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White melamine blunting 3/8" cutters

5/12/16       
Matt

The past 6 months we have been having tremendous issues with white melamine blunting our router bits.

I don't know off hand what our feed speed and RPM is, but we have not made changes to what it was.

We've gone from getting a very confident 100 sheets of white melamine from each Vortex XP bit (or the similar purple Onsrud bit) down to 20 sheets. I've gotten up to 50 a few times.

We begin seeing a lot of chipout, both on the bottom and the top of the cut.

On every bit, you can clearly see where the melamine surface has seriously etched the cutting edge of the flutes.

I spoke with Vortex yesterday, and they said they are having a lot of calls about this from guys that cut mostly white melamine.

The worst I've had was with Flakeboard brand melamine. Was getting 20 sheets before the bit was trashed.

We switched to Roseburg Duramine, and we improved a touch, now we can usually (but not always) get up to around 50 sheets.

But NOTHING like what we got 6 months ago.

Is anyone else having this issue? What white melamine have you cut that is giving you good success/bit life?

Thanks all!
Matt

5/12/16       #2: White melamine blunting 3/8" c ...
Mark

This comes up all the time. Key statement is that you do not know your feeds and speeds. I strongly suggest that you start by very carefully determining exactly what your programmed and actual feeds and speeds really are. It is very easy to make an unintentional change to some piece of software or install an update or have a miscommunication.
Post back the Vortex tool number, including number of flutes and your actual feeds and speeds and I or someone here will try to help.
If you went from a 2 flute to 3 flute for example without changing your feed rate this will be exactly what happens, or if you are running at 70 or 80 percent feed you can get this result.

5/12/16       #3: White melamine blunting 3/8" c ...
Mark

Forgot to mention, I am using Vortex 3130 XP, 2 flute at 18 KRPM and 740 IPM, Tafisa mostly, average around 80 sheets of typical hospital cabinet parts with a new bit, less with a once sharpened and less still with a twice sharpened. I run in VC plywood at 18 KRPM and 875 IPM.

5/12/16       #4: White melamine blunting 3/8" c ...
Steve

I think it would be more important to know how many inches cut than how many sheets. A sheet full of small parts is not the same as a sheet with large ones.

5/12/16       #5: White melamine blunting 3/8" c ...
Mark

Steve,
Very true. Typical cabinets are a good common comparison. I also onion skin a lot which gives one heavy cut and one light cut, but still 2 passes per path. Lots of differences between shops and methods. I use a full compression for better chip evacuation on perimeter cuts, some people use a mortise compression to save a place in the tool holder. Even feeds and speeds from one machine to another depending on spindle power, but a good place to start is feeds and speeds to compare.

5/13/16       #6: White melamine blunting 3/8" c ...
Matt

The thing I want to emphasize here is that we have not changed anything regarding our feed speeds and RMP, nor have we changed our bits.

I've had bits that I only got 20 sheets out of, and the sheets were mostly 14X96 long shelves. I've had others that we got 50 sheets that were basic wall/base cabinets with lots of small parts. So I don't think we are looking at an issue mostly regarding the type/size of parts.

I'm not so much trying to figure out what is actually blunting my bits, but trying to figure out if other people are suddenly having problems cutting white melamine.

5/13/16       #7: White melamine blunting 3/8" c ...
Mark

Matt,
Respectfully, all I am saying is that in my own long experience I have been in the same place as you are, convinced that the material or tooling is the problem only to find out in the end it was the more obvious culprit, my own mistake in a small change in feed rate.
If you are convinced that feed rate could not be the real underlying issue, then no, I have not found a real problematic melamine. Honestly, I was just trying to help as I have been as convinced as you were on the same issue.

5/13/16       #8: White melamine blunting 3/8" c ...
Matt

I do appreciate you help on this Mark, I didn't intend for my post to come across as snarky.

I am not the one controlling the feed rates, but our engineering guy has assured me they have checked and they are correct, as of last week. I just don't know the numbers personally.

I've actually gotten emails because of this thread of people with the same problem, suddenly, from the same brand of melamine we were cutting. I'm just trying to find out if this is common with others and what brand people are having success with.

Thanks,
Matt

5/13/16       #9: White melamine blunting 3/8" c ...
Mark

Matt you are not the only one having problems with flakeboard. I have a friend that used white flakeboard and was getting all kinds of chip out and his tooling was not lasting as long as it was. He found all kind of metal shaving in the magnetic screens of his C.N.C. I also found the tooling on my sliding table saw was wearing out prematurely. We both changed to uniboard and have had much better success

5/14/16       #10: White melamine blunting 3/8" c ...
Bernie

We had this same issue with Flakeboard. It would happen with some batches, and not with others.

We switched to Tafisa, and have not had the problem.

6/3/16       #11: White melamine blunting 3/8" c ...
Joe

We have been having the exact same issue for about 9 months. Both white & black melamine, but white seems to be worse. We always run Roseburg, but have seen a little improvement with some material from KML.


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