Red Oak settings and squaring spindle

[abecker (Andy)]

I have two questions:

1. I have been trying to tram my spindle and get rid of the lines in my carving without much luck. I feel like I can’t make a small enough change to my spindle holder to get the left right tram flat. It keeps bouncing between the left side being a little high and then right and back and forth. I am at a point now where I feel that my back left is low, and front right is high. I have read the wiki but does anyone have any tips for getting this last bit square.

2. Second question is what speeds/feeds have you been using on Red Oak. The wiki has two mentioned with very different DOC and speeds. Below is a picture of a cut using 65 in/min feed, 32 plunge, and I believe a 0.25 DOC.

[ItsDan (Daniel Loughmiller)]

1/4’ Bit? try halving the DOC to 1/8", those are numbers I used in Oak this weekend with good results. With those speeds what speed is the spindle on? I have mine around 5 for my cuts.

I assume you’re using a square end bit not ball nose? Have you tried reducing the stepover? It may precalculate to 50% of the bit size I can’t recall but I’d try 40%.

Finally look into making a machine leveled worksurface if you don’t have one, that will at least ensure you’re flat, even if not square.

[abecker (Andy)]

Yeah this was a 1/4" square end mill, and I had the speed on 3 for the Dewalt. I recently attempted to square my spindle, and then I leveled the wasteboard.