Getting into the wonderful and in-depth world of cnc routing.
As well as learning fusion 360 I’m interested in the bits I can and should use for my projects.
Are there any recommended bits I can use in Europe , preferably with electronic tool file for fusion 360?
will be working with wood , ply.
Have seen that we can use 1/4 collet which would make for a faster roughing pass but should we do this given the limitations of the motor?
I bought this set when I knew I would be starting the cnc journey but I’ve had a little trouble setting them up in fusion , I measured them with the callipers etc but still got abit of air carving and have no idea if my speeds etc are right . Have successfully carved a few things though anyone got a tool library setup that I can copy for these?
Bit of a candid question too , am considering getting the 5 peace set off snapmaker for ease , are these bits ok? Are they going to last?
Managed to break the small end mill with my first play finding center point , doh !!!
Use 6 mm in Europe. It’s almost the same size and far easier to source cutting tools for. ER-11 is a worldwide standard; lots of collets for it.
It will be a bit faster. As you intuit, cutting speed is limited by the spindle motor capacity. A larger bit, however, has a higher surface velocity (the speed at which the edge moves through the material) and will cut wood better.
It’s not an either-or proposition. You can change the collet at any time for whatever tool suits your work. At the start of learning your machine, your tool life is going to be limited by tool breakage, which will usually be your fault, so buying premium tooling at the outset likely isn’t worth it. If you’re not buying premium, you don’t have to worry too much about brand; anyone who’s not a fly-by-night, no-name (or random-phoneme-name these days) seller will have something decent. SainSmart is plenty reputable, for example.
Sainsmart/genmitsu are good cheap ones. I’ve been happy with HQmaster too.
If you want to spend a little more Whiteside and CMT are really good value.
Amana has the reputation as being the best but the price reflects it.
Overkill unless you’re doing production work on a bigger stronger machine.
1/4" or 6mm or 6.35mm are used for larger clearing passes. By removing larger stock with larger bits you can really speed up the process. SM has no problem running them with the caveat that you need to keep your step-down and work speed small. For hardwood start with .5mm step-down and 400-600mm/m work speed. May be able to bump that up to 1mm, but start there.
Smaller bits are for finer detail. Consider them disposal. You can do everything right and still snap them. You will do stupid things and snap them. I have no complaints about the SM ones, but you can find better value elsewhere.
Get a digital caliper if you don’t already. That way you can just measure and enter your own specs for your bits. You really should have one for measuring thickness of stock both for cnc and laser, as well as if you’re going to design anything for 3d.
Thanks so much guys , really helpful . Yes I’ve got digital callipers . Really excited to do some problem solving projects and bespoke design .
So based on you advice I’ll get some of each , the feeds and speed are the things which confuse me when entering into fusion tool library but I’m sure I’ll get it eventually
Because of the limits of what the SM can do there really doesn’t end up being that much to learn or figure out as far as speeds and feeds. There are calculators online that you can use, but in real world use with the power of the current spindle they’re more theoretical.
If you just listen to your SM and watch it, it will tell you what you need to know. It’s pretty obvious when it’s straining. And if starts stuttering or vibrating or chattering you just want to stop it immediately.
I slow down a little more with small bits - 1mm or less but for the most part I use the same speed and step down with 1.5 to 6.35mm. For oak, maple, walnut, etc. I generally use work speed of 400. For pine, poplar, beech etc, 600-800. Those are general starting points. Every piece of wood is different even among the same species. Look up and compare the janka rating of any type of wood you use. That will help you know where to start. Also if there are any characteristics of the wood that you should know about. Like someone was having a problem on this forum and it turned out that it was sapele and there are issues with machining it because of it’s grain structure.
The one thing, especially if you do any deeper cuts, is to have both upcut and downcut bits. Upcuts work better for clearing and pull the chips away from the workpiece but they don’t give as good of a surface finish. Downcut bits give a better surface finish but especially in deep ruts they can compact the shavings and jam things up. You have to make sure to vacuum during the job.
And as far as flutes go, I would just go with double for most SM stuff. Single is fine for clearing, but doesn’t give a great finish.
Good beginner sets can also be ordered from AliExpress. I’m in France and had no issues getting these Tritop bits at ~15€ for a set of 5. As noted by others, the fine bits are fragile and will break from user error (yup - can confirm!) so go with cheaper ones to start until you’ve trained yourself out of the classic stupid mistakes (run boundary without moving the bit off the surface, selecting go to home after changing material, …)
So far I’ve been quite impressed with the value proposition and after 6 months of use, the smallest bits are still holding up just fine. Granted not under heavy daily use but with lots of tests of MDF and some longer carving runs on hardwood.
Another good tip I saw before in the forum. And one I’m applying as well:
get you some cheap sets with different sizes & types. You’ll learn soon enough that you’ll only use certain sizes and have some favorite bits rather soon.
As those wear out/break etc: replace just those with new higher quality ones. (where one bit might cost as much as a really cheap set of 10). After a while you’ll find out you probably have 3 to 4 bits you’ll use all the time and rarely use the other ones.
While you can make dremel bits work they’re not really optimized for cnc work.
And you’re not really saving any money on them.
One thing I forgot to say was that the bigger the bit the more it’s worth spending money on them.
You’ll use them for tougher stuff and they’ll stay sharp longer and have less run-out and the quality of cut and finish will be more noticeable. And you’re not likely to break them.
You’re right - they are not that cheap. But if you already have them at home, they are worth a try.
The bits I use are (linked above) are the dremel router bits (double flutes) - not to be confused with the high speed ones. In my experience, they produce a cleaner surface than the ones shipped with the Snapmaker 2.0. Settings I use in Fusion 360 (soft wood): Adaptive2D, 500mm feedrate, 3mm stepdown, 2mm optimal load for the 6.4mm bit.
Edit: I would not use these bits for deep cuts since they are not good at pulling away the chips.
ER11 collets can be purchased on AliExpress.
Various sizes are available, but the following points should be noted.
As the shank diameter increases, the peripheral speed becomes faster.
The machining cutting resistance becomes larger.
The cylindricity (runout) of the collet is not very accurate because it is made by AliExpress.
Aliexpress just sells from a bunch of different vendors. So depending on who the seller is it could be from any number of suppliers. The set I got off ebay has runout equal to or better the original SM collet. (not sure if that’s bad as pertains to the quality of the SM one) The biggest problem isn’t that you can’t get a good set like I did, it’s that the quality control and consistency isn’t there so that until you actually get them you won’t know.
I have found that I only use two of them besides the SM one which now I have 2 of that size.
-S
I bought this Colette set for a total of 1500 Japanese yen, including shipping (
$13.77).
I think it is wrong to expect the amount of runout of cylindricity and roundness since you are buying them at such a price.
Nevertheless, it can be used if the shank length is short enough, and in fact I use end mills of different diameters.
Even though I have so many collets, I use only four types.
The rest are like a collection.
Compared to the CNC bit holders I had with the Snapmaker Original, the Snapmaker 2.0 is great because it can maintain some roundness and runout with the ER11 collet.
The biggest drawback is that the linear module is clunky…
My five cent is that you start litelbit low on the cuting speed and increas to optimal,
Imput what the book say in Fusien or whatever program u use for making the code and then when you start u start in 70% workspeed or somthing and increas till it dont sound right and ten go down litelbit and looa at the finished produkt …AND remember it is not A cnc it is an 3D printer whit CNC spindel
anyone got a tool library setup that I can copy for these?
