I’m getting ready to carve some names into red oak using my 611 and a 30 degree V-bit, but I’ve never used them before. I know I can put the bit diameter as .005" or .010", but what kinds of feeds and speeds should I start starting my feed/speed testing at?
Basically, should I be cutting .010" per pass or .030"? 10 IPM or 100 IPM? This is new territory for me, and I may be cutting down to .125" depth and don’t want to break the bit or burn the wood.
my experience so far is some what fast and shallow and I’ve had no failures. I broke the tip off a 10 degree bit early on going too deep.
In hard woods such as maple or oak, I take fairly light cuts. For a 1/8" deep cut (0.125"), I divide it into four cuts of 1/32" (0.313") with a feed rate of 40ipm. I have a DWP611 now and usually leave the speed control on 3, which is about 19,000rpm.
It also depends a lot on the bit, is it one of the little tiny v-bits (1/8" shaft) or one of the big beefy v-bits? On one of my big v-bits (1/4" shaft 9/16" cutting head) I just cut to depth with it…in fact I just used it to chamfer an edge on hard maple at 0.15" in one pass. On the tiny ones I break it into very small bites.
It’s one of Inventables’ 1/8" bits.