[Swede]

DIY CNC Wood Routers seems to be by far the most popular and active forum here at the site. The wealth of knowledge is incredible, and the designs show great imagination and some wonderful engineering.

I'm purely a metal guy... can't stand sawdust, it clings to my oiled machines and makes an evil, moisture-absorbing slurry. With that said, and with the utmost respect, I've got to ask,

What do you guys use your CNC routers for!?!?

I'm displaying my ignorance here, but all I can think of are signs and artwork. What products are being crafted with all this cool hardware?

Swede

[ynneb]

Thats a very good question Swede, and I have wondered that myself.
If you are not going to use them to manufacture a whole lot of components then why bother building one, just to stand by incase you might one day need to route a cup coaster.

I can answer for my self though.
Though I dont have one fully built yet, I do have ideas of what to use it for and how to use it frequently. These are some of my ideas.

I want to cut out picture frames. A thin veneer of brushed aluminium stuck to mdf and the cut out.
Frames around wall aquariums. I can get work doing this for my friends bussiness. Seen here www.trend.com.au
I want to also route shapes that I can then make moulds out of to make original designs to then cast concrete.
I want to make some fancy cabinetry that has nice paterns engraved into it.

These are some things that I know others use them for......
Cutting original guitar shapes.

Cutting skeletons for timber boat hulls.

Model railway, cutting brigdes, buildings etc

Model aircraft, cutting wing designs etc.

Yes as you said, signs ( Isnt that a big enough reason on its own?)

Dolls house building and its componetry.

I have thought about providing discount coffins to the underpriviledged. As a Salvo I see a big need here.

There are some who cut out modular skeletons for dinosaur displays. ( Cant you picture having a life size skeleton on your front lawn? )

Kids toys. Rockers for babes, Rocking horses, small pull anong wooden toys.

Fancy engraved bed heads.

For that special woman in your life, a timber engraved broach. No expence spared here. After all, who is it that brings you cups of coffee while you are in your shed routing instead of been inside talking to her?

Chess boards

Toilet seats. ( Saves cleaning them, make 52 of them for each week of the year.)

Skis, snow boards, sleighs.

Prototype designs.

All sorts of indoor furniture.

Garden furniutre.

These are only the things that quickly come to mind. I am sure others could list many other things.

But wait, thats not all. For that set of steak knives, you also need a wooden block to hold them.

[Max]

Isn't that interesting,
I can't imagine doing metal cutting ....
:-)

For wood .. there's cabinet making, ornamental pieces such as brackets and corbels

And don't forget the foam cutters
... that will be the mainstay of my machine for graphics and architectual pieces for synthetic stucco.

check out ninewgt's work
http://www.cnczone.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=3085

[Hobbiest]

Cut foam for lost foam casting process. Custom engraved doors, entry and interior. Cabinet doors for my pending remodel. Proof of concept pieces, since wood is so much cheaper than metal. Building the next machine, which possibly can do metal fairly well. But most of all, the added knowledge of CNC. Just knowing that you could make something that you just saw in the store, especially if you are better with a computer than hand tools (I am the opposite, but the technological satisfaction is nice).

[samualt]

I want to make:
Spirit boards (Ouija boards with glass tops).
Huge murals with western themes.
Huge murals with gothic themes.
Mirrors (regular and scrying) with ornate frames.
Book shelves and gun-racks with ornate frames.
Lots of things with ornate frames, LOL.

I guess "art" would be the answer. I want to make artsy things (my friends always laugh at that). Just look on Ebay. What sells the best? The nostalgia items and art. The bigger the art the more they will pay (thus, a 4x8 router ;-) Of course, you have to create good art and make a name for yourself. It could happen! LOL.
What I like about a CNC Router is you are only limited by your imagination. I see products everywhere. While visiting Home-Depot I saw that they had table-top-rounds. You could engrave those, put some glass on top, and end up with some very cool tables. As an aside, have you ever noticed that old wooden art always has faces in it? If your in Florida go see "Vizcaya Museum and Gardens" in Miami. As your looking at it, it is looking at you!
Really, you should look at a CNC Router for what it is. It is a computer printer that prints in wood using 3-dimensions. Let your imagination run wild from there!

[foamcutter]

I am designing and building one to engrave and carve stone.

[chuckknigh]

Clocks and gears. It's amazing how difficult it is to cut gear teeth with sufficient precision, without numerical control.

[ynneb]

he he....... I saw someone mention carving stone. That reminds me. Timber is not the only thing you can cut / engrave/ sculpt.

You can use these machines for plastic, wax, aluminium, stone, glass etching, and even making cups of tea when the wife is out looking for someone to talk to her.

[DJ Morrow]

I'm working on router number 1 and have started plans for number 2. I've never used one and have no specific plans on just what I might make with it. I just love the adventure of learning and have always been fascinated by manufacturing and technology of any kind.

I have a few ideas like motorcycle windshields - custom heights for touring bikes ( I ride long distance... Really long distance). Perhaps a few other bike parts once I build a heavier model.

[balsaman]

Many of us built ours for cutting model airplane kits from plywood or balsa sheet.

E

[strat]

my reason for getting into this is i'm into building guitar pickups i can buy the material cheaper then i can pre cuts but the main reason is i had brain surg a couple years ago due to epilepsy so workin with saws drills ect is a hard thing for me ... really shakey hehehe my straight cuts by hand come out looking like a figure 8 anyways with all that said i lived on the computer for about 10 years was my only way to travel ,talk ect ect so when i found out i could draw something in cad and let this machine cut for me it opened doors and ideas your imaginations the limit :rainfro: :rainfro:

[whiteriver]

I use mine for all sorts of stuff. Last week I cut 6 4'x8' panels of vinyl for a big sign. Today I spent the day cutting vinyl sandblast mask stencils for my wife so she can blast some glass tommorow. While she will be blasting I will be cutting out a 2" thick skull out of foam and a 24" dia Stargate ring and Dial home device. The next day I probley will cut out some fretwork out of 1/4" and 1/2" wood. Later in the week I wanna cut out a dinosaur for the back yard out of 1/2" baltic birch. Made the tool path last week. Hard to find time on the machine.
Now if I could just make some money with it. I bounce around to much. There just is tooooooooooooo many things that can be done.
I would like to make moulds for concrete but I need to find info on it. Also fake stone out of foam. Been thinking of that idea for a couple weeks. Anybody else doing the fake stone stuff.

Donny

[KingPANO]

I make panoramic tripod heads for photographers and budding digital photographers. I tried using a laser to cut out .25" acrylic and didn't like the quality or accuracy of the cut. I run my machine at least 4-5 hours a day.

Bill
KingPANO.com

[ropewrench]

I have 15 orders and haven't finished my machine.

go figure

[wjbzone]

I made a set of kitchen cabinets that worked out great.

I found myself using my cnc router for things I didn't expect. Hand feeding wood under the router along a fence, to make grooves or edge cuts. It's so easy to move a few thousand's of an inch to adjust to the right size.

I got a biscuit cutter blade for my router. It puts the slot right where you need them. Makes great joints.

Bill

[ullbergm]

Originally posted by wjbzone
I made a set of kitchen cabinets that worked out great.

Same here, made some mortises for cabinets, they lined up perfectly.

[turmite]

Swede while my router is not a diy it did start out as a kit so I guess that qualifies me to post in this thread. I make gunstocks via 3d carving, pistol grips, wooden spoons, spatulas, fixtures for my work holding, cabinet parts for my brother's cabinet shop. I also have made 8ft. fluted trims and have fluted sheets of plywood to match existing sheets on a remodel job. I also make christmas ornaments including a script style Merry Christmas that is about 13-14 feet long. Some of the things I am goint to try a little later on; Jewellry boxes, cue sticks with inlays, furniture and storage for cd's and vcr tapes. This is not the complete list but it at least gives potential of what can be done with the cnc routers.

Mike

[Swede]

Thanks everyone. I think what limited my thinking was that it seems that a lot of the CNC routers are built (intentionally? I'm not sure) with a really limited Z stroke. This made me think more along the lines of 2D work with a limited depth. Lots of the projects mentioned require BIG envelopes... I know there are a lot of machines out there that can handle, say a guitar outline, so I guess when designing one, ultimately bigger seems better as far as the ultimate number of projects it could handle.

The dust must be horrific. How do you guys handle dust? Normal sawdust-collection vacuum systems? Doesn't the dust migrate into lubricated ball bearings and precision screw shafts, messing them up?

I guess the same "What the heck do you make?" question can be made with metal machines, probably even more so as the products are often obscure, like tooling or assemblies for instrumentation and such.

What woodwork I do is limited to Balsa for R/C models. I was pondering a laser until I tried routing balsa with a 50,000 RPM spindle... even cross-grain, the cut was exceptionally clean, so that is what I'm going to go with.

Keep the examples coming! I like the photos at the top of the Zone page, especially those with finished products.

[lsfoils]

Man, I knew I was swimmin' with the right school of fish!

[turmite]

lsfoils aren't you the guy that works with a Bear? Man I couldn't stand having to stay around all that Bear stuff and not get to take some of it home! Have you seen the head Bear's guitars??


Oh yeah Swede that is another thing I hope to do in the very near future. Guitar bodies and necks hmmm.....the list is getting longer. I need to build my new machine sooner than later .

Mike