Router Bits

[Woodster]

I was trimming something up the other day with a 1/4” router cutter. The cut seemed to be going well then it wasn’t - the bit fell in half. I changed to another bit and finished the job. Yesterday I was using a smaller router bit for a job, and once again it seemed to be working ok and then it stopped. And once again the bit had snapped in half. I’ve just ordered some solid carbide bits to see how well they work. I’m used to using solid carbide tooling on my mill but not tried it in a router before. So many options, down cut, up cut, compression cut, straight flute. I’ve ordered a couple of different ones to compare them.

 

[clogs]

I pretty much gave up on 1/4"-6mm dia shaft router bits for that reason....to weak when pushing them....
and there are a lot of cr@p r/bits out there even with good names on them.....Trend being one of them.....
my little routers about 5, I will not sell just in case....
so my 2x3hp Hitachi's do the donkey work....one for freehand work and the other perm fixed to a router table......
but better still, I have spindle moulder, well 2 actually a Kitty 429 jobby and 4-5hp commercial machine....

Whitehill and a few others are the best but not cheap.....

 

[Eric the Viking]

On which point: I've looked (from a distance) at some of the CNC 3-axis milling systems for wood. Some of them seem to use teeny-tiny router cutters, for things like tracing shapes and lettering and so on.

Do these things habitually snap? I would guess that they get fairly warm, even when new and very sharp...