[DanSWUK]

Well this grew in the telling! I initially wanted a cheap laser engraver to burn onto wood for hobby purposes. Somehow I ended up with a cheap 3018 Pro CNC machine with a 775 spindle motor that has more obvious capabilities than just the laser attachment.

I fancy playing around making small wooden game boards for my kids. I'm thinking of hardwood (maple) boards with holes in them (for pegs, like cribbage) and possibly larger shallow disc type cut outs. Being new to woodwork and CNC I figure I need specific advice on what sort of bits will do what I want that will fit the ER11 collet. The machine was only supplied with 10 x 'drill bits' that I believe are the standard fluted carving bits.

Questions:

1. Peg holes: For drilling peg type holes, will the standard bits work or should I get a proper drill bit as I would a proper drill bit if I were doing this with an electric hand drill?

2. Shallow disc shapes: I believe that with the bigger disc size cut-outs e.g 30mm wide x 3mm deep circles, that the supplied bits could carve out the cut-outs but is there a more efficient attachment/bit that will do this?

3. Brass: Slightly leftfield, I saw a 3018 machine milling brass (slowly!) on a YouTube video. Could it, in theory, mill out a brass branding stamp, like the kind you use to burn into wood or stamp leather e.g: https://brandingirons.com/products/c...branding-heads. If so, what sort of bit might be used?

4. Software. Easel, seems relatively easy to use and with its free hobby use at four projects a month, seems like it might be a good fit for what I want i.e. few simple designs using shapes as described above. However, I am a fan of software that is run on my own PC rather than browser based direct-from-a-website. Is there an equivalent that is free or relatively cheap that can be run from a PC?

Thanks

Dan

[MaryShelley]

very interesting. do you read additional literature or information?
I can advise https://baseb.io/content/blog/morale...p-to-scale-up/, here you will also find useful information