Hi completely new to forum and cnc routing I have watched Winston mainly so far and must say he has restored my faith in youtube presenters, he’s great.
I came from a joinery professional modelmaking background not engineering, but I do understand feed speed and tooling type importance from a manual machine perspective. I want to use mainly woods and plastics and manufactured wood product.
I want to buy some tooling to start with, but before I buy the wrong tools I thought I would ask here and get some guidance. The machine I have is a shapeoko3 and came with some 4 flute cutters mainly for metal I think, I have the odd router bit but thats it. The router is a dewalt and has 1/8 1/4 6mm and I think 8mm collets.
Should I be looking at up cutting down cutting or a multi cut tool. I would think high speed steel would give a superior cut with natural timber, while tungsten would be better for mdf or glue laminated product is that correct.
Please excuse errors in terminology as I may take a while to come to grips with that side of it all. Flattening a work surface was a challenge to begin with and I learned plenty on that, I used a 16mm bottom cut router bit for that and it worked well I thought.
Thanks Will that will all be really helpful I will look through it and make some decision’s to make a start. I find doing things is a much better way for me to learn things and I just need some direction so I dont buy the wrong things. Being at the bottom of the world doesn’t help as there’s not a lot of choice about where you get things from and they often dont have a big range. In the states thats a little different of course but shipping costs to here often curb our appetite for buying from there. Once I get going I will look at an upgrade for the Z axis for the machine I have and will likely put some of your cutters in with that. Thanks for your help and up until now I have been doing this sort of work Completed Projects - Heritage, Research, Display
The Shapeoko machines typically use 1/4" and 1/8" tooling. I have a plastic tray under my router where router bits fall out while loosening them and here is what I have in it.
#251 1/4" Down Cut - I use this as my go to bit
#102 1/8" Up Cut - This gets used quite a bit for small pocketing
Groovee Jenny 60 Degree Down Cut Vee Bit - This makes a very smooth vee carving. Before I got that I used the #302 a lot
#112 - 1/16" Up Cut Bit - Used less frequently but for getting into small spaces on advanced vcarving tool paths.
Melin AMG-808-E 4" OAL Bit with 1.5" cutting depth. I use this for deep cutting
I am mostly doing 2.5D work but I do some 3D work and for that you need ball nose bits. I have both the 1/4 and 1/8" C3D ball noses but I do not use them a lot.
My advise is to buy a few bits and only buy different ones as you need them. C3D sells sets but those can turn out to be false economy. The individual bits are slightly cheaper as a bundle but turn out to be more expensive for each tool if you do not use some of the tools.
The basic #201 3 Flute 1/4" Up Cut bit is a standard bit for a lot of folks. Personally I do not like it. But the 1/4" 2 Flute Up Cut and Down Cut Bits are used most by me.
What you will use is dependent on what you carve. I do not do metal so the single flute bits are not needed by me. If you are going to cut metal then you will need the single flute bits. The single flute bits are also used for plastics.
I would not overthink it too much, if you have not even started. Instead do some cuts with the bits you have in different materials that you plan to use.
Later, I found the HSM Advisor software a big help (there are others). It calculates workable feeds and speeds, based on the machine type, cutter material, coating and geometry and the type of stock.
In the end it really depends on what you are cutting and your workflow. What is important to you? As little sanding or other post-processing as possible? The quickest cut possible? Having the finest detail? The fewest tool changes? Do you hope your bits will be use able for “years” or are you ok with getting cheaper bit that don’t last as long? Are you doing a single project or a batch of the same parts that will take several days to complete? It can be overwhelming at the beginning, but step by step things will make more sense.
Thanks very much for this info I think for me its a matter of not being able to see the wood for the trees at this stage, there is just so much info out there. When I acquired this machine from an older friend of mine he hadn’t used it for some time and all the cutters are 4 flute ones more for metals rather than wood, not that he used it a lot really. I will use it almost exclusively for wood with a little plastic, so your info makes it easy for me to take the plunge on a few cutters and then develop my tooling from their. As I am in a small country at the bottom of the planet and also rural getting things here can be challenging so I would like to get a few tools at once and then as you say get started.
I dont have a really technical computer background I am more of a hands on wood worker and was trained in the era prior to much manufactured board and I would like to keep on working in that natural wood arena if possible. I trained also as a professional architectural model maker after joinery so I understand the construction of items in layers so I am keen to explore the possibilities of that form of construction with the shapeoko.
I have a large workspace set up with saws, spindle molders and planers etc like a wood shop, so I am looking forward to combining all that into my creative path in the next few years.
Again many thanks for your most useful information.
I have been a traditional woodworker for almost 50 years. About 5 years ago I got a used Shapeoko 3. I have upgraded it over time and for a while it took over. I am back to a hybrid approach to woodworking. I use the Shapeoko to carve box top on jewelry boxes and other things. However the Shapeoko is really handy for making jigs for the shop. I have a friend that turns and I made him a Wedgie Sled and cut the Wedgies for segmented turning. So the possibilities are unlimited of what you can use the Shapeoko for. There is a significant learning curve but it is do able. Just start slow and work your way up. Some of the folks on the forum are not woodworkers and they try to do everything with the CNC. It is possible but the traditional ways are usually faster and more economical. Since you are already a woodworker many of the things you will make still require wood selection, planning, jointing and finishing. If you already know that stuff you will not have such a big learning curve. You will have to learn how to operate and use the CAD/CAM software. The free Carbide Create and Carbide Motion will take you far. After you get your feet wet some go on to Vetric and other more advanced software.
Since you said you are not a computer expert I would advise you to get a usb drive and back up your computer on a regular basis. You should already be doing that but you do not want to lose all your previous work from a computer failure.
Good Luck and ask any questions here on the forum even if you think the question is dumb. The only dumb question is the ones you dont ask. This is a very knowledgeable community that is friendly and welcoming. So start with youtube and watch the videos and that will help you a lot. Carbide3D has a youtube channel.
More excellent information thanks for that, I will mainly be using wood and manufactured wood with a little plastic. I will get a few basic cutters and get started as you say it will grow from their and start to make sense.
As an old friend of mine used to say to me continually " the hardest part is always getting started"
Guides like the one you sent put it in concise terms what the different cutters are for and which materials they suit, which is the part I was missing. Thanks for your help.
I just remembered (I am also somewhat remote), I had ordered bits from Fraiser Tools before and shipping was free worldwide, after hitting a certain amount of course. Some will say that cost is worked into their pricing (and I did not check), but psychologically it did work for me.
Thanks for this info I will check them out, Adams bits was helpful and there freight to NZ wasn’t to bad so I have the basics on the way should be here any day now. Thank you for your help with this ,Joel
Would just like to say thanks guys for your help I purchased a basic set of cutters from Adams and spent a few days trying things out. Just wanted to show you all some of what I cut on my first effort. Learnt some really interesting things on my learning curve which will probably end up with some more questions at some stage. A few scary moments when the router went home close to one of my primitive fixing bolts but nothing really to stressful. Carbide 3D helped me sort some disconnect issues I was having with the machine and it working fine now. Thanks again for your help.
