Jronman Posted July 7, 2023 Report Share Posted July 7, 2023 It has been awhile since I last hopped on the forum. It is nice to be back. I am looking in the not too distant future to get a flush cut spiral router bit. Something 1/2 inch shank and 2 inch long. I could possibly get by with an 1-1/2 inch cutter length but it would be super close since what I will use the bit for will be around 1-1/2 inch thick. I saw Woodpeckers is starting to sell some bits under the Ultra Shear branding. I have purchased tools from Woodpeckers that are great but have yet to try out their Ultra Shear line of tools. I have also used blades from Amana that are good. Whiteside is the only brand of the three that I have used router bits from. Whiteside makes a good router bit. I own one router bit from Amana but have yet to use it and can’t give much thoughts on it yet. Does anyone have any experience with spiral flush cut bits? Of these three brands is there one that is noticeably better than the others or are they all offering roughly the same bits? Is there another premium brand I should consider? I am NOT willing to buy a Chinesium/El Cheapo bit. I am only looking at premium or better. I also see there is 2, 3, and 2+2 (are these the same as 4 flute?) flute bits. Is the 2+2 flute something I should spend the extra for or should I stick with 2 flute? Maybe 3 flute would be a nice middle ground? Should I bother with a compression bit? Upcut and downcut are also options. The offerings from the three brands are in what I feel is a premium price point. $90-$130 usd depending on what options I go with for Ultra Shear. Not sure on the pricing for the other brands. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Altan Posted July 7, 2023 Report Share Posted July 7, 2023 8 hours ago, Jronman said: It has been awhile since I last hopped on the forum. It is nice to be back. I am looking in the not too distant future to get a flush cut spiral router bit. Something 1/2 inch shank and 2 inch long. I could possibly get by with an 1-1/2 inch cutter length but it would be super close since what I will use the bit for will be around 1-1/2 inch thick. I saw Woodpeckers is starting to sell some bits under the Ultra Shear branding. I have purchased tools from Woodpeckers that are great but have yet to try out their Ultra Shear line of tools. I have also used blades from Amana that are good. Whiteside is the only brand of the three that I have used router bits from. Whiteside makes a good router bit. I own one router bit from Amana but have yet to use it and can’t give much thoughts on it yet. Does anyone have any experience with spiral flush cut bits? Of these three brands is there one that is noticeably better than the others or are they all offering roughly the same bits? Is there another premium brand I should consider? I am NOT willing to buy a Chinesium/El Cheapo bit. I am only looking at premium or better. I also see there is 2, 3, and 2+2 (are these the same as 4 flute?) flute bits. Is the 2+2 flute something I should spend the extra for or should I stick with 2 flute? Maybe 3 flute would be a nice middle ground? Should I bother with a compression bit? Upcut and downcut are also options. The offerings from the three brands are in what I feel is a premium price point. $90-$130 usd depending on what options I go with for Ultra Shear. Not sure on the pricing for the other brands. I am not sure about the specific bit you are looking for, but there is a German brand called "FAMAG" they have a good range, you can have a look at their PDF catalogue, I will attach it here. I have got some amazing quality brad point wood drill bits from them with E6.3 1/4" hex shank but I think they don't produce the new ones in Germany anymore. But the router bits are different story, I think they are all produced in Germany. FAMAG 2017 GB.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Altan Posted July 7, 2023 Report Share Posted July 7, 2023 Here is also their 2015 Catalogue FAMAG 2015 GB.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Altan Posted July 7, 2023 Report Share Posted July 7, 2023 And here is their 2023 catalogue. FAMAG 2023.pdf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jronman Posted July 7, 2023 Author Report Share Posted July 7, 2023 @Altan thank you for the info. I am planning to try building another serving tray like one I previously built but in an effort to try and optimize and cut build time down I was going to try a different method to do a part I previously did completely with my Shaper Origin cnc. I want to eventually sell the boards so being more time efficient is needed. Took me 20 hours to do the first board but my goal is to get it down to 10 hours per board. I am still going to cut a shallow pass with my cnc then rough pass the full depth with the jig saw and finish pass the full depth with the flush cut bit referencing off the shallow pass I made with the cnc. With the cnc being not fully automatic, it takes a long time to go the full depth especially since it is only a 1/4 inch collat and a relatively low power rating. Eventually I might upgrade to a fully automatic cnc that would have more power but that is going to be awhile. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Altan Posted July 9, 2023 Report Share Posted July 9, 2023 On 7/7/2023 at 6:03 PM, Jronman said: @Altan thank you for the info. I am planning to try building another serving tray like one I previously built but in an effort to try and optimize and cut build time down I was going to try a different method to do a part I previously did completely with my Shaper Origin cnc. I want to eventually sell the boards so being more time efficient is needed. Took me 20 hours to do the first board but my goal is to get it down to 10 hours per board. I am still going to cut a shallow pass with my cnc then rough pass the full depth with the jig saw and finish pass the full depth with the flush cut bit referencing off the shallow pass I made with the cnc. With the cnc being not fully automatic, it takes a long time to go the full depth especially since it is only a 1/4 inch collat and a relatively low power rating. Eventually I might upgrade to a fully automatic cnc that would have more power but that is going to be awhile. You are welcome, it does not look like it was a help for you, I am not good with router and CNC things, not yet! I understand, you can produce twice more if you can reduce the time to 10 hours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jronman Posted July 10, 2023 Author Report Share Posted July 10, 2023 On 7/9/2023 at 11:08 AM, Altan said: You are welcome, it does not look like it was a help for you, I am not good with router and CNC things, not yet! I understand, you can produce twice more if you can reduce the time to 10 hours. 20 hours was first attempt at using epoxy and first attempt attempt at making a cutting board/serving tray. It is no surprise it took so long. Cutting the time down should be easy. Using a deep pour epoxy should drop it down at least 4 hours alone. In terms of price a figure I saw for lawn mowing (my main occupation) is I should be charging a minimum of $60 an hour. I thought maybe it would be a similar rate for woodworking. 20 hours on a board would be $1200 usd. I don't expect anyone would spend that much on an 18 inch x 10 inch x 1-1/2 inch serving tray when you can buy epoxy cutting boards or charcuterie boards off etsy for a tenth the price that are listed as customizable. Sure those are using live edge boards where I am making my own boards with narrow strips of wood. I am also cutting a custom "river" into them for the epoxy instead of using a live edge as the "river". Also I will be cutting a letter of the customers choosing and cutting a border around the letter which also adds time. 10 hours is $600 and that still is a lot. That does not include material cost which is about $90 per board. I can't do mass scale production of boards to get cost down, but I do have 4 forms I can use to pour the epoxy meaning I could in theory make 4 boards at once. This could save some time. I want to save time without sacrificing quality. I included a picture of what I plan to build more of. The green "river" is what takes a lot of time. with it being 1-1/2 inch thick and only being able to cut maybe a 1/4 inch depth at a time it takes 6 passes plus an additional finish pass. I am hoping to cut that time down. Cutting the green river was a bit sketchy because the router was max depth with the bit slid down the collet a bit more than it should have been to reach the full depth of the board. I think the new method I am going to try will be much better overall regardless of if it saves time or not. Cutting out the part with the black epoxy is not something I think I can optimize much if any. I could speed up the board making process if I used live edge wood but then I wouldn't get the look of it being pieced together with narrow strips of wood. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric - TIA Posted July 11, 2023 Report Share Posted July 11, 2023 That is very cool. That's how I am with my first projects also. It takes forever. Looks awesome, you did a great job Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jronman Posted July 11, 2023 Author Report Share Posted July 11, 2023 5 hours ago, Eric - TIA said: That is very cool. That's how I am with my first projects also. It takes forever. Looks awesome, you did a great job I have enough of the Total Boat thin pour epoxy I got awhile back to do one board then I will open up the deep pour I have on order from Black Forest Wood Co. to do future boards. It should give me an idea on how much time a deep pour epoxy saves me. I have a few boards planned for family to increase my portfolio. My portfolio is currently just the one board. Having pictures of other boards could give potential customers a general idea of the types of customization they are able to do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric - TIA Posted July 12, 2023 Report Share Posted July 12, 2023 Sweet, can't wait to see them as you complete them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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