17+ hours to cut a strip of molding... any advice on bits?

[skintigh]

I made the center trench about 1/32 deep. I tried 4% and 4 IPS, it was so slow I could die.

So I started over at 4% and 6 IPS. (I wanted to stay low on the step over just to not stress the bit.) Anyway, the estimate is 2:49. That seems close, right now I'd estimate at least 2:18. I may stop it half way through unless I can find something else to do while babysitting the machine. And/or flip it around and start it using a higher step over.

Thanks everyone!

[srwtlc]

If you have a bunch of these to do and don't want to have to do a roughing pass, but would still like to have some material removed to relieve some stress on the tool and you, you could do multiple passes on the table saw with a dado blade to remove the bulk of the material. You could even do an angled pass over the blade to make a concave cut that came close the the profile. If you have an alpha, you could run 4-6ips, but may sacrifice some quality the faster you go.

I do a lot of 3D designs, and using 8%, I have little to no sanding with 1/8" and 1/16" ballnose tools (just fuzzies). The downstep or steepness of parts of your profile may dictate that though.

[coryatjohn]

Maybe I'm crazy but it looks like 95% of that molding could be done with a 1 1/2" round nose and a 1/2 end mill. The only part that's 3D is the curve at the top and that could be done easily with a sander. Round nose bits are tough and cheap.
RoundNose.jpg
($26 on Amazon)

[skintigh]

I think my estimate was optimistic...

I looked into router bits but could only figure out how to do half of it. But the longer I sit here the more I question doing it this way. I could 3d carve some sanding blocks and use those and table saw or router to make the molding. The sanding might be faster than this.

The fastest way would be to 2D cut them but I'd need a longer bit. Might be worth it depending on how many of these I end up making. I think I shouldn't need much more than 4' or 8' strips, but the fiancee tends to like to add details as the project gets closer to completion.

[Brian Harnett]

A roundover bit and cove bit in a router table would make easy work for that, sometimes the old ways are faster. CNC is a tool not an end all machine.