Under Construction...
Beginner's Corner - What you need to get started with a CNC router or milling machine?
Cutting bits
There are many types of bits. In general these are the common bits you will need:
Upcut - fastest cutting.
Downcut - smooth top and good for thin materials.
Compression - smooth edges top and bottom.
V-bit - v-carving and lettering.
Ball endmill - 3D carving.
Rough cut endmill - used to cut material out faster but leaves a rougher finish.
To start buy some cheap 2 flute Chinese carbide bits to practice with. You will likely break a few bits as you get used to operating your machine so save the expensive bits for later when you are making parts to sell. Whiteside and Amana bits are high quality and come highly recommended.
Bit sizes vary from 0.030" diameter to 1/2" diameter for routers. Most hobby grade routers only go up to 1/4" diameter. Start with 1/8" and 1/4" bits. They are harder to break and less sensitive to errors.
There are also single flute, two flute, three flute and 4 flute bits. Most routers are high RPM and work best with one or two flute bits.
To get started just get cheap chinese two flute upcut, downcut, and compression bits to practice with if you are just milling plastic and wood. 95% of my cuts are with 1/4" upcut bits. If you are making lettering or signs then you will use 60 degree and 90 degree V bits too. If you are cutting 3D shapes you will want ball nose bits.
Upcut bits cut the fastest because they evacuate chips the best. However they fray the top edges of your stock most of the time. Don't cut thin materials with upcut bits or they will tend to get pulled up off the bed which will ruin the part.
Downcut bits are great for clean edges on pockets and for cutting thin materials without pulling them off the bed. However, you have to take smaller cuts because chips get pushed down and recycled.
Compression bits have a tip that is an upcut and a body that is a downcut. They make clean edges top and bottom. Slower than an upcut but faster than a downcut. Your first plunge has to be a little deeper than the upcut portion of the bit to prevent tearout.
Ball nose bits are used for cutting 3D contours. An endmill is used to rough out the overall shape at a higher speed then the ball nose bit is used to create smooth features. Typically the bit is stepped over less than 10% of the cutter diameter each pass for the final pass to achieve a smooth finish.
When cutting plastics and metals, the number of flutes and bit coatings matter more than with wood. Feeds, speeds, proper chip load , and effective chip evacuation are also critical to ensure the heat goes into the chip and to prevent the cutter from melting the material. Routers typically don't operate at low RPMS so single flute cutters are sometimes needed for 1/4" and larger cutters. It seems counter intuitive, but if you run too slow of a feed rate or too high of an rpm the material is more likely to melt onto the cutter causing it to break. The proper rpm and feed rate will put most of the heat into the chip which will create a smoother finish and extend your cutter life.
Upcut - fastest cutting.
Downcut - smooth top and good for thin materials.
Compression - smooth edges top and bottom.
V-bit - v-carving and lettering.
Ball endmill - 3D carving.
Rough cut endmill - used to cut material out faster but leaves a rougher finish.
To start buy some cheap 2 flute Chinese carbide bits to practice with. You will likely break a few bits as you get used to operating your machine so save the expensive bits for later when you are making parts to sell. Whiteside and Amana bits are high quality and come highly recommended.
Bit sizes vary from 0.030" diameter to 1/2" diameter for routers. Most hobby grade routers only go up to 1/4" diameter. Start with 1/8" and 1/4" bits. They are harder to break and less sensitive to errors.
There are also single flute, two flute, three flute and 4 flute bits. Most routers are high RPM and work best with one or two flute bits.
To get started just get cheap chinese two flute upcut, downcut, and compression bits to practice with if you are just milling plastic and wood. 95% of my cuts are with 1/4" upcut bits. If you are making lettering or signs then you will use 60 degree and 90 degree V bits too. If you are cutting 3D shapes you will want ball nose bits.
Upcut bits cut the fastest because they evacuate chips the best. However they fray the top edges of your stock most of the time. Don't cut thin materials with upcut bits or they will tend to get pulled up off the bed which will ruin the part.
Downcut bits are great for clean edges on pockets and for cutting thin materials without pulling them off the bed. However, you have to take smaller cuts because chips get pushed down and recycled.
Compression bits have a tip that is an upcut and a body that is a downcut. They make clean edges top and bottom. Slower than an upcut but faster than a downcut. Your first plunge has to be a little deeper than the upcut portion of the bit to prevent tearout.
Ball nose bits are used for cutting 3D contours. An endmill is used to rough out the overall shape at a higher speed then the ball nose bit is used to create smooth features. Typically the bit is stepped over less than 10% of the cutter diameter each pass for the final pass to achieve a smooth finish.
When cutting plastics and metals, the number of flutes and bit coatings matter more than with wood. Feeds, speeds, proper chip load , and effective chip evacuation are also critical to ensure the heat goes into the chip and to prevent the cutter from melting the material. Routers typically don't operate at low RPMS so single flute cutters are sometimes needed for 1/4" and larger cutters. It seems counter intuitive, but if you run too slow of a feed rate or too high of an rpm the material is more likely to melt onto the cutter causing it to break. The proper rpm and feed rate will put most of the heat into the chip which will create a smoother finish and extend your cutter life.
Tooling, jigs and fixtures
Software
The most common software packages used for hobbyist CNC work are...
Fusion360 - Fusion360 is free for hobbyists and offers the most powerful CAD/CAM package available for under $5,000. It includes 3D design software, drawing creation, CAM software, and several analysis packages. You can create 3D designs in Fusion that are constrained and move just like the real thing. This is very powerful and allows you to try out multiple design concepts without wasting valuable time and materials before you start building advanced prototypes.
One big drawback to Fusion360 is that it has a very steep learning curve. I tried watching YouTube videos and tried a paid course and still was struggling to get functional with this software and that's after using an advanced 3D modeling software for 18 years. I ended up paying someone to walk me through the steps I needed to learn over a few projects. I spent around $500 learning but it was well worth it because I didn't have to watch 40 hours of YouTube videos to find the one 5 minute lesson that I needed to see.
If you plan on cutting metals then Fusion is preferred over VCarve because it offers advanced cutting profiles that increase speed and cutter life.
Also, having the 3D modeling and CAM software all in one integrated package is a plus.
Learning Fusion360 -
I messed with YouTube videos and a couple tutorials and just wasn't getting it so I paid Kevin Ellingson that runs www.mechanicaladvantage.com $60/hour to teach me. I think I spent about 5 hours with him going through areas where I kept getting stuck on projects and he was a tremendous help. We worked through a screen share system and he sent me recordings of our sessions for future reference. I'm not very quick at learning software so this approach was worth it to me since it saved me 100 hours of searching YouTube videos. I had the money but I didn't have time to learn by searching so this route was well worth it for me.
You might also look at Upwork.com to find a Fusion360 expert who works at a much lower rate but can still get you through all of the basics. You may have to set up the screen sharing but that shouldn't be a big deal. Some of these guys on Upwork charge as little as $5 per hour. Some that have great ratings still charge as little as $10/hr.
VCarve - VCarve Desktop, VCarve, VCarvePro, and Aspire by Vectric are by far the most used software by hobby level CNC users. If you plan on making decorative pieces or signs then VCarve and Aspire are superior to Fusion360 because they have many built-in functions and files that make these designs easy to customize. I tried some of the freeware software packages and I really hated using my CNC. Once I switched to VCarvePro I love using it all the time now. I can focus on the project and not worry about buggy or non-intuitive software problems.
Free Vectric YouTube video tutorials will be all you need to get started and become very proficient with their software. For me, VCarvePro was at least 20x easier to learn than Fusion360. However, to have 3D modeling capabilities you will need to purchase Aspire costs around $2,000 so it is used mostly by businesses.
Fusion360 - Fusion360 is free for hobbyists and offers the most powerful CAD/CAM package available for under $5,000. It includes 3D design software, drawing creation, CAM software, and several analysis packages. You can create 3D designs in Fusion that are constrained and move just like the real thing. This is very powerful and allows you to try out multiple design concepts without wasting valuable time and materials before you start building advanced prototypes.
One big drawback to Fusion360 is that it has a very steep learning curve. I tried watching YouTube videos and tried a paid course and still was struggling to get functional with this software and that's after using an advanced 3D modeling software for 18 years. I ended up paying someone to walk me through the steps I needed to learn over a few projects. I spent around $500 learning but it was well worth it because I didn't have to watch 40 hours of YouTube videos to find the one 5 minute lesson that I needed to see.
If you plan on cutting metals then Fusion is preferred over VCarve because it offers advanced cutting profiles that increase speed and cutter life.
Also, having the 3D modeling and CAM software all in one integrated package is a plus.
Learning Fusion360 -
I messed with YouTube videos and a couple tutorials and just wasn't getting it so I paid Kevin Ellingson that runs www.mechanicaladvantage.com $60/hour to teach me. I think I spent about 5 hours with him going through areas where I kept getting stuck on projects and he was a tremendous help. We worked through a screen share system and he sent me recordings of our sessions for future reference. I'm not very quick at learning software so this approach was worth it to me since it saved me 100 hours of searching YouTube videos. I had the money but I didn't have time to learn by searching so this route was well worth it for me.
You might also look at Upwork.com to find a Fusion360 expert who works at a much lower rate but can still get you through all of the basics. You may have to set up the screen sharing but that shouldn't be a big deal. Some of these guys on Upwork charge as little as $5 per hour. Some that have great ratings still charge as little as $10/hr.
VCarve - VCarve Desktop, VCarve, VCarvePro, and Aspire by Vectric are by far the most used software by hobby level CNC users. If you plan on making decorative pieces or signs then VCarve and Aspire are superior to Fusion360 because they have many built-in functions and files that make these designs easy to customize. I tried some of the freeware software packages and I really hated using my CNC. Once I switched to VCarvePro I love using it all the time now. I can focus on the project and not worry about buggy or non-intuitive software problems.
Free Vectric YouTube video tutorials will be all you need to get started and become very proficient with their software. For me, VCarvePro was at least 20x easier to learn than Fusion360. However, to have 3D modeling capabilities you will need to purchase Aspire costs around $2,000 so it is used mostly by businesses.