Our team is trying to CNC lauan for a school event, and we can’t get the speeds and feeds just right. Any suggestions?
What problems are you seeing?
The wood is splintering.
Can you share what speeds and feedrates you’re using already, plus which endmill?
14000 rmp as 60 inches per minute, with a quarter inch flat end mill with a cut depth of .125
We use 18000 rpm and 1080 sfm for our quarter inch endmills on poly and aluminum.
Try a compression bit, that prevents splintering.
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An endmill for… metal? Wood?
You definitely want a router bit intended for wood. But no matter what, lauan will splinter, as the wood is splintery and the plies are thick.
Try using actual plywood, sold as underlayment, or (if budget allows) aircraft plywood.
Or put a spoiler board on both top and bottom, then cut full depth. 1/2" in a single cut in wood should not be a problem.
Go full depth in a single pass. I regularly cut 1/2" full depth at 75 ipm and 12000 rpm on a basic cnc router using a single-flute Freud 75-102 bit.
Consider cutting about 1/8 oversize, then do a final full depth pass to size.
A downcut bit may help. A compression bit might be fiddly to get working on 1/4" plywood.
It depends on what you mean by splintering, but you probably need a downcut bit.
Up cuts give terrible tear out particularly with many hardwood plywoods. I have never CNCed lauan but based on how it behaves on a table saw I would expect it to CNC similarly to Baltic birch and BS1088 I use on the CNC. With an upcut you get great chip evacuation, but a terrible tear out, down cuts will keep the stock pressed against the bed and give you perfect edges but with terrible chip evacuation.
If you use Fusion360 for CAM, Whiteside router bits has a tool library that works great for plywood. They also make great router bits.
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