Accetable amount of chatter

Is this too much chatter? I don’t seem to be losing any steps. https://discuss-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/original/3X/d/1/d156d56971ccf38e3053a8fbbc060d0640b7501f.mp4

The quick answer is that “no chatter is acceptable”. When the bit bounces back into your material, it has to take a bigger bite than it would normally (without chatter). This is where you risk bit breakage, missed steps, and other undesirables.

…that being said, though, if you’re willing to take that risk, and all else seems to be fine, my personal opinion is to keep cutting. :sunglasses: You might try adjusting your spindle speed to see if that helps reduce/eliminate the chatter, especially for that large of a bit. Your other options, of course, are to reduce feed rate and/or depth of cut.

Thanks. After having run the machine for two hours, I’m not missing steps or having any problems. The oak is just a bear.

Chatter is a good indicator that one or more parameters are not quite right, or they’re just letting you know that you’re reaching the limits of what your machine can do.

Having said that, I’ve on many occasions given my machine a little bit of assistance by holding the router body while it’s cutting really heavy cuts. Typically, this would be on the very first pass where the tool is cutting full-width (subsequent passes, the cut width is set by your stepover setting)

This is dangerous and shouldn’t be done.

Just adding as what you said is correct - if one where to string the belts too tight and the wheels are tight one can achieve chatter (or studdery motion) from just jogging. Chatter is a phenomenon that occur when work force frequency enter a region where the mechanical parts of the machine get excited and want to “play along”
This can happen on high-end machines aswell…so no-one is entirely immune :wink:

As you said, chatter is a sign that the machine isnt happy.
What break bits is overload like too aggressive slice per cutter edge (flute)
Chatter make the “bite” increase by several multitudes causing havoc on the bit. Obvioulsy wood is soft and quite forgiving :smiley: