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1320 Review
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Review on πŸ’― Superior Performance: HQMaster Carbide Router for Acrylic and Hardwood by Mark Ponnusamy

Revainrating 3 out of 5

The bits are much better for the CNC machine than the standard RotoZip bits I've used.

So I built a very cheap CNC machine using RotoZip as a router. At first I was very disappointed with his work. After replacing my RotoZip spiralizer with one of these HQMaster cutters I feel much, much better. The old RZ cutting head could not work properly even at a speed of 100 mm/min with a layer thickness of only half a millimeter. My CNC uses small NEMA 17 86 oz/in motors with 5/16 18 tpi threaded rod for the axes (yes, cheap build). It was difficult for the motors to push the drill even at such a low speed and very shallow depth of cut, and many steps were skipped. When I tried this HQMaster drill I got a speed of 300mm/min at a 2mm layer depth and it was like walking through oil (in a 19mm pine board) without the X/Y -Suspend engines. It could probably work even better (faster and with more layer depth), but that's about all I came across tonight. However, it is way ahead of the regular RotoZip cutting tool. When it's cutting it also makes a little more noise than a router which would normally make a free spin, the old RZ Beat was very loud when it's (barely) cutting. I even had a random order to move this HQ auger about 10mm deep into a pine tree and even though the motors were running at 300mm/min it still went a few inches through the tree before I could stop the machine. Getting 10 bits at this price is amazing because regular (and much less functional) RotoZip bits are about $8 at Home Depot. The only advantage of standard RZ bits is that they are much longer. I can get a total depth of cut of around 20mm with these HQ bits, which is good enough for my purposes. Now my cheap CNC can be used to make better parts. I am very happy I made this purchase, these bits make a huge difference to my CNC.

Pros
  • DIMENSIONS: 1/8" (3.175 mm). Cutting diameter 1/8" (3.175 mm). Cutting length/groove length 17 mm. Overall length 38.5mm
Cons
  • Crumpled package