I sincerely hope I dont get flamed for this, but I would at least like to vioce my experience. I do not want to deminish Ron expertises in any way, becuase with out a doubt I can say her know far from about machining, cnc, hss, carbide bits then I will probably every know. However, that being said, I would just like to state what my experieicne with rotozip bit are in the rotozip tool. My particular rotozip max's out at 30K rpm... in the ball bark of the carvewright i beleive. In the 9 years i have oweded my rotozip, I have snapped 20-25 bits. Typically becuase i tried to move the rotozip to quickly through the material. I will say i have seen the zip bit flex somewhat... but very minimal before 'snap' the bit broke. My take from Rons reponse was the he expected the zip bits to flex far more than my usage would indicate.... but like i said, I fully beleive Ron know's very well how hss is supposed to react. perhaps I have just been very lucky and have never seen this "whipout" that Ron describes with the rototzip tool. If i use to much force, I know the bit will snap. And after having my carvewrite for several years now, I do have a feel for how fast it moves on the x,y,z axis... and anytime i have broken a rotozip bit, I am positive I was moving it thru the material at a much faster rate than I have ever seen my carvwright move.
I have not tried a zip bit in the carvewright yet. Will I? I'm guessing once i get the rock i ordered.. i probably will give it a whirl withe there heavy duty bits... and i certinaly will keep a very close eye on the bit thru the saftey sheild and see if I can see a lot of deflection.
I believe that most if not all the bit the i have broke on my carvewright machine had nothing to do with me at all. Most of them where very early on from head dives.... call support.. replace z-truck... control boards... powersupply... ect... and every so often out of the blue on a project the carved fine before... i'll hear a screech.. go out and look and the z will be all the way down drilled though one part of the machine or another that it wasnt supposed to... and another $50 out the window.
So... I'm fine with LHR saying the no -non LHR bits are not supported and could very well damage your machine. And i guess when the reports start rolling in the zip bits are indeed totally incompatible.. i will scratch them off the list as a possible useful add on tool. Obviously so far Robb has had some success... and with my 10 years as a user of a rotozip.. i'll almost surly give them a whirl.
Let just keep the info comming.. both good and bad. In the end it can only help all of us.
Thanks,
Doug Flethcher