Taking the Desktop plunge...

Jon what is the material? The reason you might be going through those bits so fast might be the speed at which you were cutting. When you get through cutting, turn the spindle off and check the temperature of the bit. If believe if it is hot you are either running the feed to high or the speed is to high. The bit should be cool to the touch. I can cut many full sheets of ply and not loose a bit. Most of the bit issues I have is directly based on 'cockpit' error! :) BTW - I really like your site and wares. Russ

Hi Jon - love your site and what you do. Your comment on listening for the vacuum to fill up. We use a Dust Deputy on the Festool and you just dont get this problem as the cyclone gets 99% of the chips/dust. I reckon MDF dust is pretty nasty stuff so the less you breathe the better!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6She...e_gdata_player

You can even get a big flashing light to tell you when the drum is full. Does the Desktop spindle get hot being enclosed the way it is? Are tool changes easy?

Bob

Well, I went over to the freight terminal and picked up the crate this morning. It was quite impressive to watch the forklift operator put the crate in my truck as there was less than an inch of clearance on either side!

I got the thing home and started to uncrate it. It was too heavy to lift off the truck so I loosened the clips at the bottom and removed the whole top and sides at the same time. I then cleared the old machine out of way and moved the new one in. (By myself... Ouch.) I had previewed the setup information so it took less than an hour before I had to wonder in and grab the laptop. Everything worked out of the box and by 2:00 I was cutting a lithophane into a 5x7 piece of Corian.

At that point, ever willing to turn a good situation sour, or a bad situation worse, I decided that I should go ahead and hook up the dust collector. And promptly hit the power switch I reached around it...

Everything was working well up to that point though. And the dust collector is hooked up now too.

So, next on the list: I need to pick up some bits. I got the "starter set" from Shopbot and I've got a good number of 1/8" v-bits and such. I think a visit to MLCS and / or Centurion is in order. The question is, what should I get? I'm going to be making lithophanes, small signage, and such. What do you guys and gals keep in stock?

What do you use to carve in blue foam? I've routed sheets of bricks for stage sets before and seem to recall that I just used a standard bit. It's been awhile though.

OK, off to prep for a Marine Corps League meeting and grab a bite.

Cheers!

I think centurion has a "starter kit" themselves. I would get a .25 endmill,
.25 ballnose, .125 ballnose a 60,90,120 degree vbits. Those are the bits i use the most i think.