[Hills Hive Parts]

Has any one used spiral router bits and if so do you like them

 

[difalkner]

I use them all the time, far more than straight flute bits. And yes, I like them a lot. What are you cutting and with what are you cutting?

David

 

[Semipro]

I have some, they are great to stop surface break out remember there is up spiral and a down spiral

 

[kp91]

Love them

 

[DesertRatTom]

I have a dodo wiz to make dados and grooves, and I gnerally use a down spiral bit. Very clean cutting, and that jig does such exact width dados that I slip in a piece of paper when setting it up so there's room for glue. I far prefer using this setup with a straight edge. I think someone else bought out DadoWiz and sells it under a different name, the DadoMax. Far easier than all that fiddling with dado stacks. Just don't lift the bit free until it is completely stopped.

The picture shows the straight edge and how you set the exact width by setting a piece of your stock between two stops.

 

[Cherryville Chuck]

They are the best choice (the up spiral) in my opinion to make pockets and mortises with. The down spirals are good if you are not going very deep and need a clean surface but some of the straight bits have angled cutters that provide a shearing cut too though. The late Pat Warner was not a great fan of them. He believed that they were hard on collets and could cause premature wear of them.

 

[roxanne562001]

I like them use them all the time.

 

[Charlie68]

I used to be too cheap to buy them. They really shine for doing mortices. I tried drilling a hole and then shoving in a straight bit to finish the mortice but would burn both wood and bit. Have never done that since using a spiral bit

 

[jw2170]

Yes, and yes...

 

[Hills Hive Parts]

i will use them for cutting dove tails

 

[Cherryville Chuck]

i will use them for cutting dove tails

They should work better for that. With a straight bit all the force is applied to the wood at the same time over the whole of the cut. The spiral means only a very small section of the bit makes contact at any time so it should be less prone to chipping out.

 

[Nickp]

Yup...what everybody already said...