I just want to comment on how much more versatile our Woodworker is becoming in relation to what we hoped we’d use it for. Our dream is to, at some point, be able to craft intricate pierced wood panels and the like, but today I used it to flatten/surface an epoxy river table.
Unthinking, I almost began using a messy router sled to do the job then realized the CNC could do it much quicker, cleaner, and with less personal effort! Duh! In the next couple days I’ll use it to cut the pocket slots for the table’s leg mounts rather than doing it manually. (A confession though. The surfacing revelation caused me to realize I should also use the drum sander to begin the sanding process too… Your probably thinking I’m fairly dense, I know, but what can I say.)
The 1F promises to become a great new tool and I’m looking forward to exploring more opportunities as time marches forward.
Perhaps there are others who would like to share their 1F shop discoveries too.
Excellent points Phil. I will tell you, I’ve tried to use my drum sander on a river desk and it was NO fun. I have many hours of video of us struggling to get the desk through my relatively small 16/32 sander. I suppose if you had a large belt sander it would make sense, but muscling that slab into the sander was an epic failure for me. Using the CNC to get the initial flatten done and then the drum sander to finalize would probably best.
That is exactly the process I undertook after I realized both the 1F and drum sander were the perfect tools for the job. It was just old habits that got in the way at the outset for me.
Like so many computer-controlled machines, they can be used in so many ways, some not even imagined or experienced yet. With that being said, don’t confuse your customer as to what your business does. Trying to be all things to all people because you can is a big mistake. Keep your focus more narrow and become the expert at your specialization. The path will be much easier.
So yesterday I found another use for my 1F.
While using the jointer to clean boards for glue up, I noticed a blade nick that prevented a satisfactory smooth edge. Not patient enough to interrupt the build process, I used the 1F to finish the edges instead. Before finish clamping each board down I trammed along the X axis to make sure bit contact was consistent, then clamped it and simply micro advanced Y for a couple of passes. Voila’, the 1F replaced the jointer and, though not as fast, the result was just as smooth!
It would have been an option to rip the boards then use the planer, but the 1F saved the day, so to speak.
Of course I’ll have to circle back after my project is finished to replace the jointer blades. (I’m thinking a Shelix cutter head might be the next investment there)
One of my favorite topics! Much of what I do on my machine is utility application or machined parts for Xometry. In fact, anymore, I do relatively little ‘artsy’ type projects. I turn to the CNC for many things. For example, I used it to modify the mounting ends on replacement ceiling fan blades after I managed to snap one. BTW, you guys with full-size machines could quite easily make your own custom fan blades.
Another time I needed to make a custom threaded mounting flange for a handheld shower handle.
There have been countless other similar projects. As an old-school machinist that ran manual Bridgeport mills in the late 70’s, and later CNC machines, I would have never dreamed back then that one day (decades later) I would actually have my own affordable CNC machine in my shop. Other items I’ve made were custom mounting plates for solar lights and the solar panels to mount them to carport posts.
Bill, I love the creative ways you are using it! I’d have never thought of using it to fix a mouse scroll wheel. However, my Grizzly table saw didn’t offer a zero clearance throat plate so I made one using the cnc. Tools can make tools I guess.
In the early 80’s built a duplicating lathe to rough out wooden airplane props. If there was still a demand, could carve props up to 5 ft diameter on my 1F. Coulda been almost ready to fly just needing sanding and spraying.
Hi Aiph, tried to thank you for the G92 tip but methinks I have been naughty. Started out building small wind turbines for sailboats in San Diego in the early 1980’s and an ultralight manufacturer saw my blades and asked me to make some for them, pretty soon was making half of the props for Eipper Aircraft Lake Elsinore, and half for Rotec engineering in Texas. Made a few for experimentals and for Bob Hovey & others, within 2 years we had 17% of the NA market, then 60 minutes did an article about ultralights falling out of the sky and my two biggest customers folded & took the money they owed me with them.
The Shelix cutters are fantastic. I put them on both my 8in jointer and my planer and will never go back to straight blades. Its a heafty cost but so worth it.
You wont regret it.
Love this thread. I have plans to use my CNC to fix the mast base for my Laser Pico sailboat. The current base is cracked and is allowing the hull to flex in strong winds. The new piece will be milled in 1" thick Delrin plastic. I have milled Delrin on other projects, and this material machines like a dream. I’ll post pictures when I get going on that project.
I don’t have a table saw or a jointer yet. Given the amount of weekend woodworking that I do it’s hard to justify the cost at this time. So my idea is to build a removeable fence for the CNC that is held into place (on the spoil board) and registered using 1/4 diameter metal dowels. Then use the Masso pocket wizard to make cuts to mimic a table saw. My machine can cut up to 48" at a time. Then you slide the piece down along the rail to cut the next section. Cross cuts are just as easy (just cuts across the X instead of the Y). I just need a clamping solution that is super quick to setup. I also plan to use it as a jointer.
Hi all, it sounds like people are finding ways to use their CNC routers to do some cool stuff. I ordered mine on a black Friday sale in 2024 and got it about 6 months later. I spent part of that time building my table for the machine and had it all together by august of 2025. My intentions was use it for crafts and general wood project for now. I am going to retire next year in Feb. and plan to do projects to sell at craft shows and possibly at flee markets for my retirement job.
I am an old time journeymen machinist and did all kinds of things in this field. I started working with CNC machines in the late 80’s and have a lot of fun programing and making tolling for the CNC machines. Like some said earlier about never thinking about in my early yrs I would own a CNC machine.
But I am just getting started with finding ways to use this machine and have a lot of plans to make parts to build furniture, signs, cutting boards and many other types of projects. Some of my plans include making fixture type boards to hold parts that need to be machined so if I find something that sell good on the market I would build a fixture to hold that part or parts on one fixture. So an example of a fixture I would build would be for making a spoon. You would have to work on both sides of it so it would have 2 stations on the fixture and you could have a spoon being done at the 2nd station every program cycle.That way you could batch out a bunch of them in a short amount of time. So your fixture board would have the same scares or tool marks on that one board and not on your main spoil board. The other advantage of a fixture board is you can build in your location pins or what ever you come up with to locate the parts and also have your clamping location place any way you need them. I use this type of fixture on industrial CNC machines most of my machinist career. Of coarse I made them out of steel not wood.
So anyway what I would say to all of you out there, a mind set I have had all of my life is: You can do just about anything if you but your mind to it, your only limitation is your imagination.
Yeah, a lot of cool stuff can be done with registration pins / dowels and fixtures. The registration pins are handy for flipping over stuff (like your spoons) and milling the backside without having to recalibrate the X and Y (might have to do Z perhaps). I am also thinking about using pins to register a full sheet a plywood for two part milling: a) use CNC to drill four registration holes at the 48" x 48" extents, insert the pins, then mill on the first half of the sheet, b) slide plywood down by 48" and onto the front two registration pins, c) then mill on the second half of the sheet.
And the pins are useful for quick removal fences because the G code can have the fence location already known. I have also been playing around with Claude.code to generate G code directly from a description… works really well! Next step is to add speech to text so that I can literally walk up to my laptop next to my CNC and say “make a Y axis cut for this .75 inch plywood at 6.5 inches wide and 30 inches long” and have it whip up the G code and send it to the machine.
