What size cutters?

[Ian Johnston]

only really to sizes needed, 3mm 2 flute spiral up cut, and the same but down cut if you cant use tabs, and are cutting small letters, these will cut ACM foam, perspex up to 6mm easily,

6mm in the same setup for acrylic 2 flute spiral up cut for thicker acrylic in steps of 8mm at most at a time, double flute gives better polishing to the edges and swarf clearance.

For fast cutting templates, MDF etc, 6mm single flute upcut.

If your cutting very small letters in foamex, you can use a 2 flute straight flute bit Cloimb mill direction, the swarf will stay in the cut but hold the letters in place, the swarf will stick to the offcut if cut climbmill

[Ian Johnston]

the other bit if forgot to say is, "ENJOY"

nothing more enjoyable than programming and then watching a CNC work, 😀

[Kevin Flowers]

Cheers Ian
hows things your end, don’t know if this is of interest to you or anyone else but Chase Signs equipment is on auction soon. Catalog hasn’t been released yet but the listing is on Bidspotter.
Many thaks for the info

Kev

[Ian Johnston]

things very busy this end, Some very nice jobs coming up in the usual Christmas rush. 2 jobs in England next month too, one in Clitheroe and one in Leeds, so a nice wee holiday or two doing them 😀

[David Rowland]

pretty much the same as Ian….we also have 4mm’s but 3mm and 6mm is our common sizes.

[Kevin Flowers]

Ian
thanks for the Pm will let you,

Dave
Where’s best place to buy cutters

Kev

[Nigel Marks]

Just trawling through the older posts and came across this so thought I would add my tuppence worth!
I use a 1000 x 600 cnc router and do everything from wood – metals – stone signs on it.
Smallest cutter used so far is a .3mm and largest is a 10mm, mostly 2 flute
Most of my cutters come from Drill Service ltd in Horley. Google should find it easy enough.
Hope this helps a bit!

[david hogg]

3mm on a 6mm shank single flute upward spiral solid carbide is the correct tool for all types of general signage especially for acrylic cuts like butter if used with correct feed and speeds, 2 flutes are crap for acrylic take it from me I have 20 years machining under my belt the problem with 2 flutes is there is not enough clearance between flutes and can cause heat buildup ok for some applications but in general I don’t use them and I pride myself on edge quality just ask Ian I have done work for him before , 6mm also same upward spiral good for 10mm and thicker material generally use it for 19mm , downward spiral has 2 applications best used for cutting woods this forces the material down onto the surface instead of lifting it up like an upward spiral brilliant for veneers ,hardwoods and plywood , also can be used in help pin down the component to table surface but this I would not recommend as it gives a good top edge it can force out material on the bottom edge ,
If you need advice on a specific material let me know I have machined basically every material you can think off
Hope this helps a bit could talk about tooling for hours
dave