If your cut sounds like screaming metal or tearing wood rather than a clean cutting sound, something is off in feeds and speeds. The two main failure modes are cutting too fast without enough chip load (rubbing instead of cutting, heat builds up) and cutting too slow with too much chip load (tool deflects, surface finish suffers). The starting point for soft wood on a hobbyist machine are single flute or two flute bit, 18,000 RPM, feed rate around 60-80 IPM, DOC of about 1/3 your bit diameter per pass. That's conservative but reliable. So run test cuts and listen to the machine. A happy cut has a consistent, clean sound and produces chips not dust and definitely not powder.
