How to reduce tearout on Pine

[nick]

Hi Guys,

I have a small project in which my customer would like 1.5 thick pine.

I'm V carving with a 60 Deg 1" dia cutter.

My speeds are 1.5 for move and 1.5 for plunge and my RPM's are 15000.

The max cutting depth is .560 for the program and my pass depth is set to .375.

this is causing me excessive tearout. Any help?

[joe]

Nick,

The softer and grainer the woods are more subject to tearout. Some pine is more difficult than others.

Two suggestions. Reverse the cutting direction and make several passes. Your speed looks good.

Another option is to coat the top surface with shellac. Sometimes a couple of coats evens out the texture.

Nothing is for sure with some pines.

[dana_swift]

Nick- Be sure you are using a down spiral bit, and do climb cutting. That holds the grain together.

Joe's shellac comment is a great one, I will add it to my bag of tricks.. thanks Joe.

D

[joe]

Dana,

I didn't know there was such a thing as 60 Degree Down Spiral. Where can I get one of those?

Joe

[phil_o]

I've been using a CMT 60 degree bit. It carves well even in pine.

[dana_swift]

Joe- I didn't into account the 60deg VCarve issue.

Woops!

I don't know of a V spiral in either direction. I have found ball nose spirals and tapers with up-spirals. I wish they would be made with down spirals for help with grain control. Clearly there are 3 of us interested, there must be others.. a bit maker should take note.

D

[myxpykalix]

Contact Fred at www.centuriontools.com (http://www.centuriontools.com) and tell him what you want and ask him if that is something he can make. He has taken requests from other botters and made tooling for them.

[bpfohler]

I agree, buy a bit from Centurion Tools. The seemingly simple design of the v-carve bits eliminates almost all tear-out.
Unlike conventional v-bits, the Centurion bits seem to compress the fibers and cause less tear-out.

[nick]

Hi All,

Thanks for the input....I reduced my move and plunge speed to .75 and my rpm's to 12500.

This was the quality I was after.

Thanks so much.

Regards,

Nick

[srwtlc]

Nothing against Centurion's tools, but I find that the v-bits tend to tear out end grain in wood. Due to their geometry, they act more like a scraper than a cutter. They work great on veneered MDF though.