Feeds and Depths?

One place said to use 60% of the bit diameter for z steps…
The compression bit doesn’t seem like it would work with partials …
ESTLCam has really weird ideas for their trochoidal milling…

How does the advice change if I’m going to glue-ups of hardwood or plastics?

Since the Maslow can only go 20ipm… what should we be going for (my router is fixed 24k rpm)?

I’ve been having decent (no burning, but it’s making “snow”) with the Maslow carbide spiral upcut bit on SandePly plywood, but it is leaving my top edge “fuzzy,” so I’m thinking of the compression bit, and I’m also thinking “I want better” for my Ovation guitar (but a hardwood panel that’s 17" wide is hard to find, so it looks like a glue/plane job).

One place said to use 60% of the bit diameter for z steps…

I’ve seen everything from 50% of bit diameter to 2x bit diameter listed
authoritatively.

you really need to test, it will depend on how well the bit cuts, how rigid your
Z axis is, and how much force you have moving your router (much more force
pulling up towards the motors than gravity can provide moving away from the
motors)

The compression bit doesn’t seem like it would work with partials …

you really should cut out a little oversized with a regular bit and then to a
finishing cut with a compression bit if you use one.

How does the advice change if I’m going to glue-ups of hardwood or plastics?

test and see how well you cut on those materials, the harder the material the
shallower the cut will need to be.

Since the Maslow can only go 20ipm… what should we be going for (my router is fixed 24k rpm)?

as fast as possible, the max speed of the maslow is set in the settings,
theoretically it can go up to ~48 ipm, but since we don’t have acceleration
planning, it thinks it goes from 0 to full speed instantly and will generate
‘sled not keeping up errors’ too easily at higher speeds.

I’ve been having decent (no burning, but it’s making “snow”) with the Maslow
carbide spiral upcut bit on SandePly plywood, but it is leaving my top edge
“fuzzy,” so I’m thinking of the compression bit, and I’m also thinking “I want
better” for my Ovation guitar (but a hardwood panel that’s 17" wide is hard to
find, so it looks like a glue/plane job).

consider gluing a thin board on top of your workpiece (sandwich paper between
them so you can get them apart again, so the tearout happens to the thin board
instead of your valuable workpiece.

an upcut bit will produce more tearout than a stright bit, but it clears the
chips better.

I look for a single-flute stright bit personally

David Lang

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If your router uses brushes then you may be able to control its speed simply by reducing the voltage going to it. I use an electronic light dimmer for mine, it works really one with one of my routers, but not so good with the other (same model).

I have another router with variable speed control, but it’s too big to fit into the Maslow. I did find out that the componentry used to control its speed is exactly the same as what is in the light dimmer.

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