I need some help from all you experts out there, please!..
So I am doing my first tray for someone (not a paid job or anything), but gosh! I must have dialed my setting in incorrectly because this job is going to take almost 8 hours to do. (This is Acacia btw)
I did not notice that until I started wondering why this is taking so bloody long. I only finished the 4 pockets on the bottom side of this board before stopping. Still had another 3 and a half hours to go after this.
So I dont know, is this how long things generally take or have I got some setting that I can change to make this go quicker? I kind of see the point in rather making a template and clearing it out with a bigger router or something. Anyway! This is what Im working on. Also, I have to change some settings (but what) because Im getting burn marks by the look of it!
The 4 pockets I did so far are 3.9 inch x 3.9 inch x 0.47 inches deep.
Soooo, I really hope there is something I can do to make this a lot easier and quicker? Im sure some of you are looking at this and laughing your backsides off, and to be honest, I will probably too in a few months time, so all good there!
I changed the step over to 30% for that bit and it made a huge difference. Also increased the feed rate slightly and I seem to have less burn marks too. Still needs a bit of work though.
For now it’s me and 1F support again because my machine is playing up again with it just stalling and losing it’s orientation for whatever reason. Soooo annoying. Done one extra pocket and tried to do another pass 0.4mm deeper to remove the marks from the wider step over and it just keeps losing it’s orientation (UNHOMED all axis).
For what it’s worth, I use my bowl bit all the time for hogging out lots of material, but usually only if I’m already using that bit for the radius’d corners.
That’s what I thought as well. I just need to get my head around how to do that first!
Im thinking it is basically just setting up another toolpath with the different bit and setting the depth a little shallower hey?
What about the edges? Would you leave a bit there too or just remove that at the same time? If you remove that, do you leave a bit of material as well, like maybe with an offset inward?
Im using a Makita router so it only has the dial on top to regulate speed. I think I was going at about 4. Whatever that equates too. Im not sure what it should sound like when cutting to be honest. How do you tell you are going too slow and might cause damage to the bit for example?
I bought a tachometer (this one specifically) in order to set an accurate RPM. It comes with retro-reflective tape but the adhesive wouldn’t stay put so I just super glued a square of it on one face of the collet nut.
