Harbor Freight has 1/8 2 flute down cut bit with a 1/4" shank on it that is carbide tipped. Has anyone used this? I’m new to CNC work and still trying to figure out the bit types and how they are used.
I’m also wondering how people are surfacing their spoilboard and what bits they are using? I was wondering if say a 1" straight cut carbide tipped router bit would work. Most of the videos I’ve watched I’ve seen people using small 1/8" bits and it seems like that would take forever.
Sorry I can’t help too much with the bits. I know subtle differences in bit geometry make a huge cutting difference. I highly suggest you get a proper 1/8" endmill, at least one that you can compare things to. That bit you have show looks more like a rotozip bit and seems very long. Like a drywall bit, it will cut foam no problem but not sure what other materials would work very well with it.
As for surfacing your spoil board. How far off is yours? I have never needed to do that. The tolerances I expect have never required me to prep the surface before the cut. If you are milling PCB’s you would want to just surface mill your jig, no need for the whole bed. I can’t really think of any other reason to surface the whole bed unless it is really far out of whack. Maybe I just get lucky using thick mdf it always seems to be really flat.
Well I am still assembling so I haven’t even finished my build. I am probably a little obsessed with getting it right, whatever that may be. I can see a lot of my projects using the CNC to do inlay work on some custom designs and cutting boards. I plan on making some clocks with inlay’s along with some arduino’s, led’s and some small animatronic work to marry old and new school.
The only time I think we’ll really need to surface the spoil board is when it gets really chewed up from cutting. We really shouldn’t be cutting that deep into it, unless something went wrong, so taking the top 2 or 3 mm should bring it back to newish. If you want to do inlay into ply, I’d just get the proper diameter downcut endmill. They’ll have shorter cutting areas so they are less likely to snap off on you. Rotozip like bits have a really long cutting area, so there’s not that much metal there and will flex under a load.