5 Best CNC Routers for Woodworking in 2020
Are you looking for a CNC router for woodworking plans with your business? Today, I will recommend 5 best CNC wood routers in 2020.
CNC wood router is a type of CNC machine tool used for woodworking carving, routing, cutting, grooving, slotting, and drilling.
The wood CNC router table sizes include 2'x2', 2'x3', 2'x4', 4'x4', 4'x6', 4'x8', 5'x10' and 6'x12' in feet; 16"x16", 16"x24", 24"x24", 24"x36", 24"x48", 48"x48", 48"x96", 60"x120", 80"x120", and 80"x160" in inches; 400mmx400mm, 400mmx600mm, 600mmx600mm, 600mmx900mm, 1200mmx1200mm, 1200mmx1800mm, 1200mmx2400mm, 1300mmx2500mm, 1500mmx3000mm, 2000mmx3000mm, and 2000mmx4000mm in millimeter (mm).
A CNC wood router is mainly used for 2D/3D woodworking, including woodcrafts, wood arts, wood gifts, wood boxes, sign making, cabinet making, furniture making, mold making with different CNC router tools.
Let’s start to learn the 5 best CNC router kits for woodworking.
Hobby CNC Routers for Woodworking
A hobby CNC wood router is referred to as a small, mini, benchtop, tabletop, or desktop CNC router. The table sizes include 2x2, 2x3, 2x4, 4x4, It’s mainly used for hobbyists, craftsmen, small businesses, home shop. The rotary axis is an optional part of the machine for 3D woodworking. The CNC router price range is commonly under $3,000.00.
Industrial CNC Routers for Woodworking
An industrial CNC wood router is a large format wood CNC machine used for cabinet making, furniture making. It can be equipped with a rotary table on the front or side for 3D woodworking, which is also known as 4 axis CNC router, 4th axis CNC router, or CNC router lathe machine. Of course, it can do what a hobby CNC machine can do. The price range is from $3,000.00 to $10,000.00.
ATC CNC Routers for Woodworking
The ATC CNC wood router with tool changer is a fully automatic 3 axis CNC router for popular woodworking, the CNC cutters can change automatically according to the woodworking requirements. There are two tool changers: linear tool changer and disc tool changer, which is the best, all depends on your needs. The price range is from $8,000.00 to $30,000.00.
Nesting CNC Routers for Woodworking
Nesting CNC wood routers with automatic nesting system have full functions of automatic uploading and downloading, nesting, optimizing, cutting, carving, vertical drilling, slotting, and grooving. It is mainly used for panel furniture production. The price range is from $10,000.00 to $60,000.00.
5 Axis CNC Routers for Woodworking
5 axis CNC router is designed for 3D woodworking, 3D modeling, and 3D mold making, including ship model, building model, automotive mold, metalloid molds, 3D shape cutting and 3D surface carving of large-scale instruments. The price range is from $80,000.00 to $150,000.00.
How to Choose CNC Router Tools for Woodworking?
Basis of CNC tools for woodworking plans
1. The nature of the material being cut: the object of woodcutting is solid wood and wood composite materials. Solid wood can be divided into softwood, hardwood, and modified wood, etc.; wood composite materials include veneer laminate, plywood, particleboard, oriented particleboard, large particleboard, gypsum particleboard, cement particle board, hard fiberboard, medium-density Fiberboard, high-density fiberboard, blockboard, glued composite materials, etc. Some pieces of wood or wood composite materials are also subjected to single-sided or double-sided veneer decoration.
2. Cutting direction: In solid wood cutting, woodcutting is divided into a longitudinal, transverse, end and longitudinal end, longitudinal and transverse, and transverse end cutting according to the direction of the blade relative to the wood fiber.
3. Tool rotation direction and feed direction: According to the machine tool axis rotation direction and wood workpiece feed direction, determine the tilt direction of the blade on the tool.
4. Stability of tool and workpiece: The stability of the tool and workpiece during the cutting process includes several aspects. The stability of the workpiece refers to the smooth feeding of the wood workpiece during the cutting process without jumping. The measures taken to strengthen the stability of the workpiece mainly include reducing the center of gravity of the workpiece and increasing the contact area.
5. The quality requirements of the processed surface: the surface quality of the wood workpiece includes surface roughness, geometric size, and shape position accuracy.
Selection of CNC woodworking tools
1. Determine the main technical parameters of the tool: tool outer diameter, processing thickness, center aperture. Other technical parameters: number of cutter teeth, the direction of rotation, speed of rotation, feed speed, clamping method, the material of cutter teeth.
2. Choose the structure of the tool: According to the nature and requirements of the cutting object, from the technical and economic aspects, choose the overall tool, weld the overall tool, assembly tool, and combination tool.
3. The choice of the direction of rotation of the tool: the direction of rotation of the tool is determined according to the direction of rotation of the main shaft of the processing machine and the relative position of the tool shaft and the feed workpiece, whether it is a whole tool or an assembled tool, the cutting edge is opposite to the tool The inclination of the radius determines the direction of rotation of the tool.
4. Selection of the cutting amount of the tool: the cutting amount of the tool includes the cutting speed of the tool, the feed speed of the workpiece, and the milling depth. The cutting speed of the cutter depends on the cutter speed and the cutter radius. The feed rate of the workpiece depends on the quality requirements of the cutting surface. The surface roughness of the workpiece to be cut largely depends on the feed per tooth of the tool during the cutting process. The feed per tooth is too large, the processing surface is too rough, and the feed per tooth is too small, the surface will burn. Coke phenomenon, so the feed per tooth of the tool must be appropriate.
5. Stability of tool operation: The stability of tool operation is the basis to ensure the machining accuracy and the quality of the machining surface. This includes two aspects: one is that the tool is vibrated by the external force during the cutting process; the other is that the tool deforms under the action of the external force.
6. Safety of tool processing: The safety of tool processing includes tool rotation speed limitation, chip thickness limitation, profile tool profile height limitation, and assembly tool blade thickness and extension limitation, etc.
The characteristic of woodcutting is high-speed cutting. The rotation speed of the tool is more than 3000rpm. High-speed cutting brings high production efficiency and smooth surface quality for wood cutting. At the same time, it also brings a series of safety problems. Therefore, when the spindle speed of the milling machine reaches 9000 rpm, except for the shank tool with a tool of less than 16 mm, the use of assembled tools should be prohibited. Conduct strict flaw detection. The chip thickness limit is necessary to ensure that the feed of the tool is too large and the tool is seriously overloaded.
For forming tools, the height value of the profile contour has a close relationship with the clamping method of the tool, the thickness of the cutting workpiece, and the diameter of the tool. After the thickness of the cutting workpiece, the diameter of the tool, and the central aperture are determined, the height of the tool profile reflects the strength and rigidity of the tool itself and the ability to withstand the cutting resistance. Therefore, the height of the profile must be limited to ensure the safety of the tool. The design of the assembled tool body must consider the blade clamping problem. Whether it is a cylindrical cutter body or a disc cutter body, the blade clamping form must ensure that it can provide a sufficiently large clamping force to resist the rotary centrifugal force.
What is your right CNC router for woodworking? It depends on your business requirements and budget, Don’t just focus on cheap prices, pay more attention to the quality and service.
