How many cutters are used in any one Item made

Spindles and ATCs
1

hi,

Hopefully my question makes sense :slightly_smiling_face: .

How many cutters are needed to used in any one Item made? EG for flattening a cutting board, I envision one cutter & place in the ATC being used.

BUT what about other items, like V-Carving a picture?:confused: OR other items . . .

thanks in advance

david

2

I’d say 95% of my projects use 4 or less different tools.

I’m always trying to design in a way that keeps the number of tools used in a program to a minimum.

Even though my programs often only use 1-4 tools, my ATC has 12 slots, and I’m wishing it was 16. Different types of parts will use a different set of tools.

My tool library in Fusion has about 50 tools. In any given month, I’d estimate I use 15-20 of them.

2 Likes
3

MANY THANKS
20 characters filler

4

I have:

1/8” shank:

  • 1/16” endmill

1/4” shank:

  • 1/8” up cut & downcut endmill
  • 1/4” up cut, down cut, compression endmill (various lengths and makers of them)
  • 1/16” tapered ballnose
  • 1/32” tapered ball nose
  • keyhole
  • 30 degree vbit
  • 60 degree vbit
  • 90 degree vbit
  • “the hog”
  • bowl bit
  • 1-1/4” surfacing bit

1/4” shank I have used a handful of times in the past couple of years:

  • Round over bit (1/2”, 3/8”, 3/4”)
  • spring loaded vbit (glass engraving)
  • 15 degree engraving vbit (glass)

1/2” shank:

  • 1/2” compression (although, i should probably have an upcut.
5

I’ve got six tool racks setup with my ATC. I’ve tried a couple times even with a 3D carving and software that allows for 3D bit step downs and you have to really want to, to use six. Enen if you incorporate a surfacing bit, compression, upcut and downcut bits it gets ridiculous just trying to use more than necessary. There is a different school of thought and thats to store every style bit you have all the time in tool-racks. That way you never need to do anything other than adding a replacement once one gets dull. There is really no perfect solution.

6

I was afraid :fearful: that this was going to more complicated than I hoped for :thinking: . Currently because I’ll having to glue multiple pieces to wood :leafless_tree: together. I’m think that I’ll be able to use the flattening bit as a starter, leaving the 4 positions in my incoming ATC, for the hard work :man_lifting_weights: