New to the board and new to CNC

[Ryan Slade]

I did some research and with a supportive wife stuck my feet in the pool. I decided to go with a smaller unit to get the hang of things, so the 26 x 40 Sidewinder CNC seemed right up my alley. I got it with the plasma table as it will be relegated to plasma duty if the need to upgrade the router ever comes to roost. My fist questions will focus around the bits as I will be acquiring my collection. I have read many threads on what to start with and what brands are preferred. I have not seen much chatter regarding CMT bits and was wondering if there was a concensus on quality and brands to compare. I may have a connection to get some at competitve pricing, but that may still equal or be more than prices for the equivalent Centurian bits. Looking to get decent quality without paying too much for a brand name (from Italy no less).

[james mcgrew]

what type of work do you intend to do? materials etc, this will help in choosing bits

jim

[Nicholas Bukky]

I have some CMTs and have had nothing but good use of them I also buy a lot of tools from Centurion but I don't like their vbits to much, mostly use their compression spirals and I also have a few of their ballnose cutters.

Like Jim said tell us what you are cutting so we can point you in the right direction!!

Nick

[Steve knight]

for non profile bits Centurion is the way to go they are cost effective and not so bad when you break them and you will. I have used their vbits and they work fine. they usually cut cleaner then most of my other vbits and they are easy to sharpen and can be reground till they are stubs. but I have only used the 90 and the 60.

[Ryan Slade]

Thanks for the replies- for starters, primarily Baltic Birch and MDF for speaker design work, but I will get into sign making as soon as my software skills are proficient enough to pursue business. I'm sure a minimum amount of acrylic work as well.

[james mcgrew]

spiral upcut and down cuts for the wood, compression cutters are nice but not required, onsrud cutter is a industry leader at this and has a tremendous amount of info on thier site, others are southeast tool, chuck hicks is quite an expert and will take a call, so will gary beckwith who i got to meet this weekend and purchased some of his spiral tapers for 3d

http://www.beckwithdecor.com/

www.southeasttool.com