Freud 12-152: 3/4 (Dia.) Double Flute Straight Bit (Eclipse Grind) Red

so far so good

Its a Freud. They make good products. Cant go wrong.

Quality piece of tooling. Ive used it with both a hand router and CNC so far and it moves through maple like butter. Cant yet speak to the longevity, but it has worked perfectly for surfacing the table Im workin on.

Razor sharp as expected. High quality Freud tool. I see reviews here from people who used this for something other than what it is intended for- mortising, edge trimming etc. This 15/32 bit is used to cut perfectly sized dados for 12mm offshore plywood. I buy 1/2 inch birch plywood, finished one side at a great price from the lumber supply, but it is not 1/2 it is 0.46, or 12mm. Using a standard 1/2 bit to route dados for cabinet making etc makes a dado that is way too big, loose and sloppy. You can also get what is marketed as a bit specifically for undersized offshore plywood, but it is 31/64ths which is very close, but still makes a groove a little too wide (1/64th) if you do precision work. The 31/64 groove will fit together easily with that extra room but does not look good. If you use 12mm plywood and can route a perfectly straight dado, this is the one you want. Youll need to use a clamp to pop the joint together but with no slop or shadow line. For a particularly difficult joint, Ill sand the edges of the panel going into the dado slightly and it slides right in.

Freud bits are designed and precision machined in Italy - and they really are works of art. They plunge quickly, clear chips effortlessly and run through hardwood with ease. Im sure there are other fine bits out there, but for the value and at this price, I believe its no contest. If youre cutting dados, planing or jointing, you will be thrilled with these bits. Pros: • Sharp and removes chips fast • Designed for quick plunges • Delivers crisp clean edges • Hardened steel stays sharp longer than competition • 1/2 shanks nearly eliminate chatter Cons: • Expensive - but worth every penny • They are nearly impossible to remove from the packaging Tips To Remove From Packaging: • Wear Gloves! I mean it - these are as sharp as an ER scalpel. • Firmly grasp the flat (non-sharp) sides and wiggle the bit back and forth while pulling upward • Do not use pliers, channel locks or your vise. You will scratch the heck out of your beautiful bit • When storing in the packaging, only insert about 1/4 to make it simple to remove in the future! Usage Tip: • To avoid burning the wood when using the larger diameter bits, keep your router speed in the medium range or about 16,000rpm

I use this almost exclusively to cut slots in small shelves. Like for a fastener or a lectern book sliding stopper or perhaps something adjustable. I could use the 1/4 straight bit that came in a set of various bits costing about what this one bit costs. So why would I buy this? Well, it cuts far more accurately. You can see by eye even that the slot is kind of perfect. The 1/2 shank transfers more power for any brand, but its still a feature. The cutter goes straight and it doesnt care if it suddenly hits where a branch was in hardwood or an odd spot in something, that just disappears. Thats where the free or multi-pack one fails. Something a little off and it wobbles and maybe you can see it, or the board moves a little, or the slot height is uneven, or even some little bits fly out, all of which leave the slot looking crummy. So being frugal I might very well use cheap bits sometimes where the holes will be invisible or Im just doing some random chopping. But for finishing stuff that the end user will see, you need to use a specialty premium bit. For me thats usually Freud bits because I get consistently good results with them. And again, not saying your whole set needs to be these--theyre not cheap. But even for a hobbyist who cant pass on the cost, the ones you really like and use frequently should be Freud.

Go through the material slowly.

This bit cut as expected, and I have high expectations. Freud products continue to impress me. I use their saw blades almost exclusively. This is a great bit at a very fair price. Also, on one other note, the first bit received was the incorrect bit. The packaging wrap around the bit had the correct number and description, but the actual bit in the Freud container was not the bit I ordered (Freud package was correct, just not the bubble wrap label around the bit). After many (100s) Amazon orders, this was the first real issue I have had (small shipment damage on a few orders but nothing that damaged the product to a return level). So, I contacted Amazon inside my account, and checked the issue that I had received an incorrect item. I was contacted by email, before I could get over to my email account. They had the info to ship the wrong bit back,with free shipping label to print and attach, and stated that a replacement bit was being shipped that day. Now listen to this folks, I received the replacement the next day by FedEx, and the next day was Saturday. I repeat, a Saturday. For a $20 router bit. I havent received customer service like this since the 80s. Wow! Knowing this type support is backing up my orders, gives me a real piece of mind (and I have no stock in Amazon, just a satisfied customer). And yes, since this is what this review was mainly about, I like the bit too. Go Freud!

The trick with router bits is to make sure they are clean and sharp. They are pretty good from factory, but I found if you clean them and give them a good honing with a diamond file card before first use. They work much better. Also important to use correct router speed and feed rate. But dull dirty bits along with incorrect speed and feed lead to burning. When used properly these bits work great. Unfortunately some undersized plywood from foreign producers sold at big box stores are now thinner than 21/32nds. So these might even be a little over sized for those ply goods. So if you buy from large retailers, check the actual thickness of the sheet stock.

When I first opened the box from Amazon, the bit had escaped from its thin plastic packaging and Im guessing it had been tossed around inside the box during shipping. Amazon gets a score of zero for their packaging on this one, and Freud certainly could do a better job on their part of the packaging. Other manufacturers actually ship their its in plastic or wooden boxes. Amazingly, the bit seemed fine. You cant use it to make plunge cuts because the cutters dont extend all the way to the center. Im sure thats obvious to someone with experience than I had before I bought this bit, but it wasnt clear to me until I tried to make my first plunge cut and couldnt get it to cut any deeper than about 1/16. But I suppose most people would use a drill press and Forstner bit to make this size plunge cut anyway. I mostly use this bit to cut clean circles after using my jigsaw to cut within about 1/8 of the line. The bit should also work well with a jig to flatten boards, as long as you dont need to plunge-cut. I havent used it yet for that. What I like: * very sharp * heavy-duty * seems very high-quality What I dont like: * Freuds packaging sucks * cant do plunge cuts * a smaller diameter bit would have served me just as well (but that was my mistake) Given what I know now, I absolutely did not need this router bit. I might even go so far as to say it proves the buy the biggest bit you can afford rule-of-thumb wrong. Although I didnt really need it, its still a good bit. But in general I would recommend against buying this bit unless you already own several dozen 1/2 shank router bits (including straight and spiral/compression bits) and not one of them is suitable for the job.