Which CNC router should I use?

[MrGee]

Dear All,

A very newbie question from a newcomer to the field of CNC machining. I am involved in LiDAR surveying professionally and have a curiosity in converting some of my digital models into CNC machined objects. I'm sure I can get my 3D solids into suitable formats compatible with CNC software however which machine should I be looking at to achieve the level of detail shown in the below images?

Can this be achieved just from machining or would it require sanding and hand finishing? Any steer in the right direction would be much appreciated, thanks in advance.

[awerby]

I'm not seeing your images, but the primary question isn't detail but material. What did you want to make these things out of? If the material is soft enough and its size is small enough to fit its part envelope, then most machines that work at all would work for this. Surface smoothness has more to do with how much time is allocated to the project than what the particular machine is; for smoother parts you put the passes of the tool closer together. Another consideration is tool length: the finer the detail the smaller the tool used to achieve it, but the smaller the tool is, the shorter it tends to be, so if you have deep voids with steep walls some compromise might be required.

Is there some reason these things have to be machined, rather than 3D printed? An additive process may be more suitable to reproducing your scans in solid form than a subtractive one.