What bit to use for Hobby Plywood?

Mostly Printed CNC - MPCNC Advice
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Hi, I had had my MPCNC built for some time now and I have used it exclusively as a needle cutter for cutting out foam board rc airplanes. And that has worked great! Now I’d like to use it to cut out certain part from hobby plywood that is between 2 and 3 mm thick. I have a Dremel mount that I designed and printed and it works great but my main question is what type of bit do I need to use to cut this type of wood? They are not huge parts at all but some do have small holes for passing screws, etc.

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Hi, what works best for me on plywood is a downcut spiral bit. The upcut did a lousy job in my case.

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Thanks. What size for smaller cuts?

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I use a 1/8 inch diameter. That may be too big for very tiny detailed cuts.

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Depending on how fine of detail you want and how much $$ you want to spend you might want to consider getting a high qualtiy laser to cut the wood. 2-3 mm isn’t that thick. Most cheap knock off lasers could still struggle with that but a good quality laser could cut through that.

For example. I know my cheap knock off 15 watt laser ($200) wouldn’t have a chance. I can only get it to cut 0.75 mm deep into wood even with multiple (dozens of) passes. But the sales demo video that sold me on the Endurance laser 5.6 watt ($380 I think) showed it cutting through a 6 mm piece of wood in 3 passes. I really need to get that thing hooked up to my machine.

As I understand a good quality 2 watt could make this cut for you. The Watt rating isn’t the most important thing with lasers. Its the optics and how much it can focus the beam. That’s why 15 watt is such a waste.

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If you need something finer than 1/8", I’ve had good results with the 2 flute 1/16" bit Ryan sells on 1/4" plywood and thinner.

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I do pocketing with a 1mm end mill at 500mm min in hardwood for flat bottom v carve depth of cut 1 mm

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I’ve tried an Endurance laser, it’s hype. I sold it after a month. Plus the smoke wasn’t ideal for my setup and shop.

I am now using a .8mm downcut bit and it is cutting really nice and clean. Runing at 4mm/s with a 2mm depth on each pass.

I’ll keep testing but I’m happy with it.

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