5mm Speeds and feeds

[Dropout]

Good morning All.

I want to try some of Centurion Tool's 5mm drill point router bits for cutting melamine cabinet parts.

What is a good starting point for speeds and feeds, particularly plunge rate?

How fast can I feed this bit in 3/4 melamine before tool deflection (or breakage) becomes an issue? I'm used to running 500IPM with a 3/8 bit.

Thanks.

[bleeth]

That would depend on which mill you have. I use this bit regularly. I generally take 3 passes on cutout, peck once on drilling holes, and run the dado full depth. For PRS Standard 3ips worked for me and for Alpha 6ips works. I also have a 5HP spindle. Parts are ready for edgebanding when coming off the machine. May be able to push it harder but the bits are expensive and I like accuracy.

[Dropout]

Thanks.

I'm running a 7HP spindle.

What RPM are you using?

How many sheets of material do you think you get from a bit?

What plunge rate do you use?

[bleeth]

I spin from 12 -16k and adjust according to my ears. It varies based on age of bit and batch of substrate. All mel is far from equal. I only buy decent cabinet grade. The cheap **** is impossible. 18-25 sheets mixed uppers and bases. plunge at .50/sec.
Sheets average 15-20 minutes cutting doing all holes including shelf, hinge, and drawer. I only cut the sides on the mill and cut tops bottoms and stretchers on the slider and dado on the unisaw. That way I can process 40 to 50 sheets in a day for a 30 cab batch including all shelves.
With clean up and sheet changing we get around 12-15 sheets off the bot in a normal day.

If you follow my posts on upgrading back a bunch of years you'll see I started with a PRT Standard and rebuilt it in stages. Next step will likely be hanging a small chinese spindle off the front of the Columbo so I can run 2 bits and cut out with a 3/8. I might change to full nested base then, but I'm not really doing heavy production of boxes now since we changed from 90 percent institutional casework to 90 percent custom res and higher end office and hospitality. For that, the bot is great as high speed is less important as a whole custom house has maybe 100 cabs and the linear foot value is so much higher than hospital and school work, besides being mostly plywood.