What to look for in bits?

[CrazeUK]

Its a repeated question when somebody starts.

The answer:

Sizes:

you need 3 major sizes:

3mm or/and 1/8"

6mm or/and 1/4"

12mm or/and 1/2"

......

Wow, thanks for that. This needs to be a sticky!

Its a great place to start.

I did forget to mention this is just a "hobby" machine, alo a learning machine in advance of my friend ordering a industrial capacity one.

The only Collect i currently have is 6mm (they are expensive on the Kress), I am looking into getting a 3mm one too.
I bought a whole load of Carbide and HSS bits of ebay (cheap and cheerful with a range of sizes) to get me going.

Even with the 2 flute, I have already broken 3 x 3 mm bits (once out of stupidity, moving the head whilst i was aligning the bit to a whole).

I did find swapping the 4 flute to 2 flute made a massive cutting difference.
Someone mentioned getting a single flute for acrylic?

I am still getting a bit of a problem with melted acrylic piling up around the bit, this then suddenly grows as more is backed up.

Is there a correlation between temperature of the bit vs the build up of melted material around the bit?

As for sharpening, i think i will avoid that for now, this machine is a steep enough learning curve for now! lol

Thanks again, this is awesome.

[Boyan Silyavski]

Acrylic needs brand new sharp cutters and sturdy machine so the cut is excellent. On small machines is best to scratch it rather than digging in it, or it will melt easily. One flute are nice but not all a center cutting, meaning not very good for drilling holes as the tend to go off center.


here bellow is a general suggestion for cutting acrylic using 3mm / 1/8" / cutter