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Watched my garage shop transform over 8 years with just one tool change | Cabinetmakers - Vivisector

Watched my garage shop transform over 8 years with just one tool change

I swapped to a carbide-tipped router bit set in 2016 and suddenly my edges stopped burning on oak. Last week I pulled out an old drawer front from 2014 and compared it to one I did yesterday. Anyone else notice a huge difference switching from HSS to carbide?

4 comments

4 Comments

charles_coleman2mo ago

That 2014 drawer front probably had some fuzzy grain too. I had the same issue with my first set, burning on hard maple and cherry was a constant fight. Carbide tips run cooler and hold an edge way longer, I get maybe 10 times the cuts before needing a touch up. Plus the finish quality is night and day, I can do a full raised panel door without any sanding on the profile now. The only downside is if you hit a nail it'll chip instead of dull, but that's a fair trade.

wilson.olivia2mo ago

A bit dramatic, don't you think, @charles_coleman? I switched to carbide years ago and barely noticed a difference on anything that wasn't oak or maple.

johnson.river2mo ago

Hold on, I gotta push back on that! Carbide tips are overkill for most softwoods and domestic hardwoods people actually use, and they can leave a rougher finish on curly maple than HSS with a light touch. I've heard from @wilson.olivia that the difference isn't huge unless you're cranking out production work all day. Isn't the real trick just matching your feed rate and bite angle to the species you're cutting?

harperp242mo ago

Gotta gently push back on that bite angle idea though. I mean, feed rate matters way more than bite angle for avoiding burn on most woods, especially with carbide where the geometry is already pretty forgiving. Idk, matching the species is smart but I've found just slowing down a hair solves the burn issue more than tweaking angles.