solid carbide dovetail spiral router bits

[al ladd]

I"m looking to have some made, 8 degree, 7/16" dia ,5/8 DOC, 1/2" shank. If I have a bunch made they come down to about $70 a bit. Anyone want to go in on an order with me? call Al at 413 624-3048 for more info.

[James Phillips]

Why? I do not expect that it will work any better, and maybe not as good as a traditional dovetail bit.

[Brian Gumpper]

I would wonder too if chatter would cause the more brittle carbide to break easier.

Only benefit I would see is thermal because the solid carbide will handle the heat better.

[pat warner]

Solid carbide is the way to go; its modulus is >>than HSS.
Deflection, your no.1 enemy with these skinny steel DT bits, will be all but absent with solid carbide. Morover, solid carbide lasts 2-4 x longer than carbide faced HSS.
Routs (http://www.patwarner.com)

[Clifford Mescher]

I"m looking to have some made, 8 degree, 7/16" dia ,5/8 DOC, 1/2" shank. If I have a bunch made they come down to about $70 a bit. Anyone want to go in on an order with me? call Al at 413 624-3048 for more info.
I don't see the advantage of carbide with 1/2" shank. Carbide has good advantage with 1/4" shank as it will reduce deflection. Clifford

[Brian Gumpper]

As far as life, you may get 2-4 times more but it sounds like it cost about 4 times more. I guess if you're running a machine hard setup time has it's cost.

Out of curiosity, what are you doing with them and how many are you looking to buy?

[al ladd]

Thanks for all the replies. I'm using these --(or hope to use them, as I don't yet have them, and am indeed wondering whether they'd be cost effective -- looking to own about five of each of the two sizes I"m after ) --on a home built CNC router to cut through dovetails in 5/8 figured wood --cherry, koa, bubinga. I've been having unacceptably short life with the HSS Woodrat bits, and the typical Leigh jig designed bits have clunky geometry, and tend to tear out some, even toolpathed to cut part way in from each side of the stock, as i have. I"m new to CNC cutting, so maybe I should seek other solutions (slower feed?, precutting with another tool for chip clearance?). I thought the solid spiral solution might work seeing how much better (cleaner and faster) the solid spiral bits work for me for cutting the pins, although since i don't need to, I don't cut the pins in one pass (I use two), something not possible with the dovetail bits in cutting the tails.Vortex makes larger spiral dovetail bits for CNC use, and tells me they've made smaller bits , down to 3/8" for others custom.
Not a lot of through dovetailed work shown on my site yet, but you can see the sort of stuff I"m up to at www.alladd.com (http://www.alladd.com).

[Steve knight]

how are you cutting these? on edge or flat? if on edge you can sandwich the wood in something so you don't have blowout. I jsut don't know if the bit would help or not. it's a weird cut so hard to tell.

[Brian Gumpper]

Would it be feasible to use a solid carbide spiral bit to hog out the material and then use a standard carbide tipped dovetail bit to make your profile?

I can imagine HSS wouldn't last long. I mentioned heat in an earlier post and if you're doing a lot of continuous routing with a CNC, solid carbide will run cooler and stay sharper longer. I still don't know if you'll get any cost benefit out of it compared to standard braised tooling.

[Jeff Duncan]

I buy my dovetail bits from Magnate.com but after a quick check I don't see your particular bit listed. If you could find a stock one that works you could save $60+ per bit. I use solid carbide, 1/2" shank, 14 deg. x 1/2" x 1/2" bits that cost me $7.75 each.
good luck,
JeffD

[Tom Walz]

Try Southeast, Vortex, Whiteside. Maybe Dehart but I think they are all indexable. If they don’t work out, then we deal with a couple pro shops such as West Coast and BAM. Call and we’ll put you in touch.

Some of these folks are using carbide much more advanced than standard grades.

Think about carbide like tires. Most tools are made for general use and are similar to all weather tires. There are also special grades of carbide sort of like off road tires, drag slicks, Indy tires, etc.

If you have a dedicated use and a dedicated material then you can greatly increase tool life and productivity.

Most of the pro shops will do small orders for anyone. The focus of their marketing is in production shops so the average woodworker never hears about them.

Tom