Suggestions for 30 degree bits?

Hey everyone, I do some fairly detailed carving for the pieces that I am selling, lots of very small text. I get some pretty great results from 30 degree bits, so I thought I would check here and see if anyone has a favorite brand that they tend to stick to.

I’ve been playing with a couple Amana engraving bits – the 45771 and the 45620 in particular. Both make for some very nice and clean results. The only problem is, I find that the tips seem to break fairly easily, and once they do it completely throws off the project, since the width of the tip is now different, which can create inconsistent results if you don’t realize it broke and then reset your zero using the bit setter. And of course the tips are so insanely small, it would be pretty difficult to get a new measurement for the end mill settings.

So I am hoping there is a less expensive brand out there, which perhaps sells in packs of 5 or 10. I’m thinking Amana might just not be worth the price if I can only do a couple projects before the tips break.

I am carving in hardwood, if that helps.

So what 30 degree engraving/vbits would you recommend?

Here are the two I talked about above:

https://www.amazon.com/Amana-Tool-45771-Carbide-Engraving/dp/B001UTV66M/

https://www.amazon.com/Amana-Tool-Carbide-Engraving-Signmaking/dp/B0722L45WC/

Drillman1 sells solid carbide Kyocera endmills quite affordably on eBay.

Tried to collect all the specific recommendations at: https://wiki.shapeoko.com/index.php/Endmills#Specific_Bit_and_Brand_Recommendations

One thing which seems to help is using a CAM tool which allows G2/G3 arcs — the smoother movement seems to reduce breaking.

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To echo Will, I use drillman1’s 30 degree bits and just did for a project this last week. They are inexpensive and work well in wood.

Same thing happened to me when I bought a more expensive one, so I thought I would try some really inexpensive ones -10 in a pack never broke a tip in wood yet, but I have in aluminum, that’s why I bought the cheaper ones to see how they would hold up in aluminum and they last pretty long as long as you have the F & S correct. Says US but they are made in China. Even with the tip broke they still cut but like you said - differently. Don’t think I would buy from China again though even though the price is real cheap, I checked out drillman’s and next time I’ll probably try his, to see if the price really does reflect quality.

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what kind of F&S are y’all using for wood with these bits?

I’ve been playing with inlays lately (now that you can do those with carbide create, and before using custom CAM stuff)… and it seems that the steeper the angle the better the results are. So far I’ve used “normal” 60 degree V bits and even a 45 V bit…
… but next step is 30degree or even 22degree.

For walnut I have been using around - F =75, P = 25 rpm 15k, (I’ve been able to run that higher if I remember around 130%)
Aluminum 6210 - F=75 P= 12 DOC = .008 - 15K (may have slowed F down just a bit because of the tip breaking issue.)
But that’s just from a newbie who really doesn’t want to push too far …yet! Plus anything above that rpm is just a little too loud for me,so I’m content with that so far -I turned it all the way up to 30 k once just to see how loud it was, and can’t believe people run it that fast, I would be scared.

Is there a tutorial on how to do that inlay stuff with a v-bit on CC out here somewhere? I’d like to try it.

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Yes, great one by @fenrus here: Using "Advanced VCarve" in Carbide Create 461 to make Inlays

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I have used Kyocera scoring Tools quite a lot, and swear by them. I’ve used 30/45/60 degree, all in a 1/4 shank, have used them in hard and soft timber for engraving and V-carving (i differentiate them because the v carving requires a good finish at deep depths) with no issues at all. my last bit lasted for about 18 months of 3-4hrs a week use.

I have also used them in aluminium with great success. seriously recommend

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