MDF Edge Quality
For my own and anyone else's future reference I thought I'd post a couple of pics of the edge quality we are seeing on 1/2" MDF. These cuts were made using a 2 flute carbide spiral downcut bit from Onsrud, these are the bits that were purchased on eBay from their overstock outlet. Machine specs are below in my signature.
These were cut with two passes, both conventional direction, the first leaving an onion skin of .02", with spindle speed of 8400 RPM and move speed of 1.5 ips. 2nd pass cuts through the onion skin at 2 ips. The nature of this project requires us to cut on the line, so no allowance is used between cuts - both cuts follow the same line. (The onion skin is to preserve the vacuum until all the waste is roughed out, if not for that I would make the cut in a single pass).
In the picture you can just make out where the onion skin left what appears to be a slight ridge (the two pieces on top are upside down, so the 'ridge' appears on the top). In reality I had to take another look at the parts after I saw the pictures - the ridge is barely discernible to the eye and can't be felt - the pictures seem to show it more prominently than it shows in real life.
Most of our cutting is done at much faster speeds than these, but for this customer edge quality is more important than speed. We are happy with these results. I'd be curious to see what others are getting as far as edge quality in MDF.
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