What’s the best bit cutting edge to use for flush trimming a butcher block to a pattern?
Straight, downcut, full spiral? I’m thinking the downcut would be the best choice, but wanted
to hear other opinions before placing an order. Woodcraft has a decent selection of the different
types in a 2" cutting length and 1/2" shank.
Planning on doing curved inserts using a similar process as in this video:
Wow. Stunning board. Clever process. I especially like the clamping table (~ 1:28) and the rotary bearing bandsaw guide (4:35).
I personally love Freud for all things that cut. And WoodWorld has Freud 1/2 shank trim bits on sale right now…
In my opinion, it’s hard to beat Freud bits.
The decision you’ll have to make is where you need the bearing. Are you using a router table or a plunge router like in the video?
Second this, my flush trim bit from them has been great.
Depends how much you wanna spend, there’s a line of trim bits called the ultimate flush trim bits and they’re a combination up and down spiral cutter but they’re gonna set you back 150-200$ but there’s not a better trim bit in existence but if you’re looking more in the 40-70$ price range the bits called mega flush trim bits are second only to the ones mentioned above, but both trump Freud bits or any others cause they’re not the standard straight carbide cutting teeth they have curved profiles to the cutting teeth so the slice vs sheer which give you buttery smooth routing
What about the Multicam with a good quality compression bit?
If you can program it to Route accordingly to the pieces so it’s not routing uphill with the grain meaning you’d have to break it up into 1/4 and make the router go one direction in the sections diagonal from each other and the other direction in the other 2 then probably yea, but I’m assuming that’s beyond multicams softwares ability but I’m just blindly assuming that due to the difficulty of telling software to make something do that
But even still combination up and down cut spiral bits for the multicam are still in the 100-200$ range so you’re in the same Territory as the ultimate bit
I think I already linked those in the 3rd post… 
I picked up a nice beefy whiteside 2 flute for starters, and will probably get the Infinity compression bits when they restock in a few weeks.
Yea white side is who makes the Ultimate flush bit, honestly probably the best that I know of maker up fluted bits that aren’t insanely pricey, plus they make a true 1/4” flush trim which is nice cause a good true 1/4 flush can be hard to find sometimes
Is that up/down spiral not simply a compression bit? Or does it have up/down flutes literally on the same vertical surface?
Unlike what’s commonly called a compression bit all though technically you could call this one a compression bit I guess this has a double helix flute sort of
I think (but don’t guarantee) that the difference in the typical spiral compression bits and these fancier mega & ultimate bits is that the up and down spirals overlap on the fancy ones. Standard compression spirals are designed with more emphasis on the cut quality at the material surface and can leave a noticeable line at the point that the up/down cutting spirals meet.
The staff at both Hardwood Lumber Company and Woodcraft said they had switched over to these newer “compression” style router bits (HLC specifically to the Mega Flush Trim bits from Infinity) and gave them glowing recommendations.
Yeah - I’ll be buying the mega trim when they are back in stock… the spiral or shear cut of those blades will help immensely with end grain… as a set they aren’t priced out of line with a single bit… and I like at have custom bits made and those start at $100 thanks for sharing that link
Yea that’s what I was saying or poorly describing lol is the fluted intersect, but with a compression bit on the multicam, if you route up grain regardless of the bit it’s gonna not be pretty, so you’re have to train to to move left to right in 2 of the 4 sections and left to right in the other which I don’t think you can make it do
Just an FYI follow-up on this old topic. I picked up one of these compression bits:
The price made it worth checking out and I was pleasantly surprised at how smooth the cut was in 15mm Baltic birch. The down & up flutes overlap a tad more than previous compression bits I have used and that “tad” must be just enough to make a difference.
