CNC Router Bits Glossary 1

A

Abrasive Router Bits: This type of router is specifically designed to carve or engrave abrasive materials including tile, fiberglass, wood, diamond etc.

Acrylic CNC Router Bits: This automated cutting implement is specifically designed to work with acrylic. As we know that acrylic is softer than the bits, the former can easily stultify the steel of the tool.

 

Aluminum Router Bits: Aluminum Router Bits help in cutting nonferrous metals like aluminum, brass, copper, etc.

 

Angles: It is the amount of divergence between two straight lines that meet at the vertex. Angles are usually measured in degrees and minutes. Cutting Angles, Included Angles, clearance Angle, End-Clearance Angle, and Tip Angle are different angles of an engraving tool.

Axial Load: It is the force administered along with the lines of an axis. Axial load occurs when an object is loaded and the force remains normal to the axis. It is usually measured in percentage of the diameter of the tool.

Axis: Axis is a center line (it can be real or imaginary) about which an object rotates. A, C, X, Y, Z are reference points for CNC machine tools.

Architectural bits: It is a high-quality wood cutting tool. The mirror-like carbide finish and sharpness make the very fine quality of cut.

 B

Backlash: It is a situation that arises when the moving parts lose motion (play) and cause havoc with size control.

Binder: It is the metallic constituent present in carbide that holds the grains altogether.

Brazing: This technique is basically used for joining metals by heating non-ferrous metallic alloy and combining with a suitable flux to its lower melting point, so as to make the binding medium.

Burning: When you work with CNC router on a wooden material, you can see that the surface of the wood gets discolored due to excessive speed and feed. The tool gets overheated leading to smoke but there’s no sign of fire. The smoke gets raised when the speed and feed of the tool get amplified.

Bevel: It is a sloping surface or edge that runs from the bottom of the nameplates edge giving a bordering effect.

Ball-Nose Bits: This tool is used for carving decorative doors and manufacturing signs. A ball nose router bit makes an excellent finish and expels chips swiftly. It can be also used with hand-held portable routers, CNC machines, and mounted routers.

Beadboard CNC Bits: It is a computerized shaping tool that is primarily used for creating bead (engraved with stepped edges) or flute pattern. These bits help in lettering, trimming, and fluting.  

 

Beading Router Bits: This type of router bits is used for engraving decorative pieces. The bits engrave quarter-round shapes bordered by fillets. It creates a bead like a contour in the wood piece. This bit is often used with a tongue-and-groove joint to hide a gap between boards.

Ball End Router Bits: This type of router bits is primarily used for cutting channels for pipes/cables. It is a small rounded raised profile routed on the edge of a workpiece.

 

Boring Bits Lance: This type of router bits have a pointed tip and specifically used for piercing/drilling hard wooden material.

Bowl & Tray Router Bits: This type of bits are used for routing solid wood serving trays or flat dishes.

 

Bullnose Router Bits: This type of bits is particularly used to carve a rounded edge, often used for the front edge on a countertop.

Bench Dog: It is a metal or wooden peg that is used to hold a workpiece in place and easily fits into a hole in the workbench. The peg is round or square in shape and fits with a special spring.

From https://www.woodmagazine.com

Now many people use the clamps on CNC machine.

 

 

C

CNC Router: This computer controlled cutting machine is related to hand-held router generally used for cutting various hard materials, such as wood, composites, aluminum steel, plastics, and foams.

Carbide Tipped Tools (CT): This type of cutting tool is made up of extremely hard material manufactured primarily from tungsten, tantalum, and cobalt. Owing to its hardness and abrasion resistance qualities make this tool suitable for cutting different materials.

Center-Less Grinding: This is a specific grinding process wherein the tool is supported by a blade rest without apprehended between centers. The feed rate of the tool is balanced by a regulating wheel.

From https://www.slideshare.net/prthgajjar/grinding-operation

Chamfer Router Bits: It is used to engrave angles and shapes on the edge of materials. This efficient bit is great for the handyman wishing to pierce decorative pieces or edging.

 

Compression Router Bits: This type of router bits is used while working with materials like veneer, melamine, etc. With the help of this router bits, both the top and bottom edges of the material are properly drilled and pulled towards the center.

Core Box Router Bits: It is used for engraving half-round grooves for fluted moldings, columns, millwork, and signs. When core box router bits are used with an edge guide, it will also drill coves.

 

Corner Round Router Bits: This router bit is used for producing round corners on your woodwork. It is used mainly for crafting furniture pieces.

 

Countersink: It is a tool that allows you to incise a hole so that the head of the screw sits perfectly with the head on the top.

Cove Router Bits: Router bits are used to carve detailing in the cove trim. This tool is also used to carve details on doors, drawers, posts, columns, etc.

Crown Molding: This type of molding is typically used to trim and conceal the joint between walls and ceilings.

Comparator: It is used to measure an optical image and capable of making accurate measurements, thereby making geometry similarity through visual magnification.

Collet: This device is used to hold a subtype of the chunk that forms a collar around the object and exerts a strong clamping force on the object when it is tightened via a tapered outer collar. It can be also used to hold a tool.

Custom Router Bits: This type of custom router bits is made as per the needs and preference of customers.

Clearance Angle: The type of angle is formed between the clearance surface and a plane that is tangent to the cutting edge.

D

Door Lip Router Bits: This type of router bits are used to shape the handles on the front of drawers as well as cabinet doors.

Door Making Router Bits: It is used to compose and shape doors.

Double Bead Router Bits: It creates two bead shaped contours in the wood piece. Often used on the edges of shelving or narrow molding strips.

Deflection: The uneven contact of the workpiece with the grinding wheel or milling cutter while operating a machine tool. It is the result of too high a Feed Rate and excess of stock removal or irregular rest pose.

Degree and Minutes: It is the unit of an angular rotation at 360 degrees per circle or one complete revolution at 60 minutes per degree.

Dovetail Joints: It is used for creating a strong joint between two pieces of wood and popularly used for making drawers and cabinets. It helps in joining wood at the corner with the help of interlocking pins and tails.

Dovetail Router Bits: It is used to carve the tenons and mortises of the dovetail joint.

Dowel: It is a cylindrical wooden pin that is often used for bolstering a wooden joint.

Dowel Center: This cylindrical metal pin has raised points that can be inserted in the dowel hole. It is used to find the center where the two pieces of wood will be meeting.

 

Downcut: It is a cutting-edge helix that moves opposite tool rotation. It removes the chip by forcing down with a plunge.

DACS (Digitally Aligned Cutting System): This is an alignment tool that helps in providing a perfect print-to-cut registration for CNC routing machines. This system can be easily used with minimal training and setup time. It is one of the most cost-effective, accurate solutions for enhancing digital finishing.

Diamond Engraving: This method helps in etching metals with the help of a non-rotating diamond-tipped tool known as Diamond Graver. The graver penetrates deep into the surface of the material and carves fine line on the material.

E

End Mill High-Performance Fiberglass and Composite Cutting Router Bits: It is a combination of flute end mill and diamond-cut router bit for enhanced finishing of the fiberglass and composites.

Engraving Bits: These bits are used for engraving specific designs on the surfaces of materials including wood, plastic, and metal.

E-Z Dial Slot Cutter Router Bits: The E-Z Dial is an adjustable slot cutter without shims, spacers and the need to disassemble the bit. Adjusts in just seconds and is accurate to .004″. Cutting precise grooves has never been easier.

Edge Joining: It helps in smoothing and squaring the edge of a board thereby sticking square boards to another piece.

F

Face: It is the axial cutting length of an engraving tool

Flute Face: It is the flat portion of the flute that is standing straight to the web and ends with the cutting edge.

Fade Out: It is that portion of the flute which is used for grinding wheel of milling cutter that retracts or withdraws from the workpiece. This portion is present in the tool neck, it is an area located between the Cel and Shank.

Feed Rate: It is the speed and feeds a machine tool uses to perform safe and beneficial work. Rpm means a revolution per minute that is applied to the rotational movement whereas Ipm means inches per minute that are applied to the linear movement.

Feed Elevation: It is the vertical feed present on the tool grinder column, which when lower down, reduces the entire grinding head and vice versa.

Feed Index: This measurement is implied by the cross index of a machine and the measurement refers to the work-piece diameter. However, there are times when the radius is also used.

Feather Board: It is a piece of a wood that holds a board against the fence or table of a tool known as a wood router.

From https://www.popularwoodworking.com/projects/walnut-entertainment-center/

Fence: This straight guide helps in distance from the blade and other cutters.

Flat-Sawn Lumber: Flat sawn also known as plain sawn is a method of sawing softwood lumber. The log is cut peripherally to the growth rings.

Flooring Router Bits: These types of bits are used for cutting slots into wood flooring, medallions, and inlays.

Flush Trim Router Bits: This router bit is used to create the edge of one material flush with another.

Fluted Moldings/Fluting: This particular design is made of curved, adjoining, and channels that abide by the pattern along the length of the molding.

From https://www.infinitytools.com/blog/2017/04/27/create-unique-details-with-a-triple-bead-and-flute-router-bit-set/

To be Continued…CNC Router Bits Glossary 2