Calibration thought - may not amount to much, but easy to check

No Judgement
1

I’m shopping for router bits for my March (in Canada) Maslow delivery. I was thinking about my machine shop classes from 25(!) years ago. We were taught about drill bits vs reamers. Drill bits can’t be relied on to be exactly the diameter stamped on them. For accurate holes you would drill undersized and then ream to the correct size.

Where am I going with this? I think I will make a cut in a test piece and measure the width of the slot with my digi caliper to see what the actual slot width is. Then use that number for my bit size in the firmware. It may not make much of a difference, but it’s an easy check and we may be a little surprised by the difference between the stamp on the bit and the size of the slot it cuts.

It’s one less variable in the hunt for accuracy, and very easy to figure out compared to chain sag.

6 Likes
2

Drill bits not accurate, I concur, but milling bits and router bits I’ve never had a problem with unless they are the $1 shop ones.
But yes, these things are all good checks in the pursuit of better accuracy.

3

I use this trick to get at work for tool compensation, and it works great to get precise cuts. This is a great way to improve accuracy! :smiley:

1 Like
4

I never trust those, a normal old school calliper is acurate to 0.1 mm, that’s accurate enough.

5

I trust it better than my tape measure and my eyesight. :nerd_face:

1 Like