Freud’s Quadra-Cut Router Bits

[charlieb]

Popular Woodworking's e-mail news letter has an article about Freud?s Quadra-Cut router bits. Now their innovation sounds like something that's obvious - instead of two carbide edges cutting - why not four!. By doubling the cuts per revolution that should produce a finer cut surface - DUH!. But it could also produce some burning especially on woods prone to burning - say cherry or maple. Like life, there always seems to be trade offs. But what Freud is doing - pairs of cutters with PART of the profile on each pair makes a lot of sense. Less wood removed by each per revolution but some overlapping where a lot of wood is being removed. Makes even better sense than just doubling the cutters.

Wonder what obvious (once you see it) innovations are on the horizon.

charlie b

[Morris Dovey]

charlieb wrote: | Popular Woodworking's e-mail news letter has an article about | Freud's Quadra-Cut router bits. Now their innovation sounds | like something that's obvious - instead of two carbide edges | cutting - why not four!. By doubling the cuts per revolution that | should produce a finer cut surface - DUH!. But it could also | produce some burning especially on woods prone to burning - | say cherry or maple. Like life, there always seems to be | trade offs. But what Freud is doing - pairs of cutters with | PART of the profile on each pair makes a lot of sense. Less | wood removed by each per revolution but some overlapping | where a lot of wood is being removed. Makes even better | sense than just doubling the cutters. | | Wonder what obvious (once you see it) innovations are on the | horizon.

I still prefer three flutes for the simple reason that if cutting is paused for a moment, three flutes doesn't seem to leave the wide spot that two (and four) flutes make.

The solutions to burning, regardless of the number of cutting edges, are to make sure the bit is sharp and to increase the feed speed.

-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA

[Leon]

Oddly and I still don't get this, Amana claims a single flute cuts more efficiently that a double flute straight carbide bit. Apparently the larger the number of flutes the harder it is to clear the chips out.

[Robatoy]

In my business, heat is the big enemy. Every manufacturer of solid surface materials has a set of fabrication manuals. ALL inside holes/corners/openings for things like sinks and cook-tops must be cut with a single flute, straight bit. It minimises chip build-up and therefore, as the chips are ejected, so is the heat along with it. In a pinch, I have used two-flute bits in the same application, and indeed, I had to mess with the feed-rate, bit-speed and the amount of material I took out at each pass. In those applications, single flute bits simply out-perform the other choices; that included up/down spiral single-fluted bits. With sharp single-flute bits, I get flakes, with sharp two-fluted bits, I get powder. In all cutting action, it all comes down to chip-removal. IMHO.

r