I’m finishing up my first build, and am trying to figure out what bits I should order to get started. I am looking a getting a couple types of starters, a flat endmill, maybe a ballnose, and a vbit or v engrave bit. I seen someone suggest maybe keeping the flutes on endmills to 1 or 2? Anyone have suggestions on starter pack or individuals I should look for to get started?
Hey @OneZero. When I first started cutting wood I went with the basics of this:
Qty x1 : 1/8" Single Flute Endmill from V1 - this can not only cut wood but also plastics and I believe aluminum. I have used on HDPE with fantastic results. This will be the end mill Ryan recommends to anybody starting out.
Qty x1 : 1/8" Ballnose Endmill from V1 - Great for those finishing passes and 3D carvings. I have used it very recently to finish some topographical cuts I have made that I’ll post soon.
Qty x1 : 1/8" 45 Deg End Mill from V1 - If you plan on doing carving this is the cutter for you. I have dabbled a little bit into carving and this is the end mill that I used with great results using EstlCam as my software.
I believe that if Ryan was to offer a starter pack this would be the make-up of it.
Finally I think you should add:
Qty x1: 1/4" 2-Flute End Mill from Drillman on eBay. Using this bit for roughing and adaptive cuts reduces the amount of run time the machine needs for a project. For example on my topo map I used it for my roughing stages and instead of a 2 hour roughing cut with a 1/8" end mill at 20mm/s I was able to knock it down to 40 mins at 20 mm/s.
Those are my suggestions and others may comment otherwise but its only my advice that matters 
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I have to agree with Mulze32 with the addition of a 1/4" shank 90 deg vee bit for carving letters, I really like using Freud bits
1/2" wide is nice for most signs that I do
You can also get 60 deg v bits to round out the collection. In case you want a deeper carved letter but not as wide.
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Thank you very much everyone!! These are exactly the specifics I was looking for. Going to put a couple orders together to get some bits coming in. I’m sure I’ll find other types and sizes I need later for projects, but to get started just need some key items that everyone always needs.
This is good to know Kelly. Thank you. So in summary the wider the angle the shallower the cut needed to achieve the same letter. I actually could have used this knowledge and a 60 or 90 deg for my latest carvings. I found this on a different forum that might be helpful but its kind of a his opinion type thing:
Text Height---- Recommended Bit Angle
< 1" ----------- 45° to 60°
1 to 2" -------- 60°
2 to 4" -------- 60° to 90°
4 to 6" -------- 90°
6 to 10" ------- 90° to 120°
Over 10" ------- 120° to higher°
Sorta? I’m a little under informed due to inexperience but it seems to me that if you specify the depth of cut to not exceed the depth of the v bit’s cutters then it’d give you a vee bottom to the carve path. Which by default should mean that the narrower the bit angle, the narrower the width of the carved path at the surface of the material. Where this will catch you up is if the width of the shape exceeds the width that the bit would give you at max depth. In this case the machine will surface out the “plateau” between the two edges at the specified depth.
Not sure if that makes any sense.
You can see what I mean here by the surfacing.