Best Bit for Sine Waves?

[MichaelMariant]

Looked around on the forums and really only found the original post when the sine wave app was being developed and worked out.

So I’m doing some test carves with a sine wave (see attached screen shot) and I’ll be using a 1/4" bit for roughing. For the detail bit, because of the inherent design or end result of a sine wave carve, would a 90-degree bit be the best?

I’m not worried about carve time as much as getting as clean a carve as possible within the waves. I’ll be sanding it down, of course.

I understand that the variables of the wave itself, such as increasing the resolution will result in more “steps” on the wave. Knowing that, and seeing the attached screen shot, I’m on the fence if a 90 degree bit would work best or is it better to go with a straight bit or a ball bit?

Hoping somebody here on the forum has tackled sine wave carves and can offer some advice.

Thanks so much!

Cheers,
Michael

P.S. I’ll be carving in canarywood

[MarkA.Bachman]

Ball end bit hands down.
However I don’t think Easel recognizes a ball end bit. That said your actual result should be better than the preview.

[MarcoQuezada]

Agreed, use a flat endmill to rough it out and a ball endmill to round it off. Then fine sanding by hand to really smooth it out. The ball endmill can take significantly longer but the results are good. I made a tray with a bunch of bowl shaped holes to hold spheres. Using the combination of flat and ball cutters gave me great results. However I use Fusion 360, you really need a path generator that understands the geometry of the ball endmill.