1/32" Fishtail Down Cut
1/32” cutting diameter, a quarter the size of every other bit here. A pink plastic band on the shank marks it as Inventables’ own fishtail line. Fishtail geometry gives a flat-bottomed cut without the small center nub a plain square-end or ball-nose leaves — Fusion’s tool schema has no distinct fishtail type, so it’s modeled as a standard flat end mill (RE=0); the toolpath math comes out the same either way.
Specifications
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Cutting diameter | 0.03125” (1/32”) |
| Shank diameter | 0.125” (reduced-neck) |
| Flutes | 2 |
| Cutting length | 0.200” |
| Overall length | 1.500” |
| Geometry | Down cut spiral, fishtail tip |
| Corner radius | None — square end |
| Material | Solid carbide |
| Coating | None |
Feeds & Speeds
For the X-Carve Pro and its 1.5 kW spindle. Computed from first principles, not scaled from any bit already in the shop — at this diameter, breakage risk from lateral load governs everything, not spindle torque or power. RPM stays flat across the wood tiers rather than dropping for harder material the way bigger bits do, since torque was never the limit here; only feed and stepdown change with material. Real-world reference: a hobbyist on a much weaker desktop CNC (10,000 rpm ceiling) settled on roughly 16 ipm cutting 1/8” plywood with this exact bit — the numbers below sit in that same range, adjusted up slightly for the X-Carve Pro’s greater rigidity.
| Material | RPM | Feed | Chipload | Plunge | Stepdown |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hard maple / oak | 18,000 | 14 ipm | 0.0004” | 5 ipm | 0.015” |
| Soft maple / walnut / cherry | 18,000 | 16 ipm | 0.0004” | 5 ipm | 0.015” |
| Plywood / veneered sheet | 18,000 | 18 ipm | 0.0005” | 5 ipm | 0.015” |
| MDF / laminate | 18,000 | 20 ipm | 0.0006” | 5 ipm | 0.02” |
| Softwood / pine | 18,000 | 20 ipm | 0.0006” | 5 ipm | 0.02” |
| Acrylic / HDPE | 14,000 | 14 ipm | 0.0005” | 5 ipm | 0.01” |
Notes
Maximum cut depth is 0.2”. That’s the entire cutting length — there’s no headroom to push past it the way a bigger bit tolerates a little overreach. Cutting through 1/8” plywood (0.125”) is within reach in several light passes; anything thicker needs a bigger bit for the bulk of the material and this one only for the fine detail pass.
Extremely fragile — treat it like it will break, because it will if pushed. A 1/32” carbide shaft has almost no lateral strength. The stepdowns above are a fraction of what every other bit in the shop uses, on purpose. Clear chips constantly (vacuum or air), and never let the toolpath dwell or reverse direction under load.
Always ramp — never plunge, same downcut chip-packing rule as everything else, but the consequence is worse here: a packed 1/32” flute doesn’t just heat up, it snaps.
Fine detail and inlay work only. This isn’t a bit for clearing material — it’s for the last, finest pass on lettering, small inlays, or anything a 1/8” bit is too blunt to resolve.
Links
- Product page: Inventables 30667-01
- Machine: X-Carve Pro
- CAM library: Fusion hub library, Human Crafted (T19)