Spindle speed

Since I am fairly new to CNC milling, I have been researching feeds and speeds for various materials. Information on aluminum is easy to find, but not a lot on plywood. Apparently the size of the chips indicates whether or not the chipload on the spindle is set correctly. Can any of you look at the pile of sawdust in the picture and advise me on whether or not I am even close to where I need to be?

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Looks great to me. Is it a coaster?

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I set up a simple CAM operation on a scrap piece of 3/4 plywood. 8" diameter disc inside a 10" square. I set the max DOC at 9.525mm (3/8") and started the job. It was extremely satisfying to see how easily it cut the plywood…

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Those look like great chips!

It’s very satisfying seeing chips flying off of the bit. You can definitely tell when you’re cutting too slow and getting sawdust. It looks like fine powder compared to what you see in your picture.

I usually stick to 1/4" step downs for most of my projects to help reduce side loading on the bit. My last project was in harder wood, so I only did 3mm (1/10")

And, yes… I tend to bounce between metric and standard. Sometimes even in the same project :frowning: