I need some advice on using the wood lathe with the shopbot. I am not sure how to go about cutting a spindle , but this is what I have tried and I am getting the profile I want but have a problem with my spindles not being smooth(chips and chunks coming off while cutting. I have my lathe set up parallel to the Y-axis. I draw my profile in vector then I contour tool down to half the diagonal of the spindle( e.g. 4x4 spindle diagonal measurement is 5 inches so i drop down in Z 2.5 inches) . I put my 4x4 in the lathe with the edge pointing straight up and set this edge as z=0. I then set the side edge as x=0, and cut the part stepping my z down about 1/16 at a time . My lathe is set at its slowest speed and I am using 1/4" down cut spiral bit in my variable speed porter cable router which is set at its fastest speed. I want to end up with a smooth spindle with no chips or frays. Should I be using a different router bit or should my x- move speed be set different (currently .2 ipm.) or is the way I am dropping down to slowly cut the spindle (contouring) the wrong way to do it.
Thanks in advance