Feed Rates and cutters for wood panels

[jimbo_cnc]

I was just about to hit the buy button on a 900x1800 machine when someone questioned the feedrate I should be using on 19mm melamine faced chipboard or melamine faced MDF. I'd mistakenly asked for 2000mm/min or more (based on production time).

The machine is designed for about 3500mm/min. The suggestion was that I should be using 6000 to 10000mm/min.

A quick search on this subject reveals plenty of woodworking forum posts, where whatever speed someone says, someone else always say you need to cut faster eg someone says 15000mm/min and tool lasts 40 sheets, someone else will say "too slow, use 22000mmm/min and tool will last 80sheets" !

Now, I'm not going to be a jobbing shop. The machine will probably be cutting less than 1 hour a week (at 3000mm/min) to make 1 product. And the profit margin on the product would allow for a new £30 cutter every hour. That's being extreme, but I would prefer to spend and extra £10 per job on cutters than an extra say £2000 up front on the machine.

That kind of answers the economics of cutting speed, so next is quality of cut.

I've only manually routed the MFC panels to date, and I get a good enough result with that. The customer doesn't see any edge faces, so I've never though much about the quality of the edge, as long as the melamine doesn't chip I've been happy.

I'm getting a vacumm bed if that's relevant.

I will be cutting a few 6mm wide grooves, some 19mm wide grooves, and then cutting out the profile. So I was thinking to use a 6mm cutter for the lot.

I realise there isn't a question there, just some kind of self justification for buying a machine that feeds at 3500mm/min. I guess I'm hoping someone will say they cut at that kind of speed. And tell me what cutters they use and how fast they wear out.

thoughts?