IDC 1/4" HOG roughing end mill
I have seen a few posts extolling the virtues of this bit for roughing out u to 2" deep at pretty high speeds.
The bit from IDC in the US is US$36.26. Thats not a bad price but they want almost as much to ship it to Canada.
Any chance you guys can source it or a similar end mill and save us Canucks the shipping?
Thanks
We can look into it. I think also Garrett is planning to open up shop in Canada at some point, so hopefully that’ll add an extra option as well.
I was needing a more efficient option roughing out my dense walnut projects then several 2 flute upcut spirals I had been using. I purchased 2 of these hog bits when they were approx. $35 as I remember.
As of today this Hog bit is $40+. Don’t know about shipping to Canada. Like any bit it’s quiet and cuts like butter when new. I went gradually up to .18" depth/cut and up to 75ipm. At some point it started “singing” and darkening at the tip. Every blade/bit dulls with use. I regret not having pushed the speeds further to 100ipm or more when the bits were new. Perhaps I could have roughed out more/faster with the same wear-out time span.
Currently I’m using these and they have the same longevity performance for me .125"-.18" depth 50-75ipm. YONICO Upcut Router Bits Spiral 3 Flute Solid Carbide CNC Rougher End Mill 1/4-Inch 1/4-Inch Shank 36366-SC They are 1/4 the cost of the Hog, that’s quite the difference in $$. Don’t know about shipping to Canada.
Last month I started using this was well. Accusize Industrial Tools Standard Tooth M42 8% Cobalt TiAlN Roughing End Mill, 3/8" Diameter, 3/8" Shank Diameter, 3/4" Flute Length, 1102-0038 Same speeds and feeds. I cuts but I don’t have good enough notes to compare against a 1/4" dia. roughing bit.
However I’m really questioning if I’m missing out on the “best” performance possible on my walnut stock. I run a Makita on my 38x40 Longmill. Today I’m going to get out of my shell and run some test pieces with both dia. bits at various depth/cut but all of them at or above 100ipm. I’d be quite happy to shave 50% off my current roughing files. I keep fairly good conservative notes, perhaps I will publish my own findings.
Well I’ve done several trial cuts and found that I didn’t really know what I was missing with speeds and feeds for roughing out and cutting. So this post isn’t about V-carving, just roughing out and cutting with 1/4" dia. 2 flute down-cut bits. I kept my up-cut 3/8" & 1/4" roughing bits out of my experiments.
I work with some really dense Claro walnut. So everything I found was cutting very dense wood. I started with 100ipm and .1" depth/cut. 5-10min cut files. Worked my way up to .325" cut depth. No over heating or discoloration. This revelation was a game changer for me. Now I can move on to radically decreasing cutting times on my 1.5" redwood parts. I’ll keep using my up-cut spirals on thicker softer stock but looking forward to increasing depth/cut and speed. I’ve been going way to slow.
@Scott1 Where did you get the 3/8" collet for the Makita?
@Scott1 tks much. How do you find the run out using that?
Run out? That’s a great question. My buddy who makes/sells small aircraft parts actually has run out tolerance he needs to check often. He envies my CNC router in that regard because for the pieces I produce I wouldn’t measure run out if you paid me.
At 100+ ipm ripping through wood that has completely different density I bet the run out would be .01-.03" over 12" of travel. If you add up stepper accuracy, backlash nuts (and I really like the new ones), lead screws and v-wheel tension I’m sure these CNC routers would be considered “sloppy” compared to milling machines. But I really like what this Longmill does for me especially now having discovered twice the travel speed that I was using.