We recently posed one of our customers tool selection questions to the experts over at Onsrud and wanted to share their insightful response with you. Hopefully it will be helpful for your own tooling selections!
Our customer was planning to cut 3mm & 6mm MDF and HDF, 1/4 shank and was looking for suggestions. Given this is pretty thin material Onsrud recommended only using a downcut tool such as their 57-200 series bits, specifically the 57-280. Our customer had a detailed follow up question;
“One thing on this 3mm MDF I am cutting. It has a factory “pebble” finish white on both sides right now. I am using a bit similar to what you are recommending, but am not happy with the finish on the back side. I am seeing chipping, and we are getting a “fuzz” from an incomplete cut/finish. In your opinion, how long should a bit like this last? I seem to get a good cut for a few sheets, and then the performance falls off”
Onsrud responded that when using a downcut spiral tool to cut that material it’s normal to see slight fraying at the bottom of the sheet because of the downcut flute action and how the chips are being pushed towards to cut. Given this they said it would be ideal to use a compression style tool, however they do not manufacture one with a short enough upcut length for the 3mm thick material, thus the 57-200 series recommendation (which is a downcut spiral tool).
As far as tool life they said that unfortunately there were too many variables to accurately predict the number of feet/inches it could travel before it starts to dull but they would be happy to answer any further customer question.
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