what will be the best endmill to use for plywood cutting and sloting based on your experience and knoledge ? so far i am using regular 3 flut hss endmill and they are burning fast and not leaving clean edges thanks all
I've been cutting some 1/2" Baltic Birch plywood. I tried several types of bits and ended up with some similar to these: http://www.amazon.com/3-175MM-Carbi...9068453&sr=1-10&keywords=3.175mm+carbide+burr I can't find the exact listing, but they look the same and the price is comparable. So far, I've cut about 400 linear feet and I'm still on the first bit. Once, I screwed up and cut full depth for about 3" before I could turn the machine off. It cut even that with no problem. For what it's worth, these don't seem to be as sensitive to speed as regular end mills. The chips that come off look like small grains of sand. The finish isn't extremely smooth, but it is more than acceptable. It is much better than I thought it would be with this type of bit. The quality of the plywood isn't as good as it used to be, but that's another story.
depending on size go up to 1/4 router bits your get a bit designed for cutting timber, ply is a bit hit and miss quality wise it pays to shop around and avoid the large outlets like home depot in the US of Hay or b&q/wickes here in the uk
Thank you all I am using 4mm 3 flute hss end mill Feed is 1500-2000 mm/min step down 2 to 3 mm 30000 rpm (can't go any slower on my trimmer) and it's almost always burn the end mill and sometime the plywood also
I think your flutes are packing up with dust, you have to go shallower so that the chips get time to clear. 3 flute cutters are not so good for wood precisely because they do this. in smaller sizes, like smaller than 6mm, you want 2 or even single flute cutters to clear the chips. feed faster! at that speed you are only taking a 0.02mm cut per tooth, very small, which will produce powder instead of chips. 4500mm/min will take 0.05mm/tooth.... and you could go faster.... I recently cut some pine plywood and used 20000RPM at 2000mm/min which worked ok but made some powder. feeding at 3000mm/min was much better, making actual chips that it could throw out of the 20mm deep slot. 2 flute up spiral carbide cutter, 6mm diameter.
I cut a lot of plywood (granted its on a large format machine) but I use a Vortex bit specifically designed for cutting plywood. It is a compression bit with notches in it for chip ejection and cooling.
I use straight flutes when cutting plywood. Clean cut every time rpm 20000, feed 30- 40mm sec at 4-5mm depth
