CNC Mills These are the CNC machines that are used to shape metals and other types of materials. They could be vertical or horizontal types. (This simply applies to the direction in which the cutting tool is oriented.) In CNC milling, both the materials and the tool move. This provision permits greater precision in the quality of the finished products. A woodworker s array of shop tools includes a table saw, a drill press, a chop saw, a lathe, a router, band saw, a joiner/planer, and a shaper or a panel saw. A ShopBot can do the work of all these tools. It can cut, shape, drill and machine just like the traditional tools. The processes In traditional woodworking, making a part needs the combination of a set of tool operations. CNC And The Small Guys Compared to the big guns, it s a totally different perspective when a smaller guy intends to acquire some CNC woodworking equipments. Their sets of consideration are poles apart. From a small guy s perspective, there are a lot of questions that need to be answered correctly. Should one choose a dedicated machine or some multi-function model? These new machines can perform and execute sophisticated shapes and designs, and can switch tooling automatically. They also feature different design programs, with a built-in proviso that programmers can make changes on the fly and can install designs directly into the machine s computer. Now, drilling, boring, and shaping are done with precision, accuracy and speed. There are several things that you need to know before deciding which CNC software to buy and use. Buy a software that would be compatible with your machine in terms of what your machine is capable of. Since the software would be controlling the operation of the CNC machine, getting the program that would maximize the machine is important. These flexible machines have both the 3- and 5-axis routers at the same time, which gave them the best of both worlds. Innovations Even without fanfare, there is a growing list of innovations in the CNC woodworking industry that has kept it going and it is pretty exciting. Some of the cutting edge innovations include 5-axis heads, moldings units, expanded range of aggregates, and the ability of the pods and rails to be electronically positioned.