CNC Router Woodworking Tools

I’m just back from a few days at the 2012 International Woodworking Fair at the Georgia World Conference Center in Atlanta. If you’ve never been, it’s a huge show with almost any tool manufacturer you can think of – whether they make specialized hand tools or huge industrial CNC ROUTERS operations – as well as hardware, lumber and suppliers of just about every material you could imagine a woodworker using. This is where manufacturers go to launch and show their latest tools and newest innovations. What follows is by no means a full list of the all the new products announced at the show but just a peek at those you’ll be seeing for sale now or soon (many of which you’ll also see reviewed in upcoming issues of Popular Woodworking Magazine). I’m still waiting on images of cool new tools from a few manufacturers, which I’ll add to this post as they come in. So check back in a few days.

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Starting with hand tools, Lee Valley Tools/Veritas has an impressive array of new products launching, all of which will be available September 1st.

First up is the Veritas Jack Rabbet Plane. This thing is a beauty, and will sell for $299. I gave it just a quick test run and it felt good in my hand and cut well. We’ll make sure to get in the PWM shop for a longer look. It’s also a great excuse to make shavings on a weekday afternoon.

Also new to the Veritas lineup is a set of chisels (based on the company’s earlier designs) that uses new and proprietary PM-V11 steel, touted to hold a keen edge at least twice as long as A2 steel, as well as replacement plane blades made of PM-V11. To learn more about the new steel, which Christopher Schwarz has already put though its paces here for PWM, with very positive results. Veritas also showed for the first time its set of inlay tools, all of which look well designed. The company’s hope is that this new set will become the go-to tools for string inlays, whether you’re doing it for the first time or the thousandth. I’m anxious to give the string inlay tools a try.

To celebrate its 35th anniversary, Lee Valley also introduced what feels like a really solid limited-edition Veritas marking gauge made of stainless steel. Also new is a small infill plane, a low-profile planning stop that works like a bench dog but spans two dog holes instead of one (dogs are adjustable to fit your particular bench) and an adjustable bar gauge, which comes with three different tips that fit the ends of the bars so that you easily can measure both inside dimensions or outside ones. Not pictured is the wide blade conversion kit (we’ll have a review for you soon) that allows you to use both straight and tongue-cutting blades on the small Veritas plow plane. Also new are set-up blocks that measure down t0 1/32″, magnetic studs that attach to your existing pegboards for securing tools, as well as a beautiful little infill plane.

Guhdo, one of the leading blade manufacturers in Germany but new to the American market,  introduced a line of saw blades that will compete with the industrial lines from Amana, Freud, CMT and other high-end woodworking blades, some of which are much higher priced. They’re manufactured with electrostatic coatings and no harmful chemicals. I won’t be surprised if we start seeing Guhdo blades in a lot of serious woodworking shops. Guhdo also introduced a line of its 48 top-selling router bits, made in Israel with proprietary carbide and comparable in price to those from Amana.
Speaking of router bits, fans (like me) of Freud’s Quadra-Cut router bits, which are designed with four cutters instead of the traditional three (with very clean results), will be glad to hear that they are now available in not only 1/2″ shanks but also 1/4″ shanks.
Also new to the Freud lineup are a number of different blades. Most impressive was the “Ultimate Plywood & Melamine Series” designed with a very steep angle to its ATB design (see photo). Other blades from Freud include Double-coated Miter Saw blades (which gave really clean results in the demo) and Industrial Miter Saw Blades.

New from Micro Fence is the small-footprint Plunge Base which works with a Dremel tool or other high-speed rotary tools and pencil die grinders. It works in much the same way as the company’s successful line for larger routers, and is compatible with the Micro Fence Edge Guide/Circle Jig and various other Micro Fence Accessories.  The projected price for the new base is $349.

New router accessories from General Tools look as if they took a now fairly common lift and fence design and gave it a facelift – and possibly a round of steroids. The cutout for the lift insert is equipped with more levelers and the lift itself is driven by a chain-drive four-post system based on the technology used in lunchbox-style planers. Once you’ve used a router lift it’s hard to go back to a traditional cutout, and I’m anxious to take a closer look at this one in the future. General also added a number of models to its existing CNC ROUTERS line for home and small shops.

Just launched this past spring is Woodpeckers’ micro-adjust mechanism for the company’s existing router fence. In the few minutes I spent with it, the action was smooth and precise. If you’ve already got the Woodpeckers fence, this micro adjuster would come in handy.

In terms of lager power tools, Powermatic’s 15″ band saw (yeah, 15″, a new category as far as I know) looks like a sweet machine, based more on the heavy-duty 18″ band saw than the traditional 14″ model. Slated to be available this fall, the $2,899 price tag is more motivating than those hanging from the company’s larger models.

On the Jet side, I found a really nice 12″ table saw with riving knife slated for an October release. It will retail for around $4,000 and looks to be a nice machine for a serious woodshop.

Though I’ve never considered myself a serious turner, the new Laguna Revo 24/36 lathe made me wish I was. It runs off a 3-horsepower (hp) motor, which is adjustable down to 50 rpms. The end of the lathe has an extension that extends the normal 36″ between centers to more than 40″. The extension on the end also swings out of the way for bowl turning, which increases the swing from 24″ to 36″. It looks to be a solid tool for a high-end turner and will cost $4,000. A smaller 2 hp version with 36″ between centers will also be available.

Fans of dowels, or those who are curious, will be glad to see the affordable doweling jig available from Rockler. At first blush it looks like a smart and well-designed tool, much more substantial than you’d expect for the low price of $14.99.

like me, you tend to use the same finish over and over, you’ll appreciate the new Mixing Mate Rockler just launched, which allows you to stir, pour and store a quart or gallon of finish without having to wrestle the top on and off every time you need to do a little finishing. The gallon version will sell for $19.99 and the quart version for $14.99.

Rockler also showed its new and successfully simple Adjustable Straight Edge Dado Jig, designed to be used with a 1/2″ straight bit to cut and position dados anywhere from 1/2″ to 1″ wide. You can also use 1/4″ or 3/4″ straight bits, by simply doing a little math and accounting for the offset from the side of the jig to the edge of the router bit.
Not pictured, there are also a few other affordable accessories available from Rockler worth mentioning. Bench Cookie fans will also like the new Bench Cookie Plus, which takes the original design and places a threaded insert in the bottom so that you can easily raise work off the bench or other worksurface, or attach them to the top of a sawhorse. The Bench Cookies themselves sell for $14.99 and either of the new attachments go for an additional $9.99. And though it may sound a bit simplistic, I’m always throwing away glue brushes because I don’t make it to the sink soon enough, so the new Silicone Glue System, which comes with a glue brush, spreader and small glue pan (all made of silicone), will make cleanup simple – even after the glue dries. With a sale price of $14.99, I’ll sure give it a try in my own shop.

The new Kreg Jig HD, which was launched at the show, works like the company’s traditional pocket hole jig but with #10 screws. While Kreg has existing jigs to work with stock less than 1″ thick, the HD jig can be used on 1-1/2″ thick stock and could come in handy around the shop and on jobsites.

Kreg also announced its new role as the U.S. distributor for Triton tools. As a fan of Triton routers (bit changes are a breeze), I’m glad to see that the company will be expanding its line of available tools. One that caught my eye was a new palm belt sander, which will compete with a similar tool from Porter-Cable.

Bosch introduced a new plunge base to accompany their popular Colt Palm Routers, and it can be purchased  alone or as part of a combo pack. Sold by itself, the plunge base will cost between $89 an d$99. The better deal is the Bosch PR20EVSPK Colt™ Router Plunge Base Kit that comes with a Colt Palm Router motor, fixed and plunge bases, and will sell for $199.99. A tool-less motor clamp on the bases makes it easy to switch from one to the other. The kit will be available in November.

If you’ve ever used a pin nailer, you’ll never be able to tack up a piece of molding – to a wall or a piece of furniture – without wishing you had one. With that in mind, Bosch also introduced the FNS138-23, a 23-gauge pin nailer. The nailer is light and feels good in your hand. At a glance, I also liked the small head on the tool, which should make it easy to see exactly where you’re driving a pin, which is key when you’re attaching small moldings.

Multiple Furniture Parts to Be Made Using CNC Router

Question: Why Not Make More Than One?

For every digital woodworker, sooner or later you’re going ask yourself an important question: If you’re going to the trouble of making something, why not make more than one while you’re at it? In the previous post, I gave an example of CNC Router part making by showing a shape being cut out of a board. It was a simple triangle, but it demonstrated two important benefits of a CNCRouter. These tools have the ability to make accurate and difficult cuts. But, I hinted at another part making benefit: repeatability. I cut out eight of those triangles in less than 20 minutes.

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A CNC Router’s accuracy benefits woodworkers when you need repeatability. They are excellent tools for making not just one part, but multiple, identical parts. So, instead of machining just one stool leg for example, why not make the other three legs at the same time? Or you might choose to make several stools, while you’re at it. Accurate part making on a CNC Router is something that can be multiplied.

There’s more than one way to make parts

Making more than one part at a time with a CNC Router is a big topic that I’ll cover in detail later on, but this is a good time to introduce the basic concepts and methods of making multiples. You have choices in how you approach this.

Like a lot of processes in woodworking, there’s more than one way to do this. In general, the methods are a combination of how you layout your drawings and how you set up your CNC Router machine. The same approaches would be valid if you were using a laser cutter.

The first method is to layout parts on a drawing of the board you’re cutting in your CAD program. 

This method works just the way that it sounds. In your CAD program, lay out your parts on a drawing of the board you’re planning on cutting the parts from. Take the drawing of the individual parts and move them around and lay them out on a measured drawing of the board you’re cutting from until they fit, leaving extra room between the individual parts for the bit to travel and extra along the sides for clamping the board to the table. For example, with a 3/8” bit I leave at least a 1/2” gap between parts. Prepare the actual board as you normally would — making sure the board is perfectly flat on the bottom so that it won’t move when clamped to the table. Position the board in place and begin cutting.

The second method is to setup accurate part registration of blank stock.

If you set up the CNC Router, blank stock, and your cut properly, you can easily make multiple, identical parts. To do that, you need to first decide on an “origin point” that you reference to. Usually, that’s the position in your CAD drawing where the X and Y axes intersect. Then set up the same position on the CNC Router’s bed making that your CNC Router’s origin so that they match.

Next you setup stops on the table so that your blank stock is held at the same location every time. Then clamp, mill and repeat until you’re done.

An example of three parts being cut on a CNC Router at the same time.

Let’s take this idea even further

If you’re set up for it, you can take the idea of repeatability even farther. I regularly mill up to 8 identical furniture parts at a time on my machine. I can do this because my CNC Router’s table is laid out for pin-register accuracy and I make good use of a companion modular system of various clamping jigs and fixtures that I created to take advantage of it. Thus, I can have multiple, accurately placed positioning setups on my table and quickly mill several parts at the same time.

As I’ve said before, making accurate parts with a CNC Router is one of the best uses of the machine. And now you know that it’s not just about the accuracy of its cuts. The ability to produce multiple parts makes a CNC Router an even more useful tool in a woodworker’s workshop. The downside, of course, is that you’ll have fewer excuses to only make one of your latest woodworking creations.

Use CNC Router CAD to Create Six Tables

Digital woodworking comes with a lot of moving parts: new hardware; new software; new methods and skills. But it’s the machinery itself that gets most of the attention. CNC Routers, Laser Cutters and 3D printers are all impressive machines. Watching them work, and the resulting precision, is the main focus of this new way of woodworking. With all that amazing machinery magically moving around, it’s easy to miss the most important part of digital woodworking. As you get more used to this new world, you start to realize that the most powerful tool is not the one you thought it would be. Yes, the hardware delivers all the expected benefits of precision and repeatability. But it’s really the software design tools and how you use them that really opens up your mind to new methods, new ideas and a new way of thinking. Despite computers and the fancy digitally controlled machinery, this is where the real power resides in digital woodworking.

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5 axis CNC Router

Case in point. Each year in late spring, I teach a five-day class at the Marc Adams School of Woodworking that’s a hands-on introduction to digital woodworking.  Besides the basics of how the software and machinery work, the main objective is to build a project using these new tools. For that, each student makes a modern hall table —  the parts of which will be machined on a CNC Router. In a typical class, this would mean building just one table design. But as a designer equipped with good CAD design tools, I just couldn’t leave well enough alone. So I created six different table designs for the students to choose from – and one of them is simple; it’s meant to be a stepping-off point for motivated students to develop their own variations.

Six Tables are Better Than One

Creating six table designs is definitely more work than one, but the tools for creating designs in CAD software are very powerful. Once you realize that you can clone one table and use its general layout and dimensions as a starting point for a new design, things start to get interesting. And, because the process of creating a new design based on an existing one is so flexible, you resist the natural inertia to stop with just one. Creating in CAD is quite a bit different than sketching out small thumbnail designs in a sketchbook where you naturally want to be loose. I sketch and draw all the time. But once in CAD, you are working on full-scale working drawings that, if created precisely, can be used for cutting parts on a CNC Router. The big benefit is that you can produce lifelike 3D renderings of different variations to evaluate before you commit to building them.

You can take it a step further. With CAD software and a CNC Router machine, it’s easy to make something you can see and touch in the real world. Once I completed the six hall table designs, I thought it might be useful for students to look at actual tables. So over a couple of hours, I made half-scale versions of all six of the tables out of poplar. Because I have to ship the models to the school, I made them knock-down so they fit in a small case to be assembled on site. Now, students have a chance to see the tables in person before making the choice of which full-size version to build.

Learning More by Doing More

And that gets to an important lesson about digital woodworking. Because of the power of CAD software, you can create more than one design. You can create variations that you can try out on screen in renderings or scaled models that can be machined on a CNC Router machine. Renderings are terrific, but there’s nothing like seeing and touching something in the real world. From a designer’s perspective, the benefits go well beyond making alternate versions of the same table; it’s also about refining your design. Any tool that encourages you to hone in and tweak the design and the details is very powerful. If you’re methodical, your designs get better and better as you refine them. This is the secret of automobile designers. They develop their designs with highly skilled hand drawings, take them into CAD for precision and to refine and tweak them. Next, they’ll make scaled clay mock-ups to further evaluate and refine the design. Finally, they make full-size mock-ups to see the work in different lighting situations and refine the designs even more.

Digital Woodworking Tools are Powerful Creative Tools

The power of digital woodworking tools in creative hands is considerable. Never is this more apparent than in the use of CAD drawing software. Going beyond your first design, developing variations and continual refinement are powerful techniques a designer uses to make a good design into a great design. As I’ve said in the past, you don’t have to own a CNC Router to get most of the benefits out of digital woodworking. Good CAD software is a powerful tool that makes the process of variation and refinement much easier. And that makes your designs better. Good design and CAD software are the real secrets of digital woodworking. And whether you’re a hand-tool woodworker, a hybrid woodworker or a newbie digital woodworker, using digital design tools to develop and refine your designs is just as powerful.

Ways to Digitalize CNC Routers for Woodworking

There are a lot of ways to do woodworking.

For example, there’s more than a dozen ways to make mortises and tenons. The same is true for almost everything a woodworker does. For any given task, everyone finds a way to do it that fits how they work or a particular situation. For most of us, woodworking is a combination of hand and machine tools and techniques. If you’re making a living as a furniture maker as I do, you probably tend to be more pragmatic in your choices and lean a bit harder on machines for added efficiency, accuracy and time saving.

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5 axis CNC Router

As if there weren’t already enough options, there’s something new to consider. Thanks to lower prices and better designs, woodworkers can now add digitally controlled tools to their workshop. Yes, we’re talking about computers, software and CNC routers. How they work and the range of what they can do for woodworkers is unlike anything we’ve seen in the past.

I’ve discovered that with the right approach and a clear understanding of how to use digital tools in conjunction with hand tools and power tools, they can be great additions to a shop – the best of all worlds.

So, let’s take a peek into the world of technology, CNC Routers and digital wood-working.

Building a CNC Router Cuts Down Half of the Expenditure

Have you ever seen all the new CNC Routermachines available to hobbyists these days? Everybody who sells woodworking tools seems to carry at least one model. Maybe you’ve been thinking about buying one. If you’re computer savvy, you could have a lot of fun with a CNC router. On the other hand, you might be hesitant to spend upwards of $2000 for this technology.

Adding CNC to your shop doesn’t have to cost a small fortune; you can build a sturdy and accurate three-axis CNC router for about $1000, and that price tag will get you most of the features you’ll find in commercial models selling for $3000-$4000.

You’ll need some kind of sheet material to make the machine’s body, and that can be MDF, plywood, UHMW or HDPE plastic, aluminum or steel. I recommend using something that’s at least ¾” thick so that you end up with a rigid frame. To stay within the $1000 budget, choose MDF. It’s flat, easy to work with and inexpensive.

Each axis will require a combination of guide rails and bearings for motion. There are plenty of choices for these components, but aluminum rod is an easy option and won’t cost as much as most of the others. Just make sure the rod diameter is large enough that the shafts won’t sag. You can also drill and tap holes in the shafts and mount them to the machine’s frame. You’ll have to cut notches in the bearings, or buy bearings that are made for this type of mounted shaft.

The bearings can be made of ¾” thick UHMW plastic, which is a low-friction material that’s easy to machine with standard woodworking tools. To make a bearing out of plastic, just drill a hole the same diameter as the corresponding shaft. I like to split the shaft hole with a saw kerf, which allows the bearing to slide a little more easily. Drill and tap some mounting holes in the edge of each bearing and attach the bearings to the machine with bolts.

The easiest way to drive each axis is with a lead screw and nut. You can be super-thrifty and use threaded rod, but this won’t give you the kind of accuracy CNCs are know for, so I suggest ACME screws. These screws have trapezoidal threads and can work with special anti-backlash nuts that reduce slop.

You can buy a kit with the motors and all the required electronic components for as little as $100, but at this price, you won’t get an enclosure for these parts to protect them from damage or exposure to dust, water or other harmful materials. A few manufacturers make what are called “drive box kits” that include an enclosure, and are usually simpler to connect than the cheap kits you have to wire up yourself. Both types of kits require a PC with a printer port, or parallel port. You’ll also need the controller software, and there’s an excellent program called Mach 3 that will get you up and running for $175.

Three-axis routers are simple machines, and once you understand how they work, you can easily build one with a few basic tools. Although building a router doesn’t require any computer skills, using one certainly does. You need to be computer literate to setup, program and operate your new router.

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Do You Know How to Program a CNC Router?

Have you ever used flashcards or CDs to learn a foreign language? To learn a new word, you read it from a card or listen to a native speaker say it in the new language, then you get an English translation. I think you can take a similar approach to learning G code, the programming language that controls CNC routers.

G-code is simple, and every machine uses it. Commercial machines come with fancy software that adds some proprietary code to every program, but the basic commands are always the same. I’ll translate some G-code into English so you can see how it works.

Software for CNC Router Programming

You don’t have to learn G-code to create CNC Router programs. There’s software that will write the code for you, but it can be expensive. If you learn a few G-code commands, you’ll be able write your own programs without spending a dime. You can create a CNC Router program in any text editing application. All you have to do is type your code in plain text and save the file with the right extension (.nc or .gcode). There are other extensions that will work, but these two are the most common. Load the file in your CNC control software and run the program.

CNC Router Phrases

Whether you want to cut a straight line or an arc, drill a hole or route a pocket, you need to use the appropriate command. Think of G-code commands like phrases in a foreign language. Here’s a list of CNC Router phrases to get you started.

• G0: Move at full speed to a specific point

• G1: Cut a straight line

• G2: Cut a clockwise arc

• G3: Cut a counterclockwise arc

• G40: Cut right down the center of the line

• G41: Cut to the left of the line by the tool’s radius

• G42: Cut to the right of the line by the tool’s radius

• G20/G21: Coordinates are in inches/Coordinates are in millimeters

Syntax

You tell a CNC Router machine what to do by typing a command, followed by coordinates. If you want to cut a straight line, your code might look something like this:

G1 X3 Y0

In English, this means Cut a straight line that ends at 3” in the X-axis and 0” in the Y. Check out these G-code commands, followed by their English translations.

• G0 X10 Y0: Move full speed to 10” in the X-axis and 0” in the Y-axis.

• G1 X15 Y15: Cut a straight line ending at 15” in the X-axis and 15” in the Y-axis.

• G2 X1 Y1 R0.5: Cut a clockwise arc with a ½” radius ending at 1” in the X-axis and 1” in the Y-axis.

As you can see, some commands require additional parameters. The G2 command above is followed by a parameter for the arc’s radius. You’ll see the parameter P below, which is used with tool radius compensation. Check out this link for more information about G-code parameters.

Tool Radius Compensation

In all of the above examples, the router bit will be centered over the X and Y coordinates. When this is true, the final size of whatever you’re cutting will be smaller than the specified dimensions by the diameter of the bit. To fix this, you have to use a G41 or G42 command, which initiates tool radius compensation. Take a look at these bits of G-code and their English translations.

• G41 P0.125: Compensate for the router bit’s radius by cutting 1/8” to the left of the specified X and Y coordinates.

• G42 P0.125: Compensate for the router bit’s radius by cutting 1/8” to the right of the specified X and Y coordinates.

Example Program

Let’s look at the code required to cut the 4” x 4” part shown above. If this part is 3/4″ thick, we’ll need to make several shallow passes to cut all the way through the material. The following code will give us a 1/8″ deep cut. To get to full depth, we’d simply repeat the code several times, adding -.125 for each pass to the Z coordinate in the second line. The first line of code is what’s called a lead-in move, which gives us room to initiate tool radius compensation.

G0 X-1 Y-1

G1 Z-0.125 (add -.125 to this line for each pass)

G42 P0.125

G1 X0 Y0

G1 X4

G1 Y3

G3 X3 Y4 R1

G1 X0

G1 Y0

G1 Z0.2

G40

Here’s how this translates to English:

• G0 X-1 Y-1: Move at full speed to -1” in X and -1” in Y.

• G1 Z-0.125: Plunge 1/8” into the material.

• G42 P0.125: Compensate for the router bit’s radius by cutting 1/8” to the right of the specified coordinates.

• G1 X0 Y0: Cut a straight line ending at 0″ in X and 0″ in Y.

• G1 X4: Cut a straight line ending at 4” in the X.

• G1 X3: Cut a straight line ending at 3” in the Y.

• G3 X3 Y4 R1: Cut a counterclockwise arc with a 1” radius, ending at 3” in X and 4” in Y.

• G1 X0: Cut a straight line ending at 0” in X.

• G1 Y0: Cut a straight line ending at 0” in Y.

• G1 Z0.2: Retract the bit so that it’s .20” above the material.

• G40: Turn off tool radius compensation.

When using tool radius compensation, think about the direction of the cut. If you’re moving clockwise, cut to the left of your coordinates. For counterclockwise cuts, compensate to the right. You may need to experiment to get the hang of tool compensation.

Speaking/Writing G-code

Practice using the G0, G1, G2, G3 and G40/41/42 commands by writing some simple programs. You can download a G-code viewer here that will let you see the results of your code. Try programming in millimeters by writing G21 in the first line. When you know these commands, you know enough G Code to create all sorts of CNC programs.

Sign up for Build a CNC Router from Popular Woodworking University for complete plans, drawings and instructions for building your own CNC machine. You’ll learn even more about G-code.

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Types of CNC Routers

Types of CNC Routers

Wood

A CNC wood router is a CNC Router tool that creates objects from wood. CNC stands for computer numerical control. The CNC works on the Cartesian coordinate system (X, Y, Z) for 3D motion control. Parts of a project can be designed in the computer with a CAD/CAM program, and then cut automatically using a router or other cutters to produce a finished part.The CNC Router is ideal for hobbies, engineering prototyping, product development, art, and production work.

Metal

Milling is the machining process of using rotary cutters to remove material from a workpiece advancing in a direction at an angle with the axis of the tool. It covers a wide variety of different operations and machines, on scales from small individual parts to large, heavy-duty gang milling operations. It is one of the most commonly used processes in industry and machine shops today for machining parts to precise sizes and shapes.

Stone

A stone CNC router is a type of CNC router machine for marble, granite, artificial stone, tombstone, ceramic tiles, glass carving&engraving&cutting&polishing as arts and crafts, pictures, etc.