I used some scrap 1/2 spruce plywood for my test piece, and 11.5mm baltic birch for the good one. It splintered a tiny bit around the edges, likely from me speeding it up, but it’s flat and hard, unlike the spruce. If I had 1/2" mdf I would have probably gone with that, since there is a spot at the back where the saw blade cut is close to the edge, and the plywood is weaker than mdf in that grain direction.
Those are both pretty soft, you can go way faster on those materials versus a hardwood like oak or ash.
1 Like
Reporting back, with a 1/8th (new and sharp) cheap bit, I was able to get to 175IPM at 0.3125 Doc in red Oak. I have the VFD, and it handles it perfectly… No screeching or anything.
I probably won’t run it that hard in practice, but it’s good to know it can handle it well enough.
Question are you sacrificing the qualiaty of your cut to SEE How Fast YOU CAN PUSH SHAPEOKO PRO i WOULD RATHER LIKE TO WATCH THE CNC CUTTING THAN SAND
I don’t think so. A bad quality cut would be considered the point of failure, and tells us where the upper limit is.
Also, pushing the machine in the roughing steps and then running finishing operations are the way to get a good surface and cut down time.
4 Likes
I don’t need to be a max/min person but I’d like to be optimal and also found base numbers just slow or at times screeching and knew it needed to be fed more. Grabbed a trial of gwizard to see what it’d say and came out today for pine using #201 & Carbides VFD .25”d / 40%step / 15k / 200ipm, ran the same for the contour and it performed well except the vac was having trouble pulling out the last pass or two of the 1.75" depth and you heard it.
Using gSender as well. I heard we are gated by default to 200ips. For a Pro5 where’s the better ceiling as gWiz wants to do around 22k @ 290, and how do we change it?
I tried the trial of GWizard as well and the IPM it suggested was so far above the norms that I have been using I couldn’t believe it. So I didn’t try but maybe I should have. I rarely go above 120 on my Pro XXL (not 5 pro) with the C3D router hut GWizard was recommending more like 220-230.
So, screeching means you need to feed faster?
I am by no means an expert, but I did stay at a holiday inn express last night… 
I know that fear. I was willing to break a bit and try for science so I had a shield on, glasses on, hand on pendant–I was ready, and the damn thing just sounded beautiful.
As I have been explained to screech–not chatter–the sound of the bit rubbing against the material after it’s cut all it can cut. Reduce speed, or increase feed.
I use a hodgepodge of c3d and spetools and the spetools data sheet was asking for so much more than I was thinking it and my screech issue were causing me to pick at the problem. So I thought to cross reference that with someone’s tool like gwizard to make sure SPE wasn’t just throwing out bad data and it wasn’t. The machine itself becomes the limiting factor but there should be more overhead.
Also seeing @wilmatos1989’s OP that they are doing double the doc I am even if just a pinch slower–and with a compression–shows there’s even more room for growth.
Excited to have larger range to ponder both in depth or potentially speed. I don’t think we can do 290 but if reading Motion unlocks up to 275 then I should be able to get there somehow, just need to validate which grbl setting needs changing.
Sounds like I need to do some experimentation.
I was bewildered by all the options in GWizard and could not really figure out which things to lock down and which to let flex.
Yea woodworkers are not who it was really built for. What we’re learning though is most of the data sheets from Amana and Spe, who I thought was insane for their settings are really not crazy at all. They are firmly in the ballpark. So even if you don’t want to use gwizard or can’t wrap into it properly loading up common tool sheets and shaving a bit off for some conservative numbers should (under most circumstances) work.
1 Like
This is what i have been fighting, the noise is horrendous, i cannot run my machine without very good hearing protection.
Reducing speed doesn’t seem to help, but i haven’t increased anything beyond 120 IPS. So i’ve been cutting slow and dealing with the noise.
I feel ya. That’s one element which got me on the hunt because that screech can be 96dbi and hell even with my ear muffs on it tingles. Also my wife who is multiple closed doors away can hear me waaay too well and started giving me that evil eye. 
I’d say experiment with going faster on the frame or slow the actual spindle down. Something we can’t do independently while it’s running (afaik.)
I scrolled up and didn’t see what material or bit your using. I can try and toss them in gWizard while my trial is around to see what it says.
You also asked someone if they were doing the profile path at the same speed as the pocket and I did. Ramped in but it took down 1.75" in < 1m. Now that bit was pretty hot so I’m not sure how often I’d slot that deep off #201 but it did it and it only yelled at me on the last pass mainly because of the kerf buildup.
Usually running a 1/4" down-cut amana specktra bit, but i have a whiteside and harvey as well. All 1" cut height, but never run anywhere near that deep, wondered if i should run deeper, usually only cut 1/8" deep at time because i’ve had issues in the past.
Cherry, Oak, Ash, Walnut typically.
I just downloaded Gwizard, going to get it setup and check it out. Hell i’ll happily buy it if it works.
Moral of the story, i know i could probably be cutting deeper and faster.
1 Like
Hey, we’re all learning. Keep up your tests, I’ll keep up mine and let’s continue this grand collaboration. Make it easier for those around to know the full gradient of what they are capable of.
To add my more recent learnings:
I can go pretty much 175-200 IPM with the VFD at .25in, with a .25 bit.
What’s interesting, is I can’t go much deeper at all, even at much lower speeds. Once I go to 0.35in the spindle screeches even if I go 60ipm. I’m thinking that the bearings are the weak point in this case.
Just out of curiosity, what kind of wood did you use in testing?
For me, oak, walnut, maple all behave the same in my testing.
What’s your depth of cut?
I max out my depth of cut at .25 in. Anything deeper and my bearings screech.
Ok, i’m going to do some test cuts today to see what i can run, finally have some time and am not crazy behind on orders.