Need Help!- drill for cnc router

[CNCadmin]

Anyone know who sells a mount to put a electric drill on a cnc router?

[harryn]

This probably isn't much help, but I am planning on doing something similar (drill plus router dual spindle).

I am just going to build it - had not really thought about the idea that this would be commercially available.

[Torchhead]

Paul: I don't know what your are drilling but we have found on wood and aluminum that turning the RPM down on our VS router and using a mill bit to route the holes gives us more accurate holes, less burrs and not having to make sure the right drill size is chucked up. I bought several drill chucks with 1/2" arbors and cut them short enough to mount in the router chuck but they had more vibration than I liked and the drill bits "walk" and bend making accurate placement impossible.

We now do all of our sub-plates and cabinet parts in aluminum using the mills to not only cut the slots and profiles but to route the holes of all sizes.

Even if it were a dual head setup I would have two routers. Having started the other way and trying different methods we gravitated to the milling of holes because it produced superior results with less setup time. The same tool cuts the other shapes as does the holes.

Tom Caudle
www.CandCNC.com

[harryn]

Hi Tom, I thought about that approach as well, and for relatively shallow holes, it is ok. The challenge I have, is that some of the projects I would like to build have fairly deep holes (greater than 6 inches).

So far, it has been challenging to find anyone selling mill bits longer than 6 inches for a router, and the people that have asked questions about a LONG bit in a router are either frightened away or recommended away from this approach.

I agree that it is probably not a good idea to mount an arbor on a router - at least with my skill / accuracy. That is why I am thinking strongly about using a heavy duty 1/2 in hand drill for "drilling" operations. No idea how accurate that will be, but probably substantially less than a decent drill press.

OTOH, at least the hole placement will be automatic vs my less than accurate manually placed holes.

[randyf1965]

I guess I would position the holes using my router to center a smaller hole. Then step drill the using a drill (hand or drill press if the part fits) that way the holes are layed out accurately.

[Richster]

Yes likewise - this doesn't really answer your original question, but I use a v-bit to make a small indent as normal using the router (maybe 0.5mm deep) then use this as a pilot for a holes in my drill press. This makes it straightforward to machine machine small holes (maybe 1 or 2mm), considering my smallest router bit is currently 3.2mm.

[Big S]

I have looked at the possibilities of doing this on my router. I was considering drilling a lot of holes in steel square hollow tube. The CNC router would hold the position well but a high speed spindle isn't so good for hole drilling. I think a custom mount for the drill would be the way to go.

Shannon.

[jcc3inc]

Sir,

Several years ago we put a pneumatic drill on a waterjet machine we made. The controller was a Burny with an offset available for the distance from the waterjet to the drill. It worked well for us.

If you are drilling deep holes, you might want to have a peck-drill cycle set into your CNC controller to enable you to clear the chips from your drilling. Perhaps you can program the offset AND the peck drilling cycle with your CNC.

Regards,
Jack C.