my own fault. using UGS to send a gcode i got from aspire. hit send and forgot that i had turned the spindle switch to off. before i had a chance to flip it on the bit snapped.
anyone know where i could look for the 1/16" fishtail bit like the one in the starter kit locally?
I have been getting some bits from ebay. Specifically a user called drillman1.
http://www.ebay.com/usr/drillman1?_trksid=p2053788.m1543.l2754
Everything I have gotten is high quality and have been working very well. I got both 1/16 and 1/32 from him and have not broken any yet after many projects.
Blair
yeah ill probably end up getting some from him. i am just on a time crunch for a project im working on was hoping maybe i could find something here in town so i dont have to wait for shipping. might just use the 1/32 bit and take it slow
I broke my 1/32 within a minute of trying it (I changed the feed rate but forgot to change the DOC from the default),
Seems like Easel could give a warning since it knows the bit size and the DOC. And the default DOC will most certainly break the 1/32 bit.
Sorry to hear about the bit, but consider it a badge of honor (like crunching your first limit switch) 
+1 for Drillman1, I ordered a set of 1/8" endmills and got the free storage case, which I highly recommend. It’s made for bits with collars on them, but I just ran a piece of tape across the bottom and store all my bits in it now.
I’ve used drillman1 and jtg1969 ( | eBay ) on ebay, but if you’re in a hurry there are quite a few end mills on Amazon with Prime and some with SameDay Prime (depending on your area).
Breaking bits is normal. It’s something you need to prepare for. 
Another shameless plug 
@BadWolf you can purchase them individually or in a ten pack from us:
https://www.inventables.com/technologies/fish-tail-2-flute-spiral-bits
Yep, get used to it. I broke 4 bits in under an hour last night trying to work out a good step depth and feed rate for brass sheet. 
That reminds me, did we get anywhere with slow Z lowering into material or ramping? Seem to remember seeing a thread asking about this but can’t find it now.
But yes, buy mills and then buy some more. Once you find a good one with a good feed rate etc. write it down and will hopefully then work with that bit very well from then on with few problems.
Cheers
Ian
Has anyone tried the G-Wizard Speeds and Feeds calculator from CNC Cookbook. They just posted a pretty long article explaining how futile it is to use “Rules of thumb” for accurate speed and feed values.
They offer a 30 day free trial so I will give it a try unless I hear from someone that it is a waste of time.
But I don’t know enough to even know if the values a tool like that provides are useable by a hobbyist machine like the X-Carve. But it sure would be nice to be able to “Know” what the correct values should be versus the values I choose that “seem close”.
There is one point in that article I do understand, when the values are correct the sound of the cutting is obviously better. Even I can hear when something is off, I just wish I had a way of knowing before hand.
i tried using the 1/32 bit and it broke almost immediately. grrrr
this was in some reclaimed douglas fir so not super hard wood. i had zero problems with mdf and these bits but obviously still have some learning to do on cut depths and speeds etc
Another source of bits to be considered is Dremel. When I first got my SO2 set up a few months ago, I had the starter bits from Inventables but looked at Dremel bits on a trip to Lowe’s and picked up a few.
