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re: Router bits?
For me, I use my compression bits with my Shaper Origin. However, their application is so limited, sometimes I am too lazy to swap one in.
They way I use them is to, after roughing out but leaving 25-thou offset (10% bit diameter) and about 50-thou if uncut depth, I will then swap-in a compress bit and take off the offset and break through the skin in the same last-pass. However you have to make sure that you only descend the tip of the compression bit far enough to guarantee a through-cut, because if you go too deep into the spoilboard, you are negating the benefits of the compression bit. Which is to say, most compression bits only give you 1/4” (same as bit diameter, whatever that is) before the spiral transition.
Last but not least, in some materials like acrylic or hardwoods, you can still see a line at the transition point. However, that is not to say that the bit is not doing its job. Getting a clean — tear-out and fuzz free — edge on both faces is wonderful.
They way I use them is to, after roughing out but leaving 25-thou offset (10% bit diameter) and about 50-thou if uncut depth, I will then swap-in a compress bit and take off the offset and break through the skin in the same last-pass. However you have to make sure that you only descend the tip of the compression bit far enough to guarantee a through-cut, because if you go too deep into the spoilboard, you are negating the benefits of the compression bit. Which is to say, most compression bits only give you 1/4” (same as bit diameter, whatever that is) before the spiral transition.
Last but not least, in some materials like acrylic or hardwoods, you can still see a line at the transition point. However, that is not to say that the bit is not doing its job. Getting a clean — tear-out and fuzz free — edge on both faces is wonderful.
