Boxwood routing?

I would like some advise as to the type of small router cutter for use on Boxwood and Lime specifically. Have 2& 4 flute small metal cutters HSS and carbide. Will they be any good for finish, grain ripping etc.

If anyone has the experiance to share? Some idea of speeds and feeds also gratefully recieved.

Although the geometry is not quiet right a 2 flute cutter will be better at getting rid of the shavings and run it as fast as possible with a fast feed to reduce the risk of scorching

The upcut angle of the bit may give some tearout of the top surface but if the cutter is sharp you should not get much

Hi Rod , have routed plywood using four and two blade milling cutter ,four is best at as high a speed as posible on my small mill .With care can cut free hand shallow quarter inchgrooves .Made some track for wooden train set .have not tried solid wood but Ido not see why it would not work

Best of luck and take care Maurice

Take the hint from the woodworkers, router cutters are, as Jason says, 2 flute to clear the shavings and dust as fast as possible. The last think you want is for the slot to be full of rotating wood swarf.

Hi Rod,

I have not routed either of these timbers however have machined others (hard and soft). Two flute tungesten carbide are best, must be sharp, and run at about 22,000 rpm.

Good luck.

Peter.

Hi Rod,

Both timbers should by their nature give a good finish with two-fluted cutters.

Do a trial run first as sometimes you can get endgrain tearout on some timbers that is hard to predict. If on trial you do experience tearout, I have found it helpful to rough out the cut. A very light finishing (25thou) cut does not usually give tearout then. Keep the cutter sharp!

Another thing a test run can do is to give you an indication of which direction of cut gives best finish. This is not always what you might think by looking at the grain.

Something else that can be a huge help is to run a vacume cleaner nozzle beside your cutter especially if routering small narrow or deep cuts, for example for inlay banding. It keeps the track clear of re-circulating sawdust and helps you to see and gauge forward speed better.

If upward tearing is a problem you can sometimes start by setting up a fence or guide for the actual position of the cut . Then clamp a thin piece of timber on top of the timber you intend to router. The fence, already set to position, will still guide your cut and you should get a clean top edge to the cut.

John

Gentlemen - Thank you for the tips and guidance. Have now swapped spindle to a high speed unit and applied the swarf/ dust extractor. I will try Falco`s sacrificial strip tonight.

I would like to think about cutting with fine rip saw rather like a slitting saw so as to produce small precise stock sections. There is of course no tooth set on the s/saw. May I then also ask if there is a solution to this problem as well.

Funny enough I posted on another forum about cutting some thin strips of brass, I had this brass sandwiched between some MDF and commented there that the slithers of MDF that were cut would be ideal for small cylinder lagging planks, That was done with a 0.020" thickness slitting saw you can see the results in this post.

The lime should be better suited being a much lighter wood, the boxwood may show some scorching but again keep a good feed rate and use a slitting saw with a low number of teeth so the gullets don't fill with dust.

Another option is to buy a small thin kerf TCT saw blade, these can be had in quite small diameters and are intended for cordless circular saws they have the advantage of "set" and the blade will last a lot longer if cutting the more abrasive hardwoods. They only cut about 1.2mm wide so you won't waste too much wood.

J

Jason

Thanks for info. That is a very interesting site that you linked to.