I just did my first cut in wood with my mpcnc! Looked pretty good for being my first one and the test piece was some old crappy plywood I had laying around.
Now, I’m planning a small project to make a couple of walnut coasters with epoxy inlays. The inlays will be of chemical molecules. Like this:
It has some small details such as thin lines and small letters. Since a coaster isn’t very big I can’t scale it up too much.
What would be a good bit for something like this? I currently only have the 60° V-bit and some single flute 3.175mm (1/8") up cut bits which are of course too big.
What do you think about some tapered bit such as this?
The Vbit is about as good as it gets for small details. It is more on the material you use it with. Extremely tiny details are easy in anything but wood. If you are planning on using wood the more dense the better. (hardwoods don’t actually always mean harder/denser. e.g. Balsa is a hardwood)
Ouch… Yeah, tropical hardwoods may be tough to source in the Nordics… You may have to ask around for the densest wood available. A quick dip in the Wood Database gave me a hopeful choice for you to look for: European Hornbeam. It’s not Ipe, but it looks like it’s pretty dense, and since it says it’s good for turning, I suppose it’s probably good for machining as well. And it looks moderately priced (in Europe, since it doesn’t get exported in any significant amount). But I’d rely on the expertise of local woodworkers to verify any wood selection, not some random American internet clown…
