cutting bamboo

[twelchPTM]

Okay so I am activly reading through the forums but wanted to see if anyone wanted to throw some info my way to make this quicker....

I need to machine pockets into a bamboo cutting board for a friend and wanted to know if anyone can give me some feeds and speeds to start with, I have never cut bamboo before and only have one shot to get it right...

[Burkhardt]

Pretty much like hardwood, e.g. maple. I use upcut spiral 1/8" (15krpm/1.2-1.6ips) or 1/4" (12krpm/1.5-3ips), usually 1 diameter deep. It cuts very nice without any fuzz on the vertical surfaces and a sharp edge. For a cutting board I would consider chamfering the edge with a v-bit.

The upcut bit may leave very minor fiber fuzz at the top edge but easy to remove with a stroke of sand paper or even scraping with the finger nail or piece of wood.
If you want to avoid that and don't mind the tool change you can start first round with a downcut bit. But I never do that.

A center cutting bit will give smoother pocket bottom.

Natural straw color bamboo cuts better than heat treated amber or brown bamboo.

[twelchPTM]

thanks alot, that sound like where I was headed based on what I've read. My biggest concern is tear-out from the long straight grain....

[Burkhardt]

I never had tear-out. However, when pocketing along the grain, you may get very long slivers that get stuck in the DC. If you can, do the pocket removal cut across the grain.
One example that I did a while ago with lots of pockets. It machines almost like hard plastic:

[Bob Eustace]

Just done 150 breadboards with zero problems. Text is not critical but anything pocketed needs to kick off with a brand new cutter. As Gert said, treat the same as hardwood. Never had any problems with DC.