Ball Nose Bits

[crash5050]

What sizes of Ball nose bits are in your aresenals? Watching a video on the DVD I see they use 2 inch and 1 inch ball nose bits. Are they used often enought to spend the money on them?

David

[Adrian]

It's all down to the size of work you normally do. If you're going to do 5 foot mantels then large ball noses have their place but if you're doing rosettes and other small work you'll never use one.

The biggest one I have is 8mm and I've probably used it once in the last 5 years. The 1/4" one gets used for pretty much everything.

[dealguy11]

Another use for large ball nose bits is turning applications using an indexer. I have a 1", 1.25" and 1.5" that I use frequently, for roughing, finishing and cutting coves.

For flat work I use 1/2, 1/4, 1/8 and 1/16 round nose bits. The larger 1/2 bit is for large curved carvings, like the front of a vanity.

[dhellew2]

Primarily I use 1/8" ball nose spiral tapered bits for carving and 1/2" for rough cutting and finishing projects like serving trays. You can find some of these projects in the gallery.

Most of my bits are 3 or 4 flute spiral bits. The spiral and the more flutes the smoother the cut. Bits made for metal work better and last longer than most that are made for wood at about the same price. I have found no better bits than those at http://www.bqtool.com/ They also re-sharpen many of their bits at a fraction of the cost.

Dale

[crash5050]

Thanks for the info Guys.

David

[lenwardus]

5 Thousandth..