Hi, I am about to purchase a cnc router, and I will be using it more for drilling through wood and aluminum than cutting. I have a hitachi variable speed router. It takes a standard 1/2" diameter bit and has a 1/4" collet as well. How do I get typical drill bits mounted in the router? I use 15/64", 3/16",
5/16" and letter Q drill bits, along with freud hole fostner bits, typically 1/2" and 3/4" which usually have a 3/8" diam. shaft.

I use a 1/8" endmill for most of my cutting and hole drilling. Someone else will probably have a better answer for you though with regard to drill bits. With a small endmill however you should be able to cut any hole with a diameter equal to or larger than the endmill with a G2 instruction. I believe Enco sells some bits that are both drill bits and end mills as well.

If you want to use different size bits then you need to get collet adapters, ehich will havd I.D. what you want and an O.D. of 1/2" I got one for the hitachi router to use 1/6" bits, i will have to remember where i got it from but there are several places.

Hi woodworker2,
As joe2000che says, you will need collets that fit your drill bits. If you have a lathe you could make them or get someone to make them for you. Its not all that hard to do it just takes a bit of setting up to get them correct. I use a cheap router on my machine and have made around 5 different sized collets for it. This is the best solution IMHO.

Regards,

Jayson

You should NOT use drill bits in a router. They're not designed to spin at such high speeds and using them at those speeds is dangerous. Also, at 8000 rpm, a 3/4 forstner bit will get so hot it will be useless in about 30 seconds or less.

I'm with Ger..

But Porter cable routers are avaliable with 1/4 3/8 and 1/2" collets (least for my monster 3-1/4hp 1785 router)

Which is cool since that alows me to use the 3/8" shafted end mills I have in the router...

although like ger said bits that big can't spin at even the slower end of a variable speed routers range.. Becides the heat a router motor bearings are not designed to take vertical loads like that. They mostly take horizontal loads..

But anywho..

b.