Hey all,

I'm new to CNC and need some advice on ways to avoid or limit tear-out. I'm using a Chinese CNC6040 with a 1.5k spindle and two end-mill bits that came with the machine: 6mm and a 3mm to carve a couple of name plaques on a few scrap planks of softwood(I don't want to be using any expensive material yet as I'm a complete noob.)

On my first attempt, using the pocket toolpath in vcarve, I used offset and conventional. This came out reasonable well but left very noticeable tool marks on the base of the pocket and quite a bit of tear-out around the lettering. My second attempt, using raster and climb(upcut), came out much better. It had fewer tool marks and less tear-out - although it did leave a little more fuzz.

I expect a few problems like this when using softwood, but what advice would you give to help limit the tear-out. And what spindle speeds, feed rate and cut-depth would you recommend (the pocket is only 5mm deep. I used 3 passes with the last being 0.3mm.)

Cheers,
Rye