin depending on the sample and seasoning which will cause the burn marks, clog cutters and also cause glue and finish problems. Apart from that it machines easily and moderate blunting on the cutters.

As Gerry says its much like any other hardwood. Best finish, by hand or in the machine was with the 7518 at 21k, a spiral Onsrud carbide and about about 4ins second and loads of vacuum to clear the cut.

Had some problems with tearout and poor finish when climbcutting in the cnc, though that's because my machine isn't ridgid enough to do what I wanted.

[ger21]

fyffe, I've found that climb cutting will usually give a poorer finish cut than conventional cutting in wood. But the tool must be supported on both sides (cutting through material, not along an edge), or you'll get tearout most of the time. I only climb cut when I know it will tearout if i don't.

If your getting burning, slow down the spindle speed. And if there is a lot of resin, clean the bit often. I've found that cherry has a lot of resin in it, and new bits will be covered in a very short time.

[Crushmonkey]

how often is often when cleaning the bit? a few feet of cut travel?

[ger21]

It depends on the wood. Id say every hour if it's bad.