Question
Can someone clarify what the chip load in all the chip load charts refers to? Is it the average chip thickness? Or is it the knife progression? If it's the average chip thickness, is knife progression divided by 2 close enough to use in milling calculations, and tooth progression divided by 2 for sawing calculations?
Forum Responses
Both are the right answers. Amount of knives on a head, or the number of teeth on a saw. It is the amount of wood being removed by the bit, all depending on the number of bits on the tooth, revolutions per minute, and the feed rate of the machine.
It you are using an alternating bevel tooth, or staggered bits on a cutterhead, yes, you double the chipload by two.
Regardless of the one-knife mark on your finish, all the cutters are taking their cut, regardless of how deep they are cutting. A one-knife mark does not mean that only one knife is cutting, it is only defining the quality of the finish.
