What can I make with a CNC Router?

You can come up with several items by using a CNC router, such as carve design, etch a surface, or cut out a shape. A CNC router improves sculpting, making jewelry, carving signs, and producing plastic, wood, metal, and stone.

The process of doing these fantastic works is made possible by using the appropriate software. Modern CAD and CAM software are exquisitely functional to draw an idea, develop the tool paths, and turn it into a well-polished final object.

What types of wood can you work with to make many objects?

This section provides the types of wood you can work with making a chessboard, picture frame, plaque, 3D puzzle, a box, a desk, among others, to mention a few. For CNC routing, you need softwood, hardwood, and artificial wood, among others.

You can choose affordable wood to make some designs with minimum costs for a start. Locally available types of wood serve from transport costs and other related expenses. Particleboards, low-cost MDF boards, and plywood are known as practice cuts. In this case, maple has excellent toughness, making it an ideal option for affordable hardwood. A perfect example of softwoods are cedars, spruce, and pine.

Firstly, let’s look closely at hardwoods considering their quality and high durability effect on your product. They are more demanding than softwood, considering their tight grains. A rigid wood CNC machine works best to mill hardwoods as much as you need to act cautiously, guarding your machine against getting blunt.

Detail and intricate designs are more excellent when using hardwood instead of softwoods. Below are many items whose quality and visual appearances help deduce the types of work you can work with to make a handful of products.

Ashwood Electric Guitar – Ash: Ashwood Electric Guitar consists of several rings and light colors. Ashwood qualifies as hardwood. Its nature makes it ideal for tennis racquets and basketball bats through the use of a CNC lathe. Ashwood is hard and sturdy that makes it compatible with the CNC projects to design tables, hockey sticks, and chairs, among others, to mention a few.

So, Ashwood comes as a second marvelous choice after hickory when it comes to shock resistance and hardness choices. You don’t have to worry too much about ash wood’s blunting effects on tools used on it as a hardwood.

Cherrywood Stave Snare – Cherry: Like light-colored ashwood, cherry wood has a light reddish-brown color. It is not malleable and doesn’t warp quickly such that it precisely suits curving projects.

When designing a Cherrywood stave snare, for instance, you must avoid the use of blunt tools which are not sharp. The reason is that blunt instruments distort the idea of bringing out a perfect product. Having burnt marks on the face of the object. You can also consider other works such as smooth and radiant colored carvings, musical instruments, and furniture.

Star Constellation – Walnut: Star. Constellation machined from walnut wood. This is an excellent example of a durable brown colored hardwood that is strong and not easily affordable generally. Predominantly, it works on gunstocks, given its sheer shock absorption capacity. Walnut is different from others because it does not get burnt whilst machining like what is typical with other materials. Instead, it would help if you guarded against shallow cuts resulting in tear-outs.

Moreover, walnut wood works properly for sculptures, turned bowls, furniture, and musical instruments. As such, your CNC router has to put up substantial work that is costly. For example, it requires sharp tools and 800 – 1000 RPM.

Secondly, let’s have a look at softwoods CNC routing. It would help if you considered softwoods to make several objects as you carry out your projects. Compared to hardwoods, you would find out that softwoods are affordable and have a durable quality. Substantially, softwoods are easy to mill, unlike the case with the majority of hardwoods, which makes it not easy for the CNC machine. Now, let’s look at some of the objects you can make out of softwoods.

Cedar Yard Ornament – Cedar:  A well-executed project of cedar type of wood retains natural flavored aroma. It has an appealing reddish-brown color. You may need to consider several pros and cons as you choose cedarwood to make a cedar yard ornament. The pros of using cedarwood include that it is versatile and works for both indoor and outdoor furniture.

The latter contains poles, fences, and boats. An essential feature of the cedarwood objects doesn’t get burnt needlessly at slow feed rates, as with most hardwoods. As such, slow feed rates work best for cautionary measures against tearing.

Pinewood Jack-o’-lantern – Pine: You can work with pinewood to obtain a light pale colored object that is light weighted. Pinewood Jack-o’-lanterns can hold their form reasonably long without shrinking much. Regardless of its classification as a softwood-made product, you need a considerable budget to make it citing its hardness.

Thus, it would help if you exercise caution when detailing and curving, as you may end up having several blunt tools. Unlike the slow speed required for cedarwood and other hardwoods. You must you faster spindle speeds for drilling and routing applications.

Thirdly, engineered woods are a human synthesized type of wood that brings forth excellent objects. In this case, properties designed using this material do not have natural wood but natural woods. These woods mainly include MDF and plywood. The former, for instance, is more appropriate if you have the intention to quote your object with paint. Moreover, you don’t need to have fast feed rates and spindle RPM for MDF as the neutral point is the best and prevents burning.

The latter, plywood, is another unique set of wood synthesized by combining small sheets or flat pieces of wood to form a layered structure. Plywood is one of the lightest wood materials you can find. Ideally, it works best as the back cover for picture frames hanging cabinets, among others.

In a nutshell, there are three main types of wood you can work with CNC routing to make several objects. These include softwood, hardwood, and man-made wood. Various things come out of these woods listed above.