Thanks, Nick, I'll look for less flutes, and maybe try to find flute angles on end mills that more closely resemble router bits. I know I have tried multi-flute burrs on wood projects in the past, and they burn wood very quickly, so I'm sure you're right about the less flutes the better on end mills. I suppose I could buy a beefy rheostat to slow down my laminate trimmer, but then so much for the cost savings in finding end mills as cheaper replacements to router bits.Nick O wrote:Dennis, not knocking your plans I'm just not too sure how well end mills will work in a router situation. End mills are typically ground and sharpened for metal cutting, the geometries are different (cutting angles e.t.c ever so slightly) for these over a router bit. Many years ago when I first started mucking about with routers I tried a two fluted end mill (I know them as a slot drill, an end mill has 3 or more flutes) and it overheated and built up gum/residue on the cutting edges.
Now having said that I'm going to contardict myself! I quite often use a milling machine to route out the wood, especially when cutting the slotted headstocks. So I can only assume from this that the slot drills need to be run slower than the usual wood router bits. Two flutes would be the way to go if plunge cutting because they are sharpened so that they cut at their center, 3 or 4 flutes won't cut in this area so end up burning the wood, they work when cutting on their sides.
So if you have a variable speed router I would run it at the lower end of it's speed range.
Dennis
