A real helper in the house is a hand router with a variety of cutters. Their use turns wooden blocks into real works of art. Let's get acquainted with the most popular wood cutters, purpose and application.
What is a manual milling machine
Manual milling machine small wooden parts are processed at home. Let's look at what types of cutter sets there are and what they are used for.
Main Application:
- For installing doors
- For installation window frames(frame cutters)
- When turning small bars and planks
- When creating holes for installing door and window locks
The router is used only for spot work on small wooden areas.
The power of the tool is:
- Easy
The lightweight model has a power of up to 750 W. Suitable for small jobs at home.
- Average
With a power of 750–900 W, the model is in demand. This is an indispensable assistant during the installation of furniture frames and the creation of shaped parts from wooden blocks.
- Heavy
The heavy model is used to make professional products. It has a power of 900–1200 W.
Classification of wood bits for a hand router
Regardless of the technical characteristics, equipment can be divided according to the specific use.
- Spiral
The spiral cutter allows the tool to be in constant contact with the wood material. This results in a smoother cut.
- Profile
Using profile tools, corners are rounded, chamfered and grooves are made. Microtenon cutter is one of the varieties. It has side and end edges. Using this cutter, a tongue-and-groove joint is formed;
- 45˚ cutters
An edge type of cutter that gives the edge an aesthetic appearance. There are no knives at the end, and the presence of a bearing on the structure helps to cut the edge of the tabletop according to patterns and obtain a chamfer on the edge of the product.
Important! To prolong the life of the bearing, it must be lubricated regularly with machine oil.
- Extended
To make wooden workpieces look clean - with grooves and grooves, you should opt for long grooved cutters. They can be either a carbide monolith or a steel tool with high-speed cutting tips. MDF and chipboard boards are processed with an elongated cutting tool for a hand router.
- Round
Ball cutters for wood have a round shape. They are used to process the ends of wooden parts and create grooves. Distinctive feature This type of cutter is the presence of a cutting part along the entire circumference. This advantage allows the tool to work at any angle, both on the entire working surface and in individual areas.
How to choose slot cutters. Their main types
- Direct
The cylindrical shape of the cutter leaves a rectangular cross-section in the groove after work. This is the simplest tool.
- Fillet
Milling cutters with a rounded cutting head are used for shaped processing of carpentry blanks. They are used for decorative processing of furniture elements, and the cross-section of the groove resembles the configuration of the letter U.
- V-shaped 90˚
Cutters are used to create a small V-shaped groove on a wooden piece. Its side walls have an angle of 90˚ between themselves.
- Structural
The cutter in the workpiece forms an inverted letter T. Its base has the shape of a regular trapezoid. This is a very reliable connection. If the workpieces move together, there is no other way to separate them.
- Shaped
The tool is used for decorative and edging work. They are also called paneled. The cross section of the groove produces the shape of a curly brace. Not only the center, but also the edge of the workpiece is milled.
Important! Milling cutters are consumables. It is necessary to make a supply of cutters, since they are worn out during processing of wooden blanks.
- Finger
Finger (overrunning) sharpening consists of a tail, main and working part. Using the tool, a recess of a certain configuration is formed, the edge is processed, and hinges or other fittings are cut in. And on the surface of the bar you can do decorative elements volumetric forms.
- Radial
The cutters are convex and concave with reverse rotation, which makes them universal. They perform complex or figured processing of wooden blanks.
- Profile
The cutter has a cylindrical shape, a cutting edge, and additional end elements that protect the bottom of the groove. They come with interchangeable knives. Process recesses and concessions. The sharpening penetrates deeply into the workpiece, processing the hole and plane, which are located at an angle of 90˚ to each other.
- typesetting
The construction industry offers cutters in sets of 10, 12, 50 and 60 pieces. You need to choose a tool according to technical parameters.
- Profile–counter-profile
With the help of some cutters it is possible to form two mutually matching profiles, one of which is a counter profile. This can be a set of two separate cutters that complement each other (“profile-counter-profile”).
- Corn
The planing cutter is made of a light but durable alloy, equipped with four-sided carbide knives, designed for planing smooth surfaces of soft and hard wood or milling curved workpieces made of wood, plywood, MDF on single-spindle milling machines with manual and mechanical feeding of workpieces.
You need to pay attention:
- for soldering, which may lose its longitudinal stability during long-term operation;
- on a plate with a shank, which must be firmly soldered with article material PSR 40 or PSR 37.5 with silver and copper;
- for thermal strength, which is checked by heating to a temperature of 200–250˚ C. In this case, the longitudinal axis should not be bent by more than 0.05 mm.
Cutters made from high-speed steel have better strength compared to monolithic cutters made from tool steel.
- Conical
Used to obtain 3D reliefs on the surface of workpieces. The shank in a cone cutter can have a diameter of 4, 6 and 8 mm. The depth of the relief depends on the selected shank diameter. It is used to process external edges, decorative chamfers, and furniture parts, which will subsequently be joined into a round shape.
These cutters perform slotting and grooving work in wood blanks. Manufacturers use high-strength steel with anti-corrosion protection.
Wood cutter sizes
The main parameters of the equipment are length and diameter. The most popular shank diameters are 6, 8 and 12 mm. It is key to the tool. The store sells cutters with a diameter of ¼ inch - 6.35 mm and ½ - 12.7 mm. They do not fit 6 and 12 mm collets.
Important! The diameters of the shank and collet must be the same size. A small difference will not give the expected result in your work.
Conclusion
Having familiarized ourselves with the types of cutters, we can conclude that milling has great capabilities - it forms edges, panels, grooves, grooves of different depths and configurations. Each type of tool is designed for a specific type of work. The seam cutter is used to produce window grooves for glass in wooden frames. The production of furniture facades using façade cutters, plinths, parquet boards, handrails, and baguettes is possible in other ways. You can see how much wood cutters cost in any hardware or specialty store. A separate product group is diamond wood cutters. They are distinguished by the highest strength, but the price is several times higher. There are cutters for aluminum, stone, and metal, but that’s another topic.
When working with a hand router, you must follow safety precautions. Special clothing and a respirator are required.
On the Stankoff.RU website you can buy spiral cutters for CNC machines from leading manufacturers. In stock and on order, more than 316 models of spiral cutters for wood, metal and other materials according to best prices. Only profitable offers from detailed descriptions and photo. Check prices with managers.
Benefits of using the tool
Professional CNC equipment requires a special approach to the selection of equipment, which must have optimal technical characteristics for high-speed operation of machine tools. A spiral cutter for a numerically controlled router is distinguished by its versatility, which allows dozens of options for processing material with varying degrees of hardness. Sharply sharpened screw blades guarantee a smooth and even surface when working with metal, wood, polymer and composite materials.
The advantage of using spiral cutters offered by our company is the ability of the tool to accurately and cleanly cut a large layer of material while simultaneously crushing and removing chips. Spiral grooves provide longitudinal distribution of cutting force along the working edge, which has constant contact with the surface. The increased cost of the tool is justified by a number of advantages that make it possible to perform processing more efficiently and use the equipment over a long period of time:
- strength and wear resistance;
- high quality of “plunge” milling;
- effective removal of sawdust and shavings.
Spiral wood cutters presented in our catalog work with low impact loads, allowing, due to low vibration, to reduce the degree of tool wear and ensure durability of equipment mechanisms. Compared with other types of consumable tools, screw blade tooling is more suitable for making wide recesses in the form of grooves and sockets.
Classification of spiral cutters
Depending on the nature of the intended work, you can buy a spiral cutter with different directions and inclinations of the cutting edge on our website:
- A tool with a groove leading to a right-handed shank has a smooth bottom edge and a rough top edge. It is used for processing the lower part of the workpiece; it removes chips well from the working area.
- A cutter with a blade tilted to the left has a smooth upper edge and a rough lower edge. Used to process the top of the part.
- The combined type of equipment is produced with smooth ribs that have a versatile slope. Provides high-quality results for profiling the edges and edges of the workpiece.
When working with materials that are prone to splitting or delamination, use equipment with a spiral twisted counterclockwise. A right-angled blade tends to leave chips on the surface of the material. Combined cutters have a reduced feed speed, but provide better processing results. Depending on quality characteristics material, cutters with different numbers of passes are used. The single-pass design is used for milling surfaces with a soft structure, and with a larger number of passes, workpieces made from hard raw materials are processed.
Useful information
Milling cutters for a hand-held wood router are designed for processing various workpieces, parts and structures made of wood, as well as its derivative saw materials (chipboard, fibreboard, plywood, veneer, etc.) and are, in fact, working equipment for a hand-held on wood. In general, using such a tool, equipped with special equipment, it is possible to process the widest range of known materials. But here we will talk specifically about working with wood and saw materials.
Application
It is widespread and practiced when performing various construction, finishing, repair and installation work made of wood. This processing method makes it possible to create a wide variety of elements on wooden structures: grooves, ledges, edges, profiles, grooves, etc. This processing allows you to articulate wooden blanks and structures, ideally fitting the component parts to each other, and with the help of recessed cavities, various structural and functional elements (locks, latches, hinges, lamps, etc.) can be inserted into the wood.
Equipment classification
There are several classification options for this equipment, taking into account various characteristic features. They are divided by the structure of the teeth, the design of the body of the tool (solid, welded, brazed and prefabricated), as well as by the material from which they are made (hard alloys, high-speed steel, mineral ceramics and rarer new high-tech materials). Solid ones are made of one material and in this sense are monolithic; in welded ones, the stronger cutting elements are directly welded to the body; in brazed ones, accordingly, they are soldered, and in prefabricated ones they are attached using connecting elements.
In our online store you can always choose and purchase not only a single copy of the equipment, but also a set of wood cutters for the router.
Using a hand router when processing wood at home makes it possible to perform a variety of manipulations: forming edges, grooves and grooves. For each operation, a specific nozzle is selected. A detailed overview of the types of wood cutters for a hand router, their functions and designs will help you make the right choice.
Design features of cutters
When selecting the necessary cutters for your hand router, you need to know the following initial data:
- Shank size. It is indicated in both inches and millimeters and determines the possibility of sharing equipment with a manual router. The diameter of the tool collet must be compatible with the diameter of the shank. Sometimes inconsistencies arise when considering different measures of length. So, ¼ or ½ inch in conversion gives 6.35 and 12.7 mm. The metric sizes of common types of collets are 6.8 and 12 mm. As you can see, there is no compatibility. Therefore, when choosing, pay attention special attention on this.
- Blade material and location. There are products made from carbide (HM) and high-speed steel (HSS). Carbide cutters are characterized by increased fragility. If you plan to process hard wood, it is recommended to use high-speed steel equipment. Considering the arrangement of the blades on the cutter, we can highlight some features. Vertical blades cut surfaces more aggressively. It is quite difficult to work with such nozzles, and the resulting surface turns out to be rough. It is advisable to use cutters with vertical plates in preliminary operations. Slanted blades cut wood cleaner and are used at the final stages of processing.
- Desired design of the cutting part. Wood cutters can be prefabricated, monolithic or replaceable. The prefabricated structure is a specific set of high-speed steel plates, which are attached to the cutter shank by soldering with copper alloys. Monolithic cutters are made entirely of tool steel. Mounted cutters (with replaceable cutting edges) are the most technologically advanced to use. They have a long service life, since the knives for them are made double-sided (when one side of the blade wears out, it is turned over and processing continues).
| Image | Name of cutter | Description |
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Made from solid metal | |
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Is a steel blank with blades soldered on the sides | |
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Consists of a removable plate fixed to a finger-shaped adapter |
Types of wood cutters
There are various types cutters that perform specific processing functions. Let's look at the most common options.
Grooving cutters
These devices are designed to select a groove of the required width and depth. Their use is widespread when creating groove-tenon joints. When working, you need focus and practical skills. Without a template, it is almost impossible to get an even rectangular groove.
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- a cylindrical device, after use of which a rectangular groove remains in the workpiece. Mainly used with plunge milling machines. | ||||
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have a rounded cutting head. Thanks to this, the groove in the section is U-shaped. Depending on the depth of the cut, the walls are rounded immediately from the surface of the workpiece or first go from it at a right angle. | ||||
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Slot cutters with V-shaped end. When using them, you can get a shallow groove with side walls inclined relative to each other at an angle of 90°. If the work involves making grooves with different angles of inclination of the walls, then you need to have the appropriate set of tools. | ||||
| Grooved structural (T-shaped and dovetail). In cross-section, the resulting grooves form an inverted letter “T”, the base of which extends to the surface or a regular trapezoid, the larger side of which faces the center of the workpiece. As a result of processing, one of the most reliable connections is obtained when the workpieces are pushed into one another. A cutter with a reverse cone for producing dovetail grooves is indispensable when one fragment is removed and the second is fixed to the base using the specified groove. |
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| used to produce figured carvings and edge processing. In cross-section, the grooves resemble curly braces. You can machine both the grooves in the center of the workpiece and its edges. If a complex pattern is being made, it is recommended to first go along its contour with a straight groove cutter - this will simplify subsequent alignment and reduce the load on the milling machine when using a shaped cutter. | |||||
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Edge cutters
This equipment is most often made with a bearing, which allows you to process the edges and ends of wood not only by adjusting the support table, but also according to a template. The depth of penetration of such a cutter into the workpiece can be limited by installing a thrust bearing.
| Designed to obtain a plane of the workpiece end perpendicular to the upper part of the workpiece (face). If there is a bearing on the cutter, rounded edges can be processed. The bearing itself can be configured flush to the cutting blades or have a different (up or down) diameter. | ||
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| designed to produce straight, arched or wavy figured edge. Widely used for making patterns of complex shapes. When choosing a double cutter, you need to pay attention to the possibility of adjusting the distance between the cutting blades. A set for a hand router usually includes several standard sizes of such a tool, which allows you to create edges with different radii of curvature. Installing a support bearing allows you to get a straight edge when inserting the tool deeper into the wood. |
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| , depending on the angle of inclination of the cutter edge, are used to prepare workpieces before joining, obtaining a decorative chamfer, or for processing furniture parts, which will then be joined into products of a round (polygonal) shape. | ||
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used to obtain a rounded groove on the edge of a workpiece. To avoid distortion during processing, cutters are manufactured with two bearings. Such a tool is quite versatile, since the size of the groove arc depends on the depth of immersion of the blade into the material. Thanks to it, you can make decorative furniture slats. |
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| Curved edges (multi-profile)— quite massive equipment for the router. Such cutters simultaneously work with a large area of the workpiece and their use requires the use of machines with a power of at least 1600 watts. For work, the entire blade profile is used at once or in various combinations, which allows you to obtain an edge of a standard or specified shape. | ||
| designed to produce a semicircular protrusion on the edge. Also, with the help of such cutters, profiles with chamfers and edges of complex shapes, and hinged joints are produced (when processing a workpiece in conjunction with a fillet or molding cutter). | ||
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Combined cutters
Used for joining and joining wooden pieces. Combined cutters combine groove and tenon cutters.
| make it possible to obtain compatible planes with a tongue and groove located at an angle to each other. The same cutter is used for jointed workpieces, which significantly reduces processing time. | ||
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. In this case, a set of two separate cutters is used: to create a groove in one workpiece and a tenon in the other. The samples used for the manufacture of linings make it possible to obtain a shaped connection with a larger contact area between the workpieces. |
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| allow you to place the cutting blades on the axis in the desired order. Consists of a base, cutting blades, thrust bearings (one or more), a lock washer and a lock nut. When changing the router bit's configuration, the base is not removed from the router collet to maintain its original setting. | ||
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Figurine cutters
The main purpose of this equipment is to create decorative panels. For ease of operation, figurine cutters are equipped with a bearing.
| used for partial processing of panels. The shape of the blades involves sampling starting from the thrust bearing. This does not allow you to immediately obtain a tenon for inserting the panel into the frame. To form it, additional edge processing is required. | ||
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| allow processing of the workpiece in one pass, simultaneously forming the figured part of the panel and the tenon for the groove cut in the frame. | ||
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used for the manufacture of skirting boards of various shapes. After processing, a decorative frame and tenon joint are formed on the workpiece. | |
Quality criteria
When choosing a set of tools in question, you should pay attention to the following:
- Soldering of typesetting cutters must be done in such a way that the tool does not lose its longitudinal stability during long-term processing. This is especially true if the workpiece is made from hornbeam, pear, oak and other hardwoods.
- When soldering tools, grades PSr40 or PSr37.5, with a high content of silver and copper, should be used as solders. Other brands of solder usually include nickel, which impairs the strength of the connection between the plates and the shank.
- The easiest way to check the thermal strength of a set cutter is by the thermal deformation of the tool while heating each tooth to a temperature of 200 - 250ºC. The tool after such processing should not allow its longitudinal axis to run out by more than 0.05 mm.
- The stacking cutter should not be made by welding the shank to the working cutting part. The use of such equipment is unacceptable.
An important parameter is the hardness of the materials from which cutters are made. More often, this applies to monolithic samples. The test can also be performed at home. To do this, it is recommended to use a calibrated file, after contact with which there should be no visible marks on the working surface of the cutter. This roughly corresponds to a hardness of 58 - 62 HRC.
The durability of a tool is determined by the intensity of its use. High-quality stacking cutters with working plates made of high-speed steel have the best durability, while monolithic cutters made of tool steel have the least durability.
Purchasing the right woodworking machine will not solve all problems. To carry out full processing of products, you will need to select high-quality equipment. The types of wood cutters discussed in the review will help you decide and complete your hand router. After all, in performing each specific operation, a certain configuration of devices is involved.