Amana In-Groove feeds and speeds

[lgutman]

I bought the IN-Groove system from Amana. I have seen some people have had issues with it on the forum before but I wanted to give it a try. Toolstoday has a 6 month return policy, so I figured why not.

My questions are on the feeds and speeds on some of the tips.

Does anyone have these defined in there toolsdb that they would like to share?

I have looked at the recommended chart and have started with those values, but I was wondering if there was anyone out there with real world numbers that they have used.

Also was curious as to how they set them up. Did you set them up as v-bits, engraving bits, or form tool. Seems like there is lots of options.

Here is the manufacture values. http://www.toolstoday.com/images/RC-1075-Feed-Chart.pdf

Thanks

Larry

[Chuck Keysor]

Hello Larry. I own a set of Amana In-Groove bits and holder, and I had problems with the tips breaking. I used them for V-carving and defined the appropriate bits in the V-bit category. I never used any of the set's included form/profile bits.

At the recent Chicago area Camp Shopbot, I talked to someone else who told me he had the same problem with the tips of these bits breaking off.

When I used mine, I did zero them with the standard SB zero plate. When I ran them, it would have been somewhere between 1.3 and 1.5 inches per second. I do all my V-carving in that range. Any faster just makes the machine shake too much with my big spindle. The RPMs I used, I don't recall. I would guess 12Krpm to 18Krpm. For some reason, I have run my RPMs at lots of different values, so I am really not sure.

I will say that each bit cut beautifully for the few minutes they ran before the tips snapped off. I just think these are so fragile, that they can't hold up. They are like X-acto blades, not cutting bits.

I would suggest seeing if you can zero the bits without the Z-zero plate first. I hope you have good success. Chuck

[lgutman]

Well I have used these bits for a few weeks and I have not broken any. I am error on the side of slow feeds. I am running 13000rpm and .5 IPS. I am doing small lettering. Here is a sample of what I was working on.
27837

Larry

[Chuck Keysor]

Hello Larry. How small are your letters? From what I can see, the bottoms of your V-grooves look like they have flat bottoms. Did you limit the depth of cut? Thanks, Chuck

[lgutman]

I cut it with no flat depth. The insert I used was the 30 degree RCK-361 with .010 tip width. It gave me the best results.

Other issues I had is trying to keep tear out down. Tried oak, maple, and cherry. Maple actually turned out the best.

Larry