Planing Bit?

[mzettl]

I'm thinking of getting a large planing bit to plane hardwood that is too wide for my planer. Does anyone have any experience with the Amana RC-2252 Insert Spoilboard Surfacing Bit? This bit has 4 insert cutters, two of which provide a low angle upshear cut. This bit is also a little over 3" diameter, which would certainly speed up the process. The other bit I'm considering is the Hersaf 2 1/2 in surfacing bit.

My main objective is the quality of the planed surface, so as to minimize sanding. Any experience or advice is appreciated.

Thanks,

Matt


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[knight_toolworks]

I just got one in a nice trade so it saved me some bucks. it works great when I flattened some cutting boards. not super smooth on endgrain but I doubt any bit would be real smooth.
but on regular grain it works great and you can hog with it (goofed and did 1/2" in a single pass) but .125 at 4ips works great. I use 4" for ramping.

[knight_toolworks]

I meant I have the 2.5" bit. as you can see a perfect surface.

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[mzettl]

Steve, that really looks great. Is the bit you have the one that has 2 inserts? On Amana's website it appears that the RC-2252 which has 4 inserts is only available in a 3.25 inch diameter. Also, it has a 3/4" shaft. From what I'm seeing in your photo the additional two inserts may not provide any appreciable advantage.

I can't tell in the photo, but was there any tearout in the curly maple? The other woods look like purpleheart, maybe padauk, mahogany, sapele or makore, and they look perfect as far as I can tell.

Thanks for taking the time to post the photo.

-Matt

[knight_toolworks]

right it is the 2.5" bit. no tearout in any of the wood. but I got that with a 1.75" straight amana bit too so it seems tearout is not a problem for the most part.

[Gary Campbell]

Matt..
We use the Amana RC-2257 It works well for hardwoods, plastics and mdf surfacing the spoilboard. I wanted the RC-2252, for the features, but it has a 3/4" shaft and it wont fit into an ER25 collet machine (or a router either).
Gary

[mzettl]

Gary,

Yeh, I've found out that the largest ER 25 collet is 5/8", so that leaves out the RC-2252 for me as well. I'm glad to hear that the 2257 works well, so that is what I'll most likely go with. No one seems to know much about the HerSaf, which is cheaper, but I'm not going to spend upwards of $150 - $250 on a bit without having some independent opinions on how well they work.

Thanks for the input.

-Matt

[Gary Campbell]

Matt.
They are expensive, but only in the beginning. I would guess that we have 5 times the planing on the 1st side of the 1st set of inserts that we got out of the OEM 1 1/4" bit. They still seem sharp. You will have to pay attention to getting your Z axis exactly perpendicular to the table surface as the larger diameter bit will exagerate any error vs. a smaller diameter bit. On the upside, you can look forward to .050 cuts at 3-4 ips.@ 2" stepover without a problem. I have found that being able to evacuate the chips/dust is more of a limitation that the cutter itself. Good Luck.
Gary

[claude12345]

hi guys im a newbie at this, one more week machine going to arrive ive been surfin the internet for info found a 3/4 er25 collet if your interested check Htt//pdscolumbo.com their 32.00 us

[mzettl]

Claude,

That's some good information. I noticed that on the page where the ER-25 collets are listed, the heading says they are available in sizes 1/8" - 5/8", yet they have a 3/4" listed further down on the page. I may give them a call to see if this is bona fide, or a mistake. If it is truly available, then the Amana RC-2252 becomes a viable option.

Thanks for posting that.

-Matt