I have made parts out of about 4 sheets of plywood so far. But for some reason the cuts are not as clean as they used to be. The end mill still feels sharp to the touch.
Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
sharpen the router bit i think 
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Are you using straight cut or a spiral cut router bit? I would try a down spiral bite they help with tear out. But I do not how they will work on this cnc with no down pressure. They mite try to climb out if the feed rate is to high
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Sharp to the touch isn’t neccecarily sharp. Do you have any leftovers of your first sheet that you could do a test cut on, to rule out the wood.
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Yep, definitely the bit going dull . Still cut the heck out of your finger but tears the wood apart.
Router rpm is too fast and ipm is too slow. Not sure that there is a solution to fix that yet though. I’ve seen a thread about different sprockets and different electronics to get the ipm faster but that is all over my head at the moment.
On a “normal” CNC machine where the bit is held down by a gantry, you would use a downward cutting spiral bit to eliminate this problem. I’m not sure if the upward thrust would be an issue with a properly weighted Maslow sled. This would be definitely worth experimenting with and posting the results. It could revolutionize the approach to projects for the Maslow.
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The thread you’re referring to is about increasing the machine’s maximum feedrate specifically for this purpose. I have not gotten a chance to test the new hardware yet, however.
My solution for the time being is to use single flute bits. They require less feedrate because there’s less cutting edges. I’ve been using the one available from the Maslow store and they usually last me about 1 month of just cutting on weekends.
I started with downshear bits on my Maslow. I come from the cabinet industry and those are standard on all our machines. I didn’t have any issues running it on the Maslow, and I was running near the max feedrate of the machine. I think it was 900 mm/min, but I could be wrong. Unfortunately, it was a two-flute bit so it screamed like a banshee at those feed rates.
Would it be reasonable to put the “pretty” side of the stock against the work area, and use an up-spiral bit?
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Do you have more than one “Bit” ? I keep 3 of each on hand.
Thank you
Just one bit at the moment. But I don’t think I have used it enough to dull it yet.
Judging from your pictures, it looks like each of those jobs is about 6-8" around. If you filled 4 sheets of plywood with those and cut them out, that would certainly be enough to dull a bit, especially if the feeds and speeds were not ideal for the bit (which is likely given the nature of the Maslow as @ScrumdyBum mentioned earlier).
@MeticulousMaynard’s suggestion of a single flute bit should result in longer bit life (since it would b closer to ideal feeds and speeds), and aside from a high up front cost, would likely be cheaper in the long run if you bought something like this:
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