In routing not straight plunge

[hsolve]

I am cutting HPL (solid 10mm in one pass for the edge cut surface finish) and have been told to 'not plunge straight down with the cutter'. The reason for this is that the heating of the cutter bottom when plunging, heats up the tool and prematurely, looses it's cutting edge and snaps. I am using 6mm bits and am also getting special bits for carbon fiber / fiberglass and diamond bits, however the diamond bit at $300 Au I would like to avoid breakages. What is recommended is to laterally cut (router bits are designed to cut sideways predomently and not down) even though I am using plunge cutters. What I need to achieve is to, when cutting holes is to spiral down and not just straight down. Also how will this go on cutting inside and outside contours, will we need leadin's and leadout's. I have looked at the ramp in, haven't tried it yet, will this be all that is required. Thanks in advance

[Les Newell]

That is exactly what ramp is designed to do. Around 15 to 30 degrees should work well for wood. You may need a shallower angle in metals.
If your cut is very short it is impossible to ramp. In that case SheetCam will warn you that it couldn't ramp those shapes.

[hsolve]

Thankyou Les, wasn't shure and haven't tried as yet. Will be doing quite a bit of HPL in the coming weeks and would like to follow the bit manufactures recommendations to prolong their life. Thankyou again