Letter from a Smiling User of Southeast Tool products
I recently placed
an order with a distributor of yours in MT for some spiral router bits.
He recommended your company and gave me a catalog. I make wood fly boxes that
require hollowing out a recess that is 3.5 x 5.5 inches and 9/16 deep. In the
past, this process was long and tedious using 3/8 spiral bits from other
companies.
I recently made
70 boxes, that is 140 halves using a 3/8 2x2 compression bit for the outline
of the recess and a 3/8 upcut hogger bit for the remaining wood. Normally I
would end up losing 3-4 boxes in a batch this size due to major tear out in
some of the harder woods.
The wood for
these boxes range from soft quilted maple which burns just by looking at it to
zebrawood which is notorious for chipping and tear out. In this batch of 70
boxes, I did not lose one box due to these reasons. In addition to that, in
all 140 halves, I did not get even one small burn mark on any of the woods.
Also, the time it took me to hollow out these boxes was decreased by
approximately 60% from previous batches with different router bits. I was
able to take much deeper passes with your bits and still not burn or chip.
Just to get an idea of how much wood this is, I have
a cyclone separator on my dust collection with a 30 gallon can and I filled
the can one and a third times.
I am extremely
impressed with the quality and sharpness of the bits that I ordered. They are
many steps above any other bit that I have used in the past, and I do not use
low quality bits. Even after making all of these boxes, with a quick
cleaning using bit cleaner, the bits look brand new and are still as sharp as
when I started. I look forward to trying more of your products in the
future. If your profile bits are as good as your spiral bits, the only router
bits that you will see in my shop will be from Southeast Tool.
The only negative
is that I wish that the 3/8 spiral bits had 1/2 inch shanks. I used the
collet adaptor and getting the bit out of the collet is a near impossible
task. I will look for a 3/8 collet for Porter Cable and Dewalt routers if
they make them.
Thanks for the
great products!!
Philip Pontillo
Pontillo Furniture Concepts 406-250-0658
