When I look for cnc router bits. I see different types of bits called end mills or spiral cutters or some that seem to have corn in the name. What bits can I use for wood. I think I should only use spiral cutting bits.
When I started, I got what was cheapest. Gunna break some eggs… The Bits with the knurled shaft do work. Normally not quality. I have a few of them still in my stock. They cut, DOC per pass is limited in my opinion.
The cheap bits taught me how to listen to my cut, how to setup my job, and not cry when I broke one. At that time 30.00 for 10 bits was all I could do. And that tells you the quality.
I don’t think they excavate the chips out of the cut well. You end up with dust, not chips.
That’s my 2 cents on them
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Corning mills bits are more like rasping bits. They won’t do the work as effective and efficient as the endmill would. I would say, stay away from the Corning bits.
As for endmills verse spiral bits, the endmill usually has a less aggressive flute, more body to the endmills, and can be used more on cutting metal if that is where you would like to take you work. Now, they also do well in wood cuts, but pushing them too hard can cause the wood to get hot, which transfers the heat into the bit, which also can cause premature dulling.
Spiral bits have a much more aggressive flute for chip removal, but is limited in what it can cut. Spiral bits are not normally made to cut any metal. The upside to the is, they remove wood chips fast. Of course you have the down cut spiral bits as well and they will not remove the chips as well, but they will cut a clean cut on the top of the material without breakout being bad or any.
My suggestion is to pick up some of the cheaper bits for now and run them to learn your machine.
Michael said it best here. You are going to break some bits because of operator error, learning your machine and figuring out what works. It would be better if you were using a bit cheaper bits during this process. It hurts the soul to buy a single bit for $60+ and run it to only see it snap in two and the heart sink knowing you just wasted that money. I run CNC machines at a machine shop and the endmills in there can cost as high as $350. Kinda hard to walk into the office and tell my boss that I broke the $350 endmill and he is going to need to buy another one. So, we learn to know the limits of our tools and play in the area of caution when it comes to using these tools.
You should focus your tool purchases to regular endmills and spiral bits. Stay away from the Corning bits. Make sure to get you a good surfacing bit, one with replaceable inserts is preferred. And you may want some tapered bits as well for any 3D projects you may want to cut. But even with all of these suggestions, you know what you want to run and may not need many tools at all. Also, a good suggestion is whatever direction you want to take your cutting with whatever bits or endmills, make sure to purchase at least 2 of them. This way you have a backup if you break one. It would suck to run a job, break your endmill/but, and have to wait for an order to come back in with a replacement tool.
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