Onsrud VS. Whiteside

[drodda]

I am wanting some feedback from people who have used both the whiteside and the Onsrud bits. I am wanting to use the 1/2", 3/8" ,1/4"downspiral.

I am trying to justify the extra money to buy the Onsruds. I get the whiteside 1/4" bits for $10.00 each the Onsrud ones are $35.00 each. Will the Onsrud ones outlast and keep the sharp edge long enough to outlive 3-1/2 whiteside bits?

Is the quality of the cut with the onsrud bits that much better?

I am cutting 3/4" baltic birch. I am also cutting 5/4 cherry walnut and oak.

[knight_toolworks]

I would compare onsrud with centurion myself. been very happy with both. but I can't always afford onsrud. whiteside are good too but I have only used their router bits and straight bits.

[Gary Campbell]

Dave..
I just finished cutting a job with the 1/2" Onsrud downspiral. The parts were 8ea. 1 1/2" by 12" by 7.5 ft. red oak stair stringer halves to prep to be glued into 3 by 12 beam stringers.
Each stringer had 7 rises, each rise has 3 approx .5 d x.5 w x 8" long dado for splines. Dado's were cut in 1 pass. I cut the profile in 3 passes. All around 1.5 ips. Needless to say a lot of cutting. I had to change to a new bit with each pair of halves. Luckily I bought them on eBay for a few $. I havnt used the whiteside bits, but have used the Centurion. Centurion seems every bit as good as Onsrud when comparing equal geometry. Hope this helps
Gary

[drodda]

Gary,

At $80.00 a bit for an Onsrud 1/2" bit would you buy new ones for the same job again? Or is there a place to buy these besides directly from Onsrud that is cheaper? The same Whiteside bit runs $40.00.

[Gary Campbell]

Dave...
I am not sure. They are good bits. Due to the thickness of the oak it was difficult to hold down with the aggressive cutting and the fact that only 60% of the material was left. I figured the down spiral would help. I am sure that the heat from doing 1/2" deep with a downspiral is what dulled the bit. Since I bought 5 of them for $50 shipped, I dont think I would pay $80 for one, but if it was the only bit that would do the job..... the job needs to get done!. In hindsight, I could have used the t track for some hold down, and used a mortise compression, but every day is a test, and the Bot is my favorite test track.
Gary

[Gary Campbell]

Dave...
I just looked. If I had to buy. It would be the Centurion. They are all under $30 and the others I have bought there are lasers!.
Gary

[knight_toolworks]

that does not sound like a lot of cutting to me. now I have not used downcuts on hardwoods yet but I cut a lot of tropical woods like padouk and ipe and purpleheart and such and I get a lot more cuts then that.
when I was making ipod docs I was hollowing out these boxes that are 3x4 and 1.2" deep I cut 70 of them with one straight but that got fairly dull. that was about 3 hours or so of cutting. I have cut 20 or so planes out of a 3/8" onsrud rougher all out of tropical woods. I have been sticking with 1 ips at about 16k for hardwoods.

[drodda]

I usually go 1.1 to 1.3 IPS on hardwoods at 16,000 rpm.

I use only whiteside bits now but have been looking at others. I tried some new bits last week that were sent to me free to try and get me to purchase from a new supplier. When they hit the wood for the first time the noise they made nearly scared me to death. I quickly shut it down and made sure everything was tight and tried the second bit. Needless to say that I will not be buying from that company any time soon. You think a router is loud in the first place. Those bits let out a scream like you would not believe.

[knight_toolworks]

cutting solid woods is always noisy try cutting purpleheart it really whines. I have not went past 1 ips it keeps the noise down a bit and the time is not a critical thing. but still no matter what bit I use cutting tropical woods is very noisy and I have to keep my door shut or everyone needs earplugs (G)

[gene]

Dave
I agree with Steve . I use centurion 1/4 compression (recomended to me by Jack J) and have been very happy with them. Cost is around 18-19 in that area.