I’ve been searching for router bits. I see one that I’m familiar with the up cut and down cut spiral type. But
I see another type of bit that is called engraving en mill bits.
Are they only for engraving? Or can they be used to cut?
Thanks
We have a bit on endmills at: https://docs.carbide3d.com/support/#tooling-support — see: https://docs.carbide3d.com/tutorials/tutorial-tooling/
The community has a bit more on a wiki: https://wiki.shapeoko.com/index.php/Endmills
Thanks for the response. I looked at these links. I still don’t see
information about the differences of these two bit types. Not sure where you would use the blue bit.
the blue bit is sometimes called a “burr” bit… and they’re often on the cheap end of the spectrum
it tends to make very non-smooth edges and I’d only really use it for roughing out big areas of material, to be followed by a finishing pass with a nicer bit
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Thanks. That is what I wanted to know.
The blue one you show is often used for cutting fiberglass/FR4/PCB’s. The other looks a lot like a high helix aluminum bit, but has a little weird end (ie. not flat, not round).
The big difference between a router bit, a drill bit, and an end mill…
Drill bits, awful in a router, good for drilling holes. That’s it. Not sharp on the side, so don’t cut well there. Don’t use these in a router, they are not intended to run at router speeds, and are dangerous in a router.
End Mill, great at cutting on the side, ok at cutting on the end, terrible at drilling holes. These are generally but not always, what you want to use in a cnc router.
Router bits, great in a router, rated for router speeds, lots of different shapes, which also makes them generally hard to deal with in CAM software - straight bits, board surfacing bits, etc, are a lot easier to use with software. You can use them with software, but you need to know what’s you’re doing to get the result you intend.
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