[trialanderror]

I noticed that routing machines have a lot bigger of a work area than milling machines but also heard that they are not as stable for cutting metal. If a router is built properly can it be as stable as a milling machine? It just seems so much more practical to have a bigger working area, when working on flat aluminum parts.

[RICHARD ZASTROW]

If a machine is built stable enough to do milling and large enough to accommodate large workpieces, would that not be a large milling machine? Generally, milling machine spindles have lower RPM and higher torque while routers have higher RPM and lower torque.

Why not have a large work area on a stable machine with a milling spindle and a routing spindle? Guess what? It's been done already.LOL

Dick Z

[T.W.O.]

Yes, if your router is well built you can cut aluminum with it.
i'm designing a relative small router with a fixed gantry and a moving table and i'm planning to cut steel with it. There is always the possibility to lower cuttingspeed and feedrate. If it"s a hobby machine it doesnt matter if it takes a bit longer to produce a part.

[trialanderror]

make sense, thanks!

[LUCKY13]

Normally a router will also be faster on its cuts and rapids, the milling machine will be more usefull. But if flat stock is all that you need to work with then a good router is probably the ticket.


The main thing is to research very good exactly what your trying to do & exactly what eachh machine you look at will do. When yuo first get into this stuff there is so much going on its very easy to not understand everything that is in front of you ( like what the machine will really do).


When yuo think yuo have what will work for you post it in the thread and get others feedback on your choice because when your new to this its very easy to over look something that may be important, or get misslead.

Also searching U-tube will give you great feedback on any machine your looking at, or any work your trying to achive. There is a lot of video's/info there that can show you alot about what your getting into.


And remember it will allways cost more for tooling, measuring equipment, setup equipment, software and such than the machine will cost. So the machine price is only a small part of what you need.

Jess

[Dennis Rech]

I noticed that routing machines have a lot bigger of a work area than milling machines but also heard that they are not as stable for cutting metal. If a router is built properly can it be as stable as a milling machine? It just seems so much more practical to have a bigger working area, when working on flat aluminum parts.

A cnc bed mill weighs about 5000 pounds, a cnc router such as a ShopBot weighs under 1000. The milling machine moves in tenth of a thousandth and the router moves in half a hundredth.

The router likely has a spindle that turns 20,000 rpm and the mill 5000.
You clamp parts to a rigid steel bed on the mill and hot glue parts to the mdf bed on the router.

The bed mill has big honking servo motors to move the table and the router has nifty little stepper motors. They have similar rapids because both are limited for safety. The mill can push a thousand pounds laterally, the router about 100. Both are limited by the installed cutting bit.

For engraving plastic, aluminum and even steel, I prefer the router with the much faster spindle (a secondary high speed spindle can be piggybacked on the mill). The router can cut aluminum but the mill is preferable because it has coolant so there is less edge build-up on the tool. Routers just aren't designed for coolant.
Wood and plastics are better on the router because of the faster spindle and mostly because the router has a vacuum system. The milling machine has oil everywhere and oil and sawdust are icky.
The milling machine can tap holes and thread mill. It has a power drawbar and automatic tool length compensation. The router doesn't. The mill has 20 inches of Z-travel. The router has six. You can put a whole sheet of plywood on the router. You can put a 3 cubic feet chunk of cast iron of the mill.
The machines can over lap in function, but they are better complimenting each other.
And if you are working with plastic or wood under 3/8 inch, think about a laser.
Hope this helps.

[SquibLoad]

The machines can over lap in function, but they are better complimenting each other.
And if you are working with plastic or wood under 3/8 inch, think about a laser.
Hope this helps.

2nd that. We've got all three, and use each for different tasks. All are useful and, at least in my mind, needed. The more tools, the more capabilities you have.

[mmcp42]

"whats the difference between a cnc milling machine and cnc router?"
is it that the mill moved the work and keep the tool stationary?
and the router moves the tool and keeps the work stationary?

so what's it called when they both move?
x-axis moves the table
y- and z-axis move the tool

thanks
Mike

[RICHARD ZASTROW]

Interpolation. Circular interpolation produces circles, radii and curved lines. Linear interpolation produces lines such as angles.

If you have a control that has simultaneous interpolation of X, Y & Z, you can have helical interpolation. The you can produce spheres like bowls, tapered cones like funnels etc.

Dick Z

[awerby]

The difference between a router and a mill has to do with the materials being cut. Routers are used for softer materials like wood, but some can handle aluminum, while mills are designed primarily for cutting metals, and have to be more massive and rigid. There are router designs that move the table, either in X only, or in X and Y, although the most common designs use a gantry, which typically moves in X while carrying the Y and Z axes. Gantry designs are rare in mills, because rigidity is harder to achieve, although some of them use a bridge design, which is fixed but supports the Y and Z axes.

As was mentioned above, the spindles of mills designed for cutting steel are usually slower and have more torque than router spindles, which generally go faster but with less torque.

Andrew Werby
www.computersculpture.com

[Jashley73]

"so what's it called when they both move?
x-axis moves the table
y- and z-axis move the tool

thanks
Mike

That's called Double-Column construction. The table moves in one axis- usually X, and the Y axis would move perpendicular, on guide ways located above the table. The Z axis & spindle rides along the Y axis guide ways. A standard Double-Column construction, the columns and Y-axis ways are ridgid, and the spindle moves up/down to the table along the Z-axis.

An alternative, is the travelling-bridge double column machine. The table moves one axis, but the whole Y-axis guide ways move vertically along the z-axis. This requires dual ballscrews/ servo motors, moving together to keep the Y-axis guide ways parallel to the table. The spindle is travs back and fourth along the Y-axis.

Search YouTube for "double column milling machine"...

[wizard]

I noticed that routing machines have a lot bigger of a work area than milling machines but also heard that they are not as stable for cutting metal.

You hear a lot of things on the net. For reasons of economics machines are optimized for specific uses, this can make routers unsuitable for some types of machining operations. This is often due to robustness of construction and spindle speeds. Effectively a router and a mill do the same thing, with capacity often dictating naming.

Some will argue at length that a milling machine is not a router. This in my mind is bogus as you can buy planner mills, gantry mills and other machines that look like routers. Some of those machines end up engineered for specific uses such as milling aluminum for the aircraft industry at very high speeds. So is it a router or mill? This is why I see naming or defining a device based on spindle speeds or feed rates to be nothing but BS.

If a router is built properly can it be as stable as a milling machine?

Certainly, but this isn't likely a DIY project. You would need access to substantial tools to machine the components and assemble the machine. A "router" type machine, that is a gantry machine can actually be more stable than the alternatives.

It just seems so much more practical to have a bigger working area, when working on flat aluminum parts.

Yes it can very well be. This is why some shops employ "routers" to knock parts out of sheet goods. I quote routers because in most cases these aren't machines designed for low end woodworking. It is often a matter of fitting the best machine to the job at hand. In some cases it just isn't practical to place sheet goods on a mill based on physical size.