Router cutters

[Kody]

I have to buy some more router cutters to continue work on the TD. I priced them here in Australia and they cost $90-00 and up. I priced them in the US and they cost from $40-00 up to $130-00. I can buy them from England and they cost around $8-00. In Hong Kong they cost from $6-00 to around $20-00. They are all made of TC, some are solid TC and others are made with two brazed TC inserts. Have you guys found any difference in quality between the cutters made in Hong Kong, England and the US ? What cutter brands do you buy or recommend ? The cutter I really wanted was a 1/2" shank, spiral down cut, 1 1/2" blade length but the cost is way too much. What are the cheaper ones like for performance, ie, two blade, straight flute TC ?

Kody

[Esteban]

Kody, Amazon.com has many router bits to choose from. I bought the Neiko-80-Piece-Premium-Grade-Tungsten-Carbide which has just about every bit you'd need.

www.mlcswoodworking.com has hundreds of individual bits and many bit sets to choose from.
Are you looking for a flush trim router bit? Their catalog/website is (much too) full of temptation for me to safely browse for long!

[mikeschn]

Kody,

Are you looking for end mills or router bits?

Mike...

[tony.latham]

Somebody, somewhere is going to read this post and do an eye roll.

I have no problem with the cheap carbide router blades. Just make sure that if they have a bearing guide on them to make sure the retaining screw is torqued down.

I'd love to limit my purchases to American made, but I'm not Bill Gates.

I buy most of my bits on Amazon or eBay. I find the same bits at the hardware stores but at much higher prices.

[RandyG]

I started out with the Hong Kong 30 piece special, then as they dulled I replaced the ones I used the most with Skill and Ryobi brands. The Chinese did the job on pine and mdf but when I started to cut poplar they dulled quick, so it really depends what you are working with.

[Fyddler]

I've had good luck with this company
https://www.centuriontools.com/router-b ... -bits.html

[grantstew8]

In the uk there are kits of router bits 6 or 8 profiles and 2 or 3 straight cutters. £15 or so. If you buy a single cutter it is also about £15. I broke a straight cutter from a cheap set - it sheered off where the shank met the blades. No injuries thank goodness.

When using cheaper bits I make sure that I take lots of passes so the load on the bits is small.

Cutting wheel arches/fenders with a router
http://youtu.be/GSNjullSfj8

[Kody]

Wow, thanks guys for all the info. It is most appreciated and extremely helpful. I will go with the cheap kind of router cutter and work from there. I had a cheap cutter mounted in my router that was locked into a special frame I had made to machine really long narrow pieces of timber. These pieces were to be used as the main spars in a high performance RC sailplane. I forgot to attach a stop that is essential when using this cutting jig. The result was the 1/2" cutter was hit by a steel section of the swiveling frame. The cutter exploded with a huge bang and fortunately, I wasn't hit by the flying carbide. When things happen with a router, they happen instantaneously, quite scary. However, I was impressed by the quality of the cutter.

Kody