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Reducing Tool Wear with Laminated Sheet Goods
Question
Forum Responses
From contributor F: You will find excessive wear on the point of the bit where the laminate meets carbide. You can look into pcd tools (diamond) for cutting laminates. The cost really isn't that high anymore. As long as you handle the tool with care and don't crash the tool into anything you shouldn't, then it will more than pay for itself. Check into Diamax tools from Leuco, or any other pcd manufacturer. I am not endorsing any, but I did get a quote from Leuco the other day that was reasonable. From contributor T: If your programming system can handle it, you might try oscillating the router up and down in the Z axis while cutting. This will spread the wear out over a wider area and you might be able to achieve 40 sheets. From Brian Personett, forum technical advisor: I have never had much luck oscillating the Z axis for laminate parts. I always ended up with some kind of chipping. I have my software set up so that for each cabinet's parts, the depth of cut goes down .01mm. I've had much better luck going this route and the bits seem to hold up a little better. From contributor O: We cut a lot of HPL on MDF or PB. I started using a diamond bit from Royce Ayr. That tool will last 6 to 8 weeks depending on how much use. We do so many different things its hard to say how many sheets of material that would be, but that tool is probably routing no less than 3 hours a day. The tool will actually end up with little nicks in it from the particleboard before showing any wear at the height of the HPL. From contributor G: There are some laminates out there that are scratch resistant. I believe they have aluminum sulfate in their substrate. A 3+3 compression tool usually solves this problem. With the 3+3, our customers report between 120-150 sheets can be machined prior to servicing the tool. A PCD tool will also work, but reduced feed speeds are required. Would you like to add information to this article? Interested in writing or submitting an article? Have a question about this article? Have you reviewed the related Knowledge Base areas below? 
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