little late to the game, but this is my first time looking into some best practices for the Dewalt 611 feed & speeds. I’ve been running at the recommended settings all this time, so jumping from 28ipm to something like 90ipm sounds crazy! Also to slow down from 4.5 to 2.5.
The one thing I don’t see is, what is the best depth per pass?
It depends on the bit and the material you are cutting. I cut primarily wood, for example:
If I am using a 0.25" endmill and I am cutting a hardwood like oak, cherry or hard maple, I usually cut at a depth of 0.05" and a speed of somewhere between 60 ipm and 120 ipm…it all depends on what I am making…do I need super smooth cuts? I go slower…If it is simply a roughing pass and I will clean up with another bit, I go faster.
I run my roughing passes in pine at 140 ipm.
Keep in mind, I have done the X-Axis stiffening mod with a 3/16" steel bar and my machine is very well dialed in and is working great.
As you cut more wood you will get a feel for what works best for your machine. As a general rule of thumb you always want to keep your depth of cut to about half the diameter of the bit you are using. But that is just a good starting point, as Erik says there are lots of other variables like how perfect do you want the finish and the type of wood you are cutting. But in most cases if you start with DOC of about half a diameter you will be in the right ballpark.
As for the RPM of the Dewalt, I have found that keeping it around 1 or 2 gives me good results. It also keeps the bit from overheating, keeps the wood from burning and will extend the life of the router. But if you think you get better results with a higher RPM, it is your machine.
Forgot I started this thread a while back. It would be nice to see pictures of finished jobs with the exact cutting info so others could try to copy and get a good feel for what the machine can do. It’s also amazing some of the finish work folks do and that’s another beast in its own. Great group of folks here and as always thanks for any help that will get Newbies up and running.
just did an oak plywood cutout at 70ipm (machine wasn’t moving as fast as the superman speed I was expecting in my head) and .05dps at #2 on the Dewalt 611.
Would post a photo but the machine didn’t go over the exact same place twice when cutting so the edges are stair stepped, but was a clean cut! (guess back to the belts, pulleys, and wheels game of tweaking…)
hello.
I am new here. I have a makita router fitted on 1000mm x carve.
Is there a way of increasing the cutting speed using easel on standard plywood? I tried changing all settings of material for the machine to cut deeper/faster, but cannot figure out how. Ive also tried setting it up to cut ABS plastic on plywood to no avail. Im cutting using 6mm 2 straight flute, and Im pretty sure the router can handle deeper cuts than easel is set for.
If the above has been answered, sorry for this, as said I am new here.
Upper right corner of the Easel page, once you have a project loaded, hit the “Cut Settings” button, choose “custom” and dial in whatever speed you like.
I’d suggest ramping up a bit slowly.
-Kell
oops. that was right in front of me all the time. 
so i have to admit it was a dump question. 
thanks Kell!
The above advice–slow down the DeWalt, increase the feed rate–seems counter-intuitive for a beginner, but I tried it (with much trepidation) and it turned out great! I snapped a 1/8" two-flute straight bit within seconds on MDF at speed 5 and feed rate 40in/min; speed 2 feed rate 80in/min worked flawlessly. Thanks for the tip!
You mean to tell me I shouldn’t set the router to 6 and leave it there? Haha
Some people do just that.
I had been doing that out of ignorance, it was on the list of topics to research.
Now if I could only find a “How to dial in your machine” post so I understand what one means by that.
What are you having trouble with? The tuning process will correct specific defects you may notice with how your machine performs.
It’s not so much that I’m having problems, it’s just the idea that I could be and not notice it. I will say that I tried to carve a tool tray and it did a horrible job carving a 3x10 array of 1/4" holes.
I discovered this calibration test pattern and anticipate using it before long to see where I stand. Calibration Test Pattern | Inventables
That calibration test is a great place to start, it will really help identify what problems your machine may have. The good news is that it is pretty quick and easy to correct whatever problems you find.
Amana Tool has a chip load chart for its CNC bits, which while a little on the pricey end, are really nice bits.
I bought a 3 bit set and am really pleased with them 1/16, 1/8 & 1/4, all 1/4" shank to boot $100.
They also have a 58 bit set for $2130, so hello lotto.
I posted over in Robert’s calibration test forum topic, but that post is three months old.
I’m going to remeasure the carving today to make sure my assessments were accurate. Would you be able to help interpret the outcome or direct me to where I can interpret what’s wrong and what to do?
Let me breathe on the coals of this thread with an experience i had this weekend.
I messed up. I ment to used the waste board as a starting point for setting z height, then lift the z by the nominal stock height and set z zero. I ended up setting z height on the wast board by mistake.
I expected to snap my end mill as it sliced through pine at 11mm deep. (3mm end mill and 400w spindle running at 10500 rpm feed at 1200mm/min 47ipm). The surpruse was itsliced through like a champ 90mm before I e-stopped.
This would tell me I’m being waaaaayyyyyy too concervitive. Do you recon i could double the feed?
I can do 100ipm depending on DOC and Bit sharpness even before i upgraded with acme lead screws.
Wood has a huge sweet spot for milling unlike metals.
And before i decided putting down my indicator’s mag base on my laptop with a disc in it was a good idea i had all my recipes written down lol.
Well yes, that is a probable outcome. The point though was when i saw what was happening I expected to snap the endmill. I wasn’t trying to say that was the right thing to do only that the fact that it survived hinted that my normal settings are very conservative.
