Thread: Vintage Craft Man Router bits

Personaly I think you would be better off buying a new "budget" set such as

thttp://www.bunnings.com.au/products_product_router-bit-set-ultra-20pce-127mm-box-set-162012ka_P6370029.aspxhis

it is a carbide set, and stay sharp longer even with a bit of unintensional abuse

Originally Posted by China

Personaly I think you would be better off buying a new "budget" set such as

thttp://www.bunnings.com.au/products_product_router-bit-set-ultra-20pce-127mm-box-set-162012ka_P6370029.aspxhis

it is a carbide set, and stay sharp longer even with a bit of unintensional abuse

That would be made in China right?

I prefer USA/Australia/German etc made tools(I believe the craftman bits are Italy or USA.

Is there some thing wrong with them?

I get get all the bits for $48 or get all the bits plus box and wooden box plus packaging that came with it $80(friend lives in a different country and shipping over 1 KG is very high.)

For $80 go for it I'm just not a fan of HSS cutters but for some one starting out it is good price, sometimes I forget that we all have to start somewhere and cost usually paramount

Yeah I used more other peoples bit(people I worked with before) and need some for my own.How can you tell if they are HSS or Carbide?I believe Craftman tools were quite well made back in the old days.

Check you have the correct collet for the shank before purchase. 6mm is not the same as 1/4", nor is 12mm the same as 1/2".

Or scrap steel.
You'll be buying a lot of junk bits and you'll only ever use on or two.
Modern bits are TC tipped and chip-limiting design for safety,
Sets are often a waste of money. Buy individual good quality bits as needed.

Agree with Brian, Have a good set of TC bits myself - some have never been used while some have only been used a few times - others however, have been resharpened a couple of times probably to the point of needing replacement.

I have about 10 bits which are my "go to " bits a couple of which are 2 versions of the same only differing in size or bearing placement.

Check out what you want to do with the router and then buy good quality bits to match the job. Go for quality bits as they cut better, last longer and give the confidence that something spinning at 20 000 revs won't fly apart. You really need to wonder how some of the cheap sets are in fact cheaper than some of the single quality bits yet people expect them to do the same job with the same quality of cut.

Just another thought.

I'm afraid TC is about the only practical material that stands up to being flung into hard, often siliceous material at a million miles an hour. Don't even think about HSS for router bits, their life is nasty, brutish & short in most wood & even moreso in man-made materials. Even cheap TC bits out-perform HSS by a factor of 100 to 1.

As to buying bits in sets, I agree with what Bob38S sez. You will be stuck with somone else's idea of what you need, & more often than not, you'll find they were wrong. You may think you are getting a bargain by buying a set - the price per bit will be way less than you'll pay for individul bits, but when you do an inventory a few years down the track, you will probably find you paid more for the bits you actually use than if you'd bought them separately. That is certainly my history, & I bet many other set owners will have discovered the same thing, if they make an honest appraisal!

A moderate-to-good quality bit can give a lifetime of use to a backyarder, so if you buy right, you only need to buy once. What folks do with their routers is very variable, & if you only buy the bits you need as you go along, you are far more likely to end up with a collection of very useful & much-used bits than a largely unused set of what someone else thought you needed. You can make it easier on your pocket by buying less expensive bits for jobs you don't think you'll do often, but in any case, if you acquire what you need over a few years, one or two at at a time, you won't feel the pain as much........

Cheers,

I buy the odd " set " when on sale. Usually I buy bits as needed. Keep in mind , tungsten can only be resharpened at most 3 times.

Originally Posted by IanW

a few years down the track, you will probably find you paid more for the bits you actually use than if you'd bought them separately. That is certainly my history, & I bet many other set owners will have discovered the same thing, if they make an honest assesment!

A moderate-to-good quality bit can give a lifetime of use to a backyarder, so if you buy right, you only need to buy once.

I must say being a newbie to routing I would be tempted to buy the cheap box set to see what they do and because they are cheap, after reading this thread I must say I have had my perspective changed. I think the words above summarise it well.

Originally Posted by Ball Peen

...... Keep in mind , tungsten can only be resharpened at most 3 times.......

True, Bill, and should definitely be taken into the equation, particularly if you are a pro or a heavy router user or use man-made materials. But also bear in mind that for a typical backyard wood warrior tackling mostly solid wood, the interval between sharpenings may be many years. Better quality bits will also last a lot longer between sharpenings.

DSEL74, I was just giving my views - there are plenty of equally valid views, so weigh them all with your personal requirements in mind. Your original plan may be a perfectly good one for someone in your position. I must admit I haven't looked at the price of sets for years, and it may be that you decide you can buy a set of bits to get started on, for such a piddling sum that it's worth starting out that way. In time, you may need to replace some as they wear out, & buy others that you really need, but by then you will have a much clearer idea of what you want, and find the decisions easy.

Cheers,

Originally Posted by Ball Peen

Keep in mind , tungsten can only be resharpened at most 3 times.

Ball Peen

Why is that? When I was sawmilling I used to sharpen the tungsten cutters many more times than that. In fact I only sent them away to be re-tipped when the first tooth fell off .

Certainly I was fairly gentle in that the tooth is only sharpened until a fresh face is seen to the edge and the tip will take a scraping off your finger nail. I have also read that, say on circular saw blades, the cutting performance is reduced with each sharpening and in a commercial environment it is a false economy to have blades re-sharpened.

Is this different with router bits? Does heat break down the composition of the tungsten?

I do know that in the past when I had a router bit sharpened it came back with half the material removed and I think there would have been no room for even two sharpenings let alone three!

Regards
Paul

The amount of "sharpenings" you will get from a carbide router cutter or any carbide cutter depends on the original thickness of the carbide and the operator doing the work, plus how bad the user allows the cutter to get before sharpening good quality cutters I have seen sharpened many more than three times.

Paul,
They grind the entire flat face, not the bevel. They are pretty savage and by the 3rd time there is not much left for a 4th time.