Official Luthiers Forum!

Has anyone had success machining wenge?

I love the look and sound of quartersawn wenge.

I've had nothing but trouble with it clogging uncoated upcutting carbide endmills though.
I just cant seem to find the right feeds and speeds for it.
I'm wondering if there is a good coating that works with it.

What's your experience... advice?

Oh Great! I too just bought some Wenge last week for a retirement plaque project and have never cut it before. I guess I'll be watching this thread:)

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Rick Hubka
Chemainus BC Canada

It's been a little while since I've machined it but I don't recall having any issues when I did. For general cutting I typically run at 18500 rpm and for a hardwood like that probably .5-1ips. It depends on what kind of cuts you're making and size of bit as well. What speeds are you running at? Have you tried a downcut bit if the upcut is giving you trouble?

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William Seeders Mosheim
http://www.seedersinstruments.com

We machine a lot of it. Our problem is blowout on end grain not clogging but we're limited to 9K RPM. We don't use coated tools. What tools and processes are you having problems with?

It cracks and blows out, but no woods are particularly difficult to machine. Tool coatings also don't apply in wood. If it's clogging then it's burning/packing and you need to speed up your feed rate relative to your spindle speed or take a lower depth of cut.

Sometimes the easiest thing to do with woods that have sticky chips is to just run a double or triple finish pass (spring pass) to clear out or loosen the chips so they can be blown out with air.

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Bob Garrish
Former Canonized Purveyor of Fine CNC Luthier Services

Have you tried using a climb cut? Higher RPM slower feed?

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We climb cut, slow the feed down and take three light passes instead of a roughing and finishing. It seems the light colored soft grain in wenge deflects or crushes when the tool edge is engaged in the hard grain allowing the hard grain to fracture.