richards
06-29-2006, 11:33 AM
I found two remarkable 3/8-inch spiral cutters available from a local shop here in Salt Lake City, AA Carbide, Inc. (801) 486-4891. The DOWNCUT cutter is part no. C0010110 and the UPCUT cutter is part no. C0010109.
I used the downcut spiral yesterday cutting cabinet parts from 10 sheets of melamine coated particle board at 8-ips, 12,000 RPM, 0.725 depth (my vacuum can't hold parts in place when I try to make full depth one-pass cuts). The finish on every cut was better than that of any other cutter that I've recently used. Noise level was also less than any other cutter I've recently used. (In the past I've tried using compression cutters with melamine, but because of the vacuum limitation forcing me to only cut partially through, the downcut cutter slices through the top surface of the melamine without chipping and a downcut cutter, with a bearing, mounted in a router at my router table cleans up the bottom surface without chipping the melamine.)
Although I never consider price until I know whether the cutter is the best tool for the job, I was very surprised to see that the cost per cutter is only $18.35.
I used the downcut spiral yesterday cutting cabinet parts from 10 sheets of melamine coated particle board at 8-ips, 12,000 RPM, 0.725 depth (my vacuum can't hold parts in place when I try to make full depth one-pass cuts). The finish on every cut was better than that of any other cutter that I've recently used. Noise level was also less than any other cutter I've recently used. (In the past I've tried using compression cutters with melamine, but because of the vacuum limitation forcing me to only cut partially through, the downcut cutter slices through the top surface of the melamine without chipping and a downcut cutter, with a bearing, mounted in a router at my router table cleans up the bottom surface without chipping the melamine.)
Although I never consider price until I know whether the cutter is the best tool for the job, I was very surprised to see that the cost per cutter is only $18.35.