I am making these little trays 6" X 6" by 3/4" Thick. I have to plow out the middle to a depth of 3/8ths and I am doing it in 3 cuts with an upcut 1/4" bit. The router is a makita and the cut quality is awful with the tool traveling in the counterclockwise path. We tried another program that allows the tool to travel clockwise and its fine. The only thing we can see is the ccw path is tearing up the material. The bottom of the cut is really rough with ridges and tear out in it. The bit is an industrial carbide end mill that I got from Lee Valley. I have it set at 50% path coverage and it makes no difference. I don;t know what else to do. I like easel but I fear if this is the kind of results I am going to get I will have to give up on the cnc I bought. I don’t have the time or energy to learn another program.
Tearing of wood can cause all kind of issues, rotation do affect this obviously.
But the bottom should be okay though, unless there is something else at play like rigidity issues or out of tram spindle.
Can you share a picture of a pocket floor and share some specifics on the bit used? A pic of that aswell would be great.
I’m not an Easel user myself. Before you give up, you can always get a CAM program that allows you to change your feed direction. CamBam can do this I believe. I know you said you didn’t want another program, but these kinds of things allow you more flexibility. You can get 40 tries after you download it.
@GregoryDent. A down cut bit would help with the tear out in plywood
Ok thanks for the info guys. I will try and get pics later for you. For now i will see about a down cut bit and see how that goes. I really appreciate the info.
RPM and feed rate used?
Bit info / pic would be nice.
In case there is something in need of attention regarding those / or elimiate that to be a contributing factor.
a downcut will help with the tearout on the top of your workpiece, it’s not going to do much for the bottom of the pocket if you’re having issues there. Like has been mentioned before, if you’re seeing scalloping on the bottom of the pocket, it means you’re Z axis is not straight and needs to be trammed.
look up Winston Moy’s Youtube video on compression bits Intro to Compression Endmills for CNC Woodworking - YouTube