Hi everyone,
I have my first paying commission and am looking to mine the wisdom of the forum.
I've designed a funky modern curvy bench that will have custom metal legs that someone else is making.
I cut a short prototype out of scrap 3/4" plywood with pretty good results. But I basically know what I am doing with plywood and a good compression bit, and the client wants it out of 3/4" thick ash. I have pocketed and v-carved ash before with very good results, but I'm worried about all the profile cutouts.
Here's the bench slat:
screenshot2.jpg
And a representation of the little spacers:
screenshot1.jpg
They come together to look like this:
benchprototype.jpg
For test cuts of the slats and spacers out of ash, I used a 1/4" upcut, .2125" depth 12000 rpm and 3ips, all of which more or less fits with what the SB calculator suggests. The first slat did fine(ish), although that bit really wanted to lift the stock off the table. Indeed, the first spacer got ripped loose and sucked away into the DC system (definitely learned that 1 tab won't do). On the second slat the bit started slipping in the collet and I aborted. I might not have tightened the collet enough, but in any case that leads to my big question:
How would you approach cutting this job in terms of bit selection, feed rate, pass depth and rpm? Also, edge quality really matters, especially on the top, so climb cut with a .01" allowance and then do a full depth last pass (stick with climb or conventional?)??
I have an essentially brand new PRS Standard with the 2.2 spindle. I have 1/4" upcut, downcut and compression bits and a 3/8" upcut bit at my disposal.
I appreciate any advice. I really want to get this cut right the first time!
Thanks,
Brian