Question for the woodworkers regarding Router cutters...

[MontyVeda]

Can you recommend a good quality manufacturer of router cutters?

Looking online, there's cheap cutters that cost peanuts, and quality cutters that cost the earth, and not a great deal in the middle ground.

Looing at reviews, manufactures such as Whiteside, CMT and Wealden get praised... but my problem there is a combination of crazy prices or the cutters I want being out of stock.

Mid (price) range manufactures seem to be Trend, Axcaliber, Freud, etc... but the issue here is the mid price range could be quality tools at great prices, or over priced crap.

so, can anyone recommend some good quality router cutters (that cut well and keep their edge)??

I am looking for quality rather than a bargain, i just want to avoid paying £50 or £80 for one router bit when i might be able to get a very good one for £20 - £30

Thanks cyclists

 

[Specialeyes]

We've been through all of the mid-range manufacturers for the large CNC machine at work, and always come back to Trend. They're pretty decent and not made of cheese and as we make a lot of bespoke stuff rather than volume products they tend to last a long time.

 

[MontyVeda]

Thank you @Specialeyes... that's just the sort of insider information i was after.

The specific cutter I need (the Trend version) seems to be out of stock everywhere, as do many decent brands of the same profiler

...but I'll keep looking.

[edit] found one... £38 inc P&P ...probably more than all my other router bits combined, but i do tend to buy cheap sh!t. This project needs something special, if only so I can't blame my tools when I feck it up.

 

[TissoT]

Being in the joinery industry for 35yrs +

Trend is the only cutters I would buy and trust to cut once and with accuracy.

 

[the snail]

Wealden are good quality vs. price ime. I've bought some Trend cutters online at a good price. Keep the cutters clean, you can get them resharpened, or do it yourself.

 

[MontyVeda]

Wealden are good quality vs. price ime. I've bought some Trend cutters online at a good price. Keep the cutters clean, you can get them resharpened, or do it yourself.

That was another question... any advice on DIY sharpening?

 

[MontyVeda]

Thank you @Specialeyes... that's just the sort of insider information i was after.
The specific cutter I need (the Trend version) seems to be out of stock everywhere, as do many decent brands of the same profiler
...but I'll keep looking.
[edit] found one... £38 inc P&P ...probably more than all my other router bits combined, but i do tend to buy cheap sh!t. This project needs something special, if only so I can't blame my tools when I feck it up.

...or maybe not. The seller emailed me saying it's out of stock until April

 

[jongooligan]

That was another question... any advice on DIY sharpening?

Stumpy sharpens router bits

 

[randynewmanscat]

Can you recommend a good quality manufacturer of router cutters?

Looking online, there's cheap cutters that cost peanuts, and quality cutters that cost the earth, and not a great deal in the middle ground.

Looing at reviews, manufactures such as Whiteside, CMT and Wealden get praised... but my problem there is a combination of crazy prices or the cutters I want being out of stock.

Mid (price) range manufactures seem to be Trend, Axcaliber, Freud, etc... but the issue here is the mid price range could be quality tools at great prices, or over priced crap.

so, can anyone recommend some good quality router cutters (that cut well and keep their edge)??

I am looking for quality rather than a bargain, i just want to avoid paying £50 or £80 for one router bit when i might be able to get a very good one for £20 - £30

Thanks cyclists

Trend and Freud have worked well for me over the years on worktops, tropical hardwoods, alu, corian, whatever. I once bought an HSS Ogee cutter for one job thinking it would do fine as a one off, it was crap and left a lot of whiskers and small tear outs, the geometry was wrong. Carbide all the way.

 

[randynewmanscat]

That was another question... any advice on DIY sharpening?

Clean any resin away with whatever solvent is to hand and give them a few strokes of a DMT or other quality diamond matrix product. Super difficult to explain the technique, especially for cutters with a complex profile. YouTube is your friend here. Straight flute cutters are the ones you should practice on.
Eventually they will need grinding, don't put them to a bench grinder, find someone who has the gear, unless you are gifted with godlike coordination and the correct grit wheel you will produce a piece of scrap.

 

[MontyVeda]

Well i am a convert to using quality router cutters rather than inexpensive ones. They do the job so much better, cleaner and quicker... but it's costing me a small fortune

 

[Drago]

Sorry, I couldn't resist...


View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MU2BO5Obg2k

 

[slowmotion]

The Silverline ones from Toolstation are excellent value. Cheap as chips too.

 

[bonzobanana]

The Silverline ones from Toolstation are excellent value. Cheap as chips too.

Silverline like Draper can be very inconsistent quality as they will source from different factories at different times depending on price. Sometimes Silverline can be fantastic value and other times poor. I think Silverline's margin is more fair than brands like Draper and often if you find the same product under both brands the Silverline version will be significantly cheaper. Sometimes you can literally see its the same product sold by mid-price brands as sold by cheaper brands in which case you may as well go with the cheaper version. Another vote for Trend, they know their stuff when it comes to router bits but I think some of their actual routers are a bit overpriced and not particularly good choices in value terms.

 

[slowmotion]

The cost of tooling is pretty insignificant if you have long production runs. For one-offs, it matters. What would a bearing guided 38mm radius round-over bit cost from Trend? I'd guess well North of a hundred quid. If I'm only using it to machine five metres of MDF, it makes more sense to buy a piece of crap on Ebay for under a tenner and fix the furry cut with some abrasive paper.