Hi @WestCoastDaz,
Feeds and speeds are confusing at first, for me the major source of confusion initially was that the recommendation you may find on the internet seem to vary wildly, and more often than not are not directly applicable to a stock Shapeoko.
Using the suggested values in Carbide Create is usually a good place to start, but then again there are many specific cases depending on what cutter you are using, and geometry you are cutting. My take on feeds and speeds for a Shapeoko is in this section of the ebook.
What geometry are you cutting ? I suggest trying pockets first, they are easier on the machine since only a quarter of the cutter section or so is engaged in the material. Find feeds and speeds that work for pocketing for you, then when you need to do profile cuts (slotting), dial down depth of cut.
Downcut endmills are great to reduce tearout, but they are not as efficient as upcut endmills when it comes to chip evacuation, then tend to push chips down so if you are slotting the chips may end up being packed at the bottom of the cut, possibly leading to chatter, the deeper the cut the likeliest this will occur.
If you don’t feel like going through the whole F&S section I linked above, here’s a summary:
- Set the router to the highest RPM you can bear (say, 18.000RPM)
- In maple, aim for a chipload of 0.001". Since chipload = feedrate / (nb of flutes x RPM), for your 2 flute Amana cutters, that chipload would then call for a feedrate of 0.001" x 2 x 18.000 = 36ipm in this example. You can experiment and go to higher feedrates, but don’t go much slower, as some point the chipload will become too small and you would rub the cutter rather than cut anything, which is quite bad.
- Aim for depth per pass = 50% of tool diameter for pocketing, and a bit less, say 35%, for slotting. Again, it is quite possible to go deeper, but it’s a safe place to start. So basically, start with 0.04" depth per pass for the 46225-K, and 0.08" depth per pass for the 46202-K, and see if that gets you a good cut. If it does, then you can incrementally try deeper cuts.
- use dust collection to make sure chips are getting sucked out of the cut.
Let us know how it goes !