For me it’s gotta be the hardest thing to figure out with on this build. I know everyone says you gotta play with it. But a rough idea on a feed-rates would be amazing and save so much time/eliminate risk of damage.
I can find machinist speeds and feeds all day but nothing for wood and v bits also specifically.
I don’t have a speed controller but I def plan on getting one to try to really dial in stuff. But I would kill for a calculator or spreadsheet or something on how fast to run different sized bits.
v bits are much more forgiving on speeds, and you can run them faster than square endmills too. Here’s my recommendation for wood, 1/8" bits: .125" depth of cut, 15mm/s for v bit, and 10-12 for square endmills. You can increase from there until you have rigidity issues. If you get something like a half inch v bit, I would say 15mm/s is still good. If using 1/4" endmill, probably the same, but you’ll hit the upper limit faster. single flute you can push a little faster than double flute.
As a matter of fact, I just spent the last two hours working with an 1/8" 45 degree vbit from the Shop.
I have my Craftsman roto tool going full bore. I did 2mm depths for MDF and 12mm feed.
Here is Estlcam setup. It turned out fine. I will post pics of my tests and final work in foam and then MDF, but here is my Estcam setup.
[attachment file=“Screenshot (116).png”]
There are some things I still have to figure. The cut order is a bit weird for this text. I am not quite sure if I have the finishing steps figured out right. But in any case it didn’t take too long, about 8 minutes I think.
One thing to remember is that you have to have a bit sized to the font you use and the height of the letter. Your letters shouldn’t have parts that are wider than the tool to keep it all with a v groove. I’m still trying to figure out that part, but using the font High Tower and sizing it at 25mm high for the capital letters worked out fine.
I compose the text in Inkscape and bring the SVG into Estlcam.
Not trying to create a ton of new posts related to the same thing. Im looking at grabbing a Harbor Freight speed controller. It seems like a majority of speeds posted for wood routers/cnc is around 12k to 18k. Im not quite familiar with expected chips on wood so its been a hell of time nailing it down.
Any of you guys running that HF speed controller and has anyone figured out a rough idea on what the speeds are depending on what setting the controller is?
you’re overthinking it. 600-700mm/min and max rpm. basically, in wood, the higher the rpm the better. less chip load = less rigidity required = good when you’re using a 3d printed cnc. especially with the dewalt because as you start going down in rpm you’re going to be losing power. Start with a small stepdown, like 1/8" if you’re using a 1/4" v bit. turn the feed rate up, listen to how the spindle sounds, is it bogging down? ok, too fast. skipping steps? ok, too fast. jerking around? ok, too fast.
i’m not sure how it works in estlcam but in vcarve pro you tell it the depth you want the letters to be carved, and it will flatten out the bottoms with the v bit by taking a bunch of small stepovers OR it can clear out the flat areas with a different endmill. V carving is still useful even on bigger letters because it allows you to do the smaller areas/serifs.
in your picture you have a 20% stepover (i believe) which is way too high to make flat areas look good. that is why you aren’t getting good results on areas bigger than bit width most likely… you’d want to be down to like 5%
