Speeds and feeds for surfacing bit

[Aiph5u (Aiph5u (not affiliated with Onefinity))]

Hey Kyle,

@Coastal3D

Never seen an 8mm bit- especially not for a 1/4 inch shank.

What I meant is approximately 8 mm. You could also use 1/4″ (6.35 mm) or 3/8″ (9.525 mm). What I meant is that for milling pockets, I would consider a 1.125″ (29 mm) bit as much too large.

@Coastal3D

Please send a link if you have (although I’m in South Africa).

Here are some links where to buy milling bits:

• End mills at spindel-shop.de
• Cutting Tools at sorotec.de

Milling bits in Imperial/U.S. Customary units are uncommon in Europe, and at least as far as I know, elsewhere too (except USA and Canada).

Goran tek-en, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Here in Europe we commonly use bits with 6, 8, 10 or 12 mm shanks on ER collets (that I buy from spindle manufacturer), and the Makita hand trim router is sold outside U.S. with 6 and 8 mm collet:

www.makita.co.jp: Routers – Catalog page

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)
www.makita.de: RT0700C (discontinued)
www.makita.de: RT0702C (current model)

@Coastal3D

(although I’m in South Africa).

You are used to use metric units in South Africa I assume? Maybe because you have imperial history and also many goods are imported from the U.S., you use imperial units too?

We mainly sell to U.S. rather than to buy there:

Of course here inch collets are also available (for both trim router (UK version) and ER spindles) for those who want to use milling bits from the USA, but it’s not that common.

@Coastal3D

Also don’t really understand your comment about the motor not handling this bit at all. Hundreds of users on here surfacing their wood with a makita trimmer and surfacing bit? You saying surfacing should only be done if you have a spindle and not the makita?

I think you can achieve surfacing the wasteboard with such a large bit in the hand trim router, and sure, many do, but surfacing the wasteboard means removal of only shallow depth. I would not use such a bit for milling pockets, especially not with high plunge rate. I would use an end mill (which is good for plunging) and a high speed.

Also keep in mind that the hand router has only approx 0.75 kW power (which due to poorer efficiency of universal motor in comparison to spindle induction motor only corresponds to 0.5 kW spindle) and a 1.125″ (29 mm) surfacing bit is a very large diameter. Usually in normal use of a hand trim router you don’t use bits larger than 1/2″ (12.7 mm). It’s simply too much couterforce with such a large diameter bit for the weak motor, at least when you try to do deep pockets.

Also what I meant is that the trim router is not made for longer and/or stationary use. I did not buy one for use in the Onefinity.

@eJohn

A trim router when the day is done is just a trim router. It was never engineered to be a spindle and it’s duty cycle was never meant to be used more than a few minutes at a time

@Aiph5u

TRIMMER SAFETY WARNINGS

Do not leave the tool running. Operate the tool only when hand-held.

– – Makita RT0701C trim router Instruction Manual