Mill tooling for a wood project

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I'm going to make a table for my wife for the LR and since the mill came into the shop there's less room for my older woodworking tools like the router table, thickness planar and table saw. I'd like to move as many operations to the mill as I can as they seem trivial there (e.g. mortise/tenon fab and maybe even leg tapers). I'll be building this out of cherry and was curious if there's some tooling known to do low-tearout/nice surface finish work on wood? I'm pretty sure I'll want to go play with the belts and VFD to produce the highest safe spindle speed I can as that was not in the original design envelope of the electrical controller I made. But for tooling, any suggestions? At this point I'm thinking 4-6 flute end mills spinning as fast as I can get them to go. Thanks in advance.

CW
 
I do a lot of woodworking projects, flat (non-turning) and turning.

I also know the issues with fixed shop space and having to make room for new machines.

I have used my metal lathe and milling machine for wood as well as metal projects.

I now feel that routers spin far too fast, much faster than needed to cut / shape the wood.

A recent example. I am using the milling machine to make a trivet. The slots in this side are cut across the grain. I was using 4 flute 5/8in diameter end mill, a recent purchase as in weeks earlier without much use.

The spindle speed was 960 rpm. I noticed the burn marks. I then slowed the spindle down to 560 rpm and did not get any burning.

I have the same experience with cherry, but I am not recalling the project so not able to find any pictures as I write this post.

The tearout on the surface milling across the grain is expected.

Trivet_hickory_burning_from_960rpm_mill_speed_8373.jpg

A different project from last week, happens to also be hickory. This surface was milled flat. I did not get everything cleaned up, some of the rough saw marks from the lumber mill seen on the right.

This is off the milling machine, not sanded. Spindle speed was 1200 rpm.

I used a 3 flute carbide insert end mill from Shars. Working well.

Hickory_base_ready_flatten_top_final_dimension_8467.jpg
 
I do a lot of woodworking projects, flat (non-turning) and turning.

I also know the issues with fixed shop space and having to make room for new machines.

I have used my metal lathe and milling machine for wood as well as metal projects.

I now feel that routers spin far too fast, much faster than needed to cut / shape the wood.

A recent example. I am using the milling machine to make a trivet. The slots in this side are cut across the grain. I was using 4 flute 5/8in diameter end mill, a recent purchase as in weeks earlier without much use.

The spindle speed was 960 rpm. I noticed the burn marks. I then slowed the spindle down to 560 rpm and did not get any burning.

I have the same experience with cherry, but I am not recalling the project so not able to find any pictures as I write this post.

The tearout on the surface milling across the grain is expected.

View attachment 253164

A different project from last week, happens to also be hickory. This surface was milled flat. I did not get everything cleaned up, some of the rough saw marks from the lumber mill seen on the right.

This is off the milling machine, not sanded. Spindle speed was 1200 rpm.

I used a 3 flute carbide insert end mill from Shars. Working well.

View attachment 253165

Thank you for the great examples and advice. Hugely helpful, particularly the idea of going slower to grow quality... the opposite of my instinct. I think perhaps the tear out could be mitigated with a sacrificial piece though that would not be convenient for all orientations I think. Using a face mill to face mill wood... love that:) Thank you!

CW
 
Happy if this helps. I just remembered the recent cherry example.

Slot created by several passes with a 1in dia square end router bit mounted on a jig at 45 deg. I had the DW 611 router at the slowest speed, likely 10,000 - 12,000 rpm. The end did not burn as much as the side. I had resin build-up which I cleaned off between each pass.

Bowl_cherry_need_to_chisel_off_ears_8093.jpg

I then mounted on the milling machine. A jig was made to hold the rotary table at 45 deg. I used a 1in 2 flute end mill. It is the only 1in dia end mill I have. I had tried hand sanding of the slots to remove the burning. Some removed but not easy.

Cherry_bowl_mounted_on_rotary_table_ready_to_cleanup_darts_8153.jpg

The result of cleaning up the slots on the milling machine. No burning or tearout. I think this was at the 560 rpm spindle speed.

I did not get any resin build up on the end mill. The steel bar was added during the process to keep the bowl from popping out of my wood lathe chuck.

Cherry_bowl_dart_cleanup_completed_albeit_off_centreline_8165.jpg
 
Excellent thread. My thanks to the OP and for all the great replies!

I am SO GLAD to be part of a forum where "off manual" topics like this are not only tolerated, but encouraged.

Thanks again!
-brino
 
You can get 2 flute carbide down-cutters, you'll probably want air to cool and shift cut material but they do prevent the "furry edges" when slotting wood.
 
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