VESA Monitor stand design and bits

Projects
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My X-Carve is on order and a few days ago the stand for an old 19" monitor broke, so a CNC cut VESA monitor stand seems like a good early project. The 4 mounting holes in the stand should apparently be M4.

I’d like to have the X-Carve cut out the pieces as well as drill the holes. I’m planning to make this out of 3/4" thick material (MDF for test, plywood for real). The bits that will come with my X-Carve are 1/4" diameter which is too big to drill the holes, it seems like I’ll want a set of 1/8" bits to have around.

Can anyone recommend a good starter set of 1/8" diameter bits which have a cutting depth of at least 3/4"? I’ll need flat bottom as well as a bit that can drill through holes.

Is a 1/8" bit for 3/4" ply reasonable as an all purpose project bit or is it too fragile and I should stick with 1/4" whenever possible? It seems like the 1/8" would require much less dog-bone and would produce more attractive results, but I’m brand new at this.

Thanks

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1/8 with 1/4 shank given it has enough cutting depth should be just fine. I use a 1/8 4 flute HSS bit for contours since it produces a lot less waste. I use 2500mm/m, 1.5mm DOC and it cuts like butter.

1 Like
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Do you have a favorite source for one of these? Most of my regular router bits have a 1/2" shank.

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I started to question whether a 1/8 diameter bit with a cutting length of 3/4" was too fragile or not because I don’t see 1/8" with 3/4" cut length available at woodworking stores.

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@StevePrior i got the 1/8 from ebay: 1 8 x 1 4 HSS Straight Shank 4 Flute End Mill Cutting Tool W8 for sale | eBay

All my other bits im buying form Torbide Tooling, great service and very good cutting tools:
http://torbidetooling.com/

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Thanks for the info. Looks like I’ll have to go with a different source because I’m in the US and that ebay vendor states that they won’t ship to the United States (not sure why). I did notice that Inventables does sell a 1/8 bit that will cut 3/4" plywood, but only as part of a set. I ordered it, will see what I want to do long term later.

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Lots of people on here buy their bits from Drillman on ebay.

http://www.ebay.com/usr/drillman1?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2754

If you have a Dewalt 611 router as your spindle, you can get a 1/8" collet from either Elaire or Precision Bits that will work directly with the router.

I’ve had great luck with 1/8" shank bits going down to .0312" cutting diameter.

Also, the starter kit from Inventables used to come with a 1/8" 2-flute straight cut bit that has like a 3/4" cutting depth. That would be ideal for your purposes.

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Interesting merchant!

From his ebay site:

Shipping to: Worldwide

Excludes: Africa, Central America and Caribbean, Middle East, North
America, Southeast Asia, South America, Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan
Republic, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Georgia, India, Japan, Kazakhstan,
Korea, South, Kyrgyzstan, Maldives, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri
Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan,
Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, United Arab
Emirates, Yemen, American Samoa, Cook Islands, Fiji, French Polynesia,
Guam, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, New Caledonia, New
Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu,
Vanuatu, Wallis and Futuna, Western Samoa, Albania, Andorra, Austria,
Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Republic of, Germany,
Gibraltar, Guernsey, Iceland, Italy, Jersey, Liechtenstein, Macedonia,
Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Norway, San Marino, Svalbard and Jan Mayen,
Switzerland, Ukraine, Vatican City State, PO Box

If you look deeply enough, you see he ships FROM China but doesn’t ship TO China.

Things that make you go Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm…

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Thanks. I had been looking through the Inventables storre and hadn’t seen any 1/8" bits with cutting length that long, but then found their starter set and ordered it. So I should have a start.

I deliberately haven’t ordered any bits for aluminum yet because I want to get comfortable with wood before I get too tempted to try metal.

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You can use their 1/8" ball-end upcut mills with aluminum, that’s what I used to cut the Y-axis braces for my X-Carve.

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We have 1/8" in many different flute lengths including 1/2" , 3/4" and 1" . We are located in Canada and can ship to USA.

The longer the flutes the smaller width/depth of cut you want to take. The 1/8" endmill can only take so much force before it gives up. How much depends on what material you are working with. Also make sure that the flutes do no get clogged.

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@TorbideTooling I’ve been using Torbide for about 4 months now, amazing quality.