Cheese said:
If that's a Whiteside bit it's around a $200 bit... ouch.
Carbide chips & fractures easily...that's the bad news, but because it fractures easily it will also quickly jettison the fractured part which leaves a solid piece of material behind even though it may be ugly and jagged. Most of the roughing cutters for machining metal are ugly & jagged albeit with proper radius transitions. Remember carbide is 2-3 times tougher/stiffer than steel, that's the reason it's popular for boring bars in metal lathe work.
So if you're machining metal then there's some need for caution, but if you're using it only on wood then I'd push it a bit.
As Svar mentioned, if it's not out of balance I'd just use the bit at a slower material feed rate while knowing full well that at some time you'll need to eventually replace it...hopefully when they have a sale. [smile]
Yeah, it's a Whiteside from Bits&Bits, coated with their Astra voodoo. It's such a great bit. Less than a year old, too. [sad]
I was template routing on the table and flushing up an inside cutout of a template. The outside of the template was fine, I used the bandsaw to get close to the cutline so there wasn't much material to remove. For the inside I had to use the jigsaw and, well I'm just not as accurate with the jigsaw and I had a few places where I probably left a bit too much material, was kinda in a rush, and decided to nibble away at the extra material. Bad idea.
In the blink of an eye, the piece was ripped out of my hands. The next thing I saw was the steel INCRA insert from my lift spinning around with the bit. I was lucky the insert didn't fly away. The hole in the insert was pretty chewed up and I was surprised the bit didn't have more chipping. But, as you said, carbide is tougher than steel so I guess that explains it. I only route wood. No metal. Well, not intentionally [wink]
SRSemenza said:
rmhinden said:
Suggest you contact the company who made it and ask them.
Bob
There is no way the manufacturer could say to go ahead and use it. Even if they think it is safe. It would have to be considered defective and they will not condone it's use.
Seth
I reached out to Bits&Bits to see if it was something that could be fixed by sharpening or other means and noticed their reply after I'd already posted here. They said:
"With those chips in the edge, I don't see it being possible to sharpen without changing the geometry. I wouldn't advise continuing to use the tool, the balance of the tool might be off enough to where it can destroy the router arbor or bearings or cause another mishap."
I agree with Seth in that I didn't expect them to endorse continued use of the bit.
Svar said:
Unless you believe there are hidden cracks.
David said:
If that thing disintegrates
Yeah, it's the potential cracks I can't see. Fear of the unknown. Ha. I don't know, maybe I'll just use it on plywood and make sure I remove as much material as possibly prior to using the bit (which is what I should've done in the first place).
Thanks everyone for the feedback!