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I know there are some great flycutters (aka Shell Mills) available for the heavier duty CNC's. Do any of you guys know of any good flycutters for the smaller type of machines such as the K2 that I have? I'm running a Porter Cable router as the spindle and can handle up to a 1/2" shank. I don't have a jointer in my home shop and flattening rough stock is a pain sometimes.

I do have a Delta Planer but I really could use a jointer. I know, I know...I shoulda got a jointer before I got a CNC...

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http://www.PeakeGuitars.com

I can't really begin to express how scared I would be of running a facing mill on a 1/2" shank in a router. Your spindle won't survive, and depending on how it fails you might not either.

You'd be spinning a very heavy cutter, with a large diameter, at an RPM far faster than it's rated for, mounted to a shank much too small for it, on a bearing not in any way meant for that kind of stress.

I think the tooling shop Thermwood runs has some sort of spoilboard facing cutter that should at least be much lighter and might have a shank small enough. Not what you're looking for, I know, but a face mill is a serious tool.

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Bob Garrish
Former Canonized Purveyor of Fine CNC Luthier Services

I can't second Bobs opinion strongly enough.

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Jim Watts
http://jameswattsguitars.com

You can get up to about a 1.5" diameter spoil-board facing mill for that shank size. It doesn't have inserts, it's just a big two-flute bit with a very shallow rake and a slight radius. The maximum depth of cut is 3/32" and it costs about the same as a cheap jointer.

I third the opinions of Bob and Jim regarding any sort of insert-based large face mill. Besides, those all have Morse or CAT shanks.

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John Watkins
CNC Guitar Parts

When I first got the K2, I ran a large (1.5"?) straight flute router bit in an attempt to take a wider pass. This thing was a pretty good chunk for the router to spin...and I think it did bang up the bearings somewhat (the router spindle is still accurate but sounds a bit more gravelly than what I would like). I took real shallow passes, but didn't feel comfortable running it. This thing was substantial but nowhere near as heavy as a true face mill with inserts, etc.

I should also mention that I now have a full enclosure built around the machine...it's not bulletproof but it is better than nothing and does a lot to keep the dust down.

The real problem that I was encountering was how to flatten longer boards. I found some info on the woodwhisperer.com site about using a sled with the planer..and that is what I'm going to do in the future. You basically hot glue the board to a "sled" which can be something as simple as a piece of 3/4" plywood. Then just run it through the planer, taking small passes. This seems to be a better and safer solution...I'll be doing this in the future.

Thanks for all the advice.

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http://www.PeakeGuitars.com

1.5" straight bits, morticing bits or bowl cleaning bits work well for our routers - Milwaukee now, but PC 3.25hp before.  We wrote a program where you zero the bit on the bed then enter starting thickness and ending thickness.  The program divides the total stock removal thickness in two, one for each face.  Then it subdivides the stock removal thickness for each face so that no more than 6 mm is taken off per pass to keep things sane.  After the first face is done, the gantry moves off the work piece, parks and waits for you to flip the piece and give the command to mill the second face.

For longer boards I'd be tempted to build a manual rail system and use a hand held router on a sled.

We've also used a radial arm saw with a dado head for surfacing and a shaper with a bearing guide for edge jointing.

In a moment of weakness last year I broke down and bought a jointer.