Router cutting
The router takes full-size sheets of acrylic, plywood, board and aluminium, and cuts them with a spinning cutter: no burnt edges, and parts up to three metres long.
At a glance
- Bed
- 1524mm × 3048mm
- Z clearance
- 150mm
- Spindle
- 10.8HP, 24,000rpm, HSD HSK63 quick-release spindle
- Materials
- Acrylic, ply, board, sheet plastics, aluminium
How it cuts#
A cutter spinning at up to 24,000rpm is moved along your outline, removing a path of material as wide as the cutter itself. It cuts all the way through, or part way down to make a pocket, a groove or a recess.
Unlike the laser, it leaves no heat mark, which is why it is the machine for acrylic and timber. It is also the machine for anything too big for the laser’s bed: the router bed is 1524mm × 3048mm.
Inside corners#
A round cutter cannot cut a sharp inside corner: every internal corner keeps the radius of the cutter that made it. Outside corners can be sharp.
If a square tab or panel has to drop right into a cut-out, draw a dogbone in each corner, or tell us and we will add them.
Materials#
We cut acrylic in ten ranges, from clear to mirror, 2 to 20mm, and timber and board from 3 to 25mm. The router also profiles our aluminium. See Acrylic and Timber and board.
Design rules#
The router takes thicker and denser material than the laser and leaves no burn, but every internal corner carries the radius of the cutter.
- Minimum internal radius
- 1.5mm
- A cutter cannot cut a sharp inside corner. Add a dogbone if the corner must clear.
- Minimum hole diameter
- 4mm
- Set by the smallest cutter we run.
- Cutting tolerance
- ±0.1mm
- Tighter on rigid material, looser on anything that moves under the cutter.
- Say which face is the show face on acrylic and faced boards.
- For pockets and grooves, give the depth as well as the outline.
- Very small parts may need a tab to hold them while they are cut; tell us if a tab mark would matter.