tapered Ballnose supplier in Canada

[WB]

Anyone know where I can find these in Canada. I called my local supplier he check 4-5 of his suppliers no good.

What are the advantages of using the tapered Ballnose vs the standard straight Flute?

 

[James Burke]

What are the advantages of using the tapered Ballnose vs the standard straight Flute?

You can use the tapered side of the endmill to cut angled surfaces instead of having to step profile them with a straight ball nose cutter. This results in much smoother surfaces and a lot of time saved.

 

[iSign]

my reason to use then is a very small point of contact on 3D surfaces, giving high "resolution" for lack of a better word, ...while also benefitting from a thicker shank on the deep router offset cuts, like routing a 1-1/2" thick HDU plaque, the long 1/8" tapered ballnose can rout a real nice faux woodgrain background, but cut through the 1-1/2" material as well, without a tool change, plus getting down to the depth where I want the woodgrain could be more stressful & requiring more passes & more time with a 1/8" shank...

regarding a straight flute... if I'm not doing a textured surface, I would never use a ballnose, tapered or otherwise... (but I'm still a beginner too... so maybe I'll learn some other things here myself)

 

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

Doug, I found some tapered ballnose cutters quite a bit cheaper than those good Onsrud ones (which I've stupidly broken three of at $110 each downunder...)

Look up carvewright taper cutters on Evilbay...they have a 1/4" shank, tapering to 1/16" ballnose cutters for around $40. They're not as long as the nice Onsrud ones, but they sail through HDU well. You need to set them up as a spherical tool, in Enroute tool library, I've found. For the % stepover, you need to set it at 85-95% as it seems to calculate paths stepover from the 1/4" shank, not the 1/16" tip.

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=380296299544&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT

 

[GB2]

Doug, what size collet is on your Multicam? Can you take 3/8" shank bits?

 

[grampa dan]

I use the Onsrud bits... 1/4 shank tapered to 1/8" ballnose tip. They have a 1.5" cutting edge. They have other sizes too. I get them through my MultiCam dealer who keeps them in stock for me. I also keep two or three on hand but don't break them very often... in fact I can't remember the last time I did so. I always do a rough pass first however with a larger 3/8 bit with a 0.1 offset. It takes a few minutes more but it's not a big deal with the auto tool changer.

More information about the bits is here... http://multicamdan.blogspot.com/2011/01/routing-bits-for-texture-files.html

-grampa dan

 

[iSign]

Gary,
I have several collets, incl 3/8" and 1/2"

thanks for the links Ian and Dan... I'll check them out!

I used my tapered ballnose last night while I slept... (400 inches per minute for the wood grain)

The Hawaiian Island Chain is separate 1" HDU dropped into a 1/4" larger flat recess, for easier spraying of a contrasting edge color and second bevel & face color... Used 1/2" HDU for the lettering, and also routed a bit of 1/4' solid Koa wood for their "808" logo:

http://www.islandsign.com/8082.jpg

http://www.islandsign.com/8081.jpg

 

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

Well done Doug-I like the 808- what kind of finish did you use on it?

 

[iSign]

Thanks Ian, I bought an old door at a garage sale, covered with 1/4' thick Koa, in 5-1/2" wide panels. They were glued & sparsely finish nailed on to a mahogany covered solid core door. The finish was a very nice natural polish. This pic was shot about an hour after routing it with no additional finish work. I suppose I'll probably sand a bit & oil them.

Here's how the sign will look after the 3" diameter bamboo frame is attached from behind, to a backing board 2" larger then the sign on all 4 sides. I'll also be doing windows to match this drawing:

http://islandsign.com/8082.pdf

 

[GB2]

Dan, how do you use the tool changer with .25" and .375" shank bits at the same time?

 

[grampa dan]

The tool changer on my MultiCam picks up the collets in holders. The holders (probably not the right term) accept collets of different sizes from 1/8" all the way up to 1" I believe. So I can switch out the collets and tool bits depending on what I need. The bit goes into the collets and tool holders and I program the parameters of each individual tool ( diameter, cutting edge length and bit size) and assign each tool a spot on the rack from 1-6, then register them automatically with the router so it knows where the tip is in relation to the router head. The machine holds this information until the next time I change it - even if I turn it off between jobs.

When I tool path my jobs I specify a tool and give it speeds and overlaps. The machine sorts out what is where and when it is needed automatically. I LOVE my automatic tool changer!

-grampa dan