First Oramask Plywood Cut

I just did my first cut using Oramask on 1/2’ plywood and I got a lot of tearout. I used a #201 bit. I am pretty sure that it is because I think the 201 is a upcut bit.
Do you think the reason that the Oramask ripped off is also because of the upcut bit?
I have attached a picture.

The plywood was spray painted red and then the Oramask was put on top of it the next day.

Yes, a downcut tool such as our #251 would probably work better for this.

One thing which might help is using a roller to adhere the mask, but that will depend on how splintery the plywood is.

The unhappy truth is some plywood is going to splinter no matter what you do. This is not discourage you but that is just fact. Some plywood is better than others in the quality of their glue and how well it is constructed. Unfortunately you cannot know this until you cut some. As @WillAdams suggested go to a down cut bit. Use your Oramask but be sure to use a J roller to press it down. Just using your hand smoothing it out wont really work as well as pressing a J roller over the surface. I use Easy Liner Adhesive Shelf Liner I get at Walmart. Same thing use the J roller. Plywood is a great product but can be quite tricky for use on a CNC. So to mitigate the woes use down cut bit, masking and pray you get a good carve. Depending on what you are using the project for you may just have to live with some tearout. If you are making signs some people get solid PVC and carve their projects with this. You did not say what you are making but plywood is always snake eyes for me.

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Just out of curiosity, what did the bottom of the plywood do? Did it splinter as well? My thinking is, if the bottom looked good, you could cut a mirror image. The top is the bottom and the bottom is the top.

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Here’s an old thread with some discussion of some of the issues with plywood surface finish, upcut vs. downcut, roughing & finishing passes etc.

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