Milling Wood Possible?

[Bolster]

Is it possible to mill wood on a HS Machine? There are some guys in our class at the local college who are using a CNC'd Bridgeport to make designs for wood, seems to be working fine for them. I don't think the Bridgeports go over 3000 RPM.

A Sieg X3 tops out at 2000 but you can buy different gears for it and get it running at 4000 RPM. I'm wondering if I could do a bit of casual woodwork on it, or at least use it for drilling holes in wood, if I get the inclination to do so.

I know that most people will respond, "That's insane, don't you know a wood router runs at 20,000 RPM?" But when you look at speeds recommended for drill bits, the speeds are much, much slower. In fact I back-calculated CS from a number of wood drill bit sheets, and found the CS of hardwoods (for drill bits mind you, not router bits) is around 100 and for softwoods it's around 175. That was surprising because it put hardwood CS in the same range as low carbon steel!

So maybe 4000 would be enough RPM to get some work done in hardwoods? I don't know, school me on this one.

EDIT: What about taking the head of the X3 off, and finding a way to attach a router base (and thus router) to the plate that normally holds the head? That would give you precise 3 axis movement with a wood router. I've always wanted an overhead/ pin router, might this be a way to achieve that?

[Ken_Shea]

Bolster,
Yes you can mill wood, haven't had the need to do much but it was not a problem, remember, woods soft till you get hit with it

My suspect is that the key is specialty cutters for wood or very sharp quality HSS cutters.

I would try it just as your equipment is set up, you may be pleasantly surprised.

Ken

[Dragons_fire]

i have used my mill/drill for lots of wood now. lots of drilling, and i usually just use 4-flute HSS endmills for milling. i will post a picture soon of my latest project.

[Duffy]

Absolutely. You can sure turn wood on a metal lathe, and my old Logan only goes to 1500rpm. There is really no difference, whether you move the wood past the cutter, or the cutter past the wood. Depending on wood species, grain, and grain orientation, as well as cutter feed size and feed rate, the finish may be less than ideal. Of course, on a lathe, that can be corrected with sanding.
Way back in the beginning of time, there was an article in Projects in Metal, (the forerunner of The Machinist Workshop,) by Frank Mclean, (deceased,) on mounting a router body to a mill/drill. A 2hp Porter Cable body only weighs about eight pounds, so it should be no major problem to hang it from a mill quill. Best of luck. Duffy

[bruto]

I've routed with a drill press, and it works if you're careful. The main problem is at corners and ends, where the bit will tend to chip off pieces. Steady feed and good holding helps a lot, so a milling machine might work pretty well. End mills can do pretty well on wood, and won't tear as hard as some router bits at lower speeds, because they have more and shallower cutters. My ex father in law, who manufactured furniture, used spiral end mills in his mortising machines.

[dockrat]

Only one rule.........CLIMB MILL

[Bolster]

My suspect is that the key is specialty cutters for wood or very sharp quality HSS cutters.

Yeah, that makes sense. Our teacher was explaining to us today how carbide is actually rather dull, so I'll bet carbide router bits would give more trouble at slow speeds, whereas the HSS cutters, being sharp, would probably do better.

And the recommendation to climb cut makes sense, you're not tearing out as much. Good recommendations, thanks.

[tattoomike68]

You can get whats called a speeder head. it will do 7 : 1 so your 1,000 rpm is 7,000 rpm.

mills wood like a somebitch on crack. rev it up to 28,000+ and mill in rapid traverse.

might be just what you need, it pops on and off so you can still do metals. its just a fancy gadget you bolt on your spindle.

[dp]

It is - I have some African blackwood I'm going to turn into a mouthpiece for my bagpipe practice chanter. I turned a short sample and it turns great.

[lakeside53]

I've milled plenty of wood on my BP, and tons (literally) of Trex... For the Trex I used a quality 1/2 inch carbide wood router bit. The wood (mahogony) responded well to an aluminum cutting (high spiral) endmill.

I dialed the speed up to about 5K (VFD). Worked very well even at 3K though. I mounted a vacuum nozzle right near the cutter to remove most of the shavings.