How to choose a manual wood router for homework

Professional joiners, craftsmen, finishers, and, of course, furniture makers have long appreciated the merits of a hand-held electric router and will never give up this tool. If you are reading this article, it means that you also decided to acquire such an indispensable assistant in the carpentry and carpentry business and are now trying to figure out which router to choose. We will not advertise the products of certain brands, but will try to form a general idea of ​​the tool with you and give a lot of practical recommendations. As a result, you can develop your own strategy for finding the milling cutter that is most suitable for solving your tasks.

Varieties of milling machines and their scope

Initially, the milling cutter was created as a tool for processing wood. Plastic, non-ferrous metals, plexiglass, artificial stone, various composites can afford modern milling machines, but wood is still a priority.

The main area of ​​use of the milling cutter is the implementation of carpentry, the manufacture of furniture and various decorative wood products.

He will help you with a variety of operations:

• quarter sampling;
• creation of grooves, folds, slots, spikes;
• production of seats for door locks and fittings;
• straight or shaped edge profiling;
• drilling holes;
• perfect fit of the parts to be joined;
• rough alignment of contours;
• decorative wood carvings.

Depending on the purpose and some design features, all milling cutters can be divided into several types. Some of them are universal, others are highly specialized. The most common varieties of milling cutters are:

Submersible (aka vertical or bar)

Able to do all the basic milling operations: creating grooves, holes, rounding, chamfering, closed loop milling, etc. It is used both in home workshops and in production workshops.

Edge (aka edging or trimmer)

Performs groove sampling, grooving, chamfering, cutting shallow recesses according to the pattern. Able to accurately process parts coated with veneer or laminate. Suitable only for daily use, i.e. in production conditions.

Rotary

It is used for cutting holes in wood, as well as drywall, plastic, and ceramic tile. Able to process edges.

Lamella

It is used exclusively for grooving.

Filler

A highly specialized tool for creating pair holes designed to connect parts on dowels. It is used in furniture production.

What kind of milling cutter you need depends on the nature of the tasks facing you and their scope. For example, in furniture manufacturing, milling is one of the main operations; in a home workshop, the need for such a tool usually arises only occasionally.

The most versatile and most widely used is the immersion router. It is on him that one should first of all pay attention to those who are trying to decide for themselves the question of how to choose a manual wood milling machine for the home. And it is on this variety of milling machines that we will concentrate our main attention here.

Vertical Hand Milling Device

Of all manual power tools, the milling cutter is perhaps the simplest from a structural point of view. Its equipment is mounted directly on the motor shaft (spindle), i.e., the transmission of torque is carried out without the mediation of gears, belts, etc. Thanks to this, the mill easily gains high speed.

The mill body, also called the “head part” or simply “head”, moves up and down along the guide rods, which are rigidly fixed to the support platform. When the operator presses on the handles, the head drops down, when the pressure decreases, the springs return it to its original position.

A milling cutter is fixed to the motor shaft (spindle) by means of a collet clamp. When lowering the head, the milling cutter is smoothly immersed in the workpiece material to a predetermined depth, the latter being adjusted with the stop. With the subsequent movement of the tool in the horizontal direction, the sharp edges of the cutter drill a groove.

What technical characteristics should be considered when choosing a router

Power

The capabilities of the router are largely determined by the power of the electric motor with which it is equipped. The greater the power consumption of the unit, the greater the maximum permissible diameter and length of the cutter that can be installed on it, the longer it can work continuously without overload. It would seem that if you do not take into account the financial side of the issue, then the best milling machine should be considered the most powerful. However, in fact, not everything is so simple. An increase in power entails a significant increase in the mass and dimensions of the engine, and therefore the entire tool.

According to this parameter, the milling cutters are divided into:

For regular milling operations, experts recommend a tool with a power of at least 1,500 watts. A powerful router, of course, can easily cope with any professional tasks. However, when performing a number of delicate work, for example, when processing the edge, coping with a heavy and dimensional machine will not be so easy, especially for a beginner.

Your task at the stage of choosing a tool is to analyze the intensity and nature of the work that is supposed to be done with the help of a milling cutter, and find the very golden mean - a tool whose power will not be excessively large, but sufficient to solve the tasks, continuous work without break, processing hardwood.

Spindle speed

The significance of such technical characteristics of the milling cutter as the spindle speed is understandable even to the most technically untrained users. The higher the rotational speed of the cutter, the higher the quality of the machined surface. If high accuracy is required, it makes sense to work at lower speeds. A low rotation speed is also needed when processing plastics, otherwise overheating of the working area and, as a result of this, melting of the material will be observed.

The spindle speed of most milling cutters lies in the range from 20 to 30 thousand revolutions per minute, however, they work both more slowly (10–20 thousand rpm) and faster (up to 35 thousand rpm) aggregates.It should be taken into account that the larger the diameter of the cutter used, the smaller should be the angular velocity of rotation, since the linear speed of the point on the periphery of the circle will still be quite high, and if the cutter is “accelerated” even more, the tree will burn.

Since the optimal spindle speed depends on the size of the mill currently being used, the depth of processing and the density of the workpiece material, it will be very useful to adjust the speed, which determines the functionality of the milling cutter. Adjustment can be smooth or step (up to 8 positions). The operator chooses the optimal milling mode for these conditions, based on his own practical experience, however, manufacturers often indicate recommended values ​​in tool certificates or on mills.

Cutter stroke

Cutter stroke, i.e. the maximum possible milling depth is one of the most important parameters that demonstrate the functionality of the tool. In light milling machines for domestic use, this indicator, as a rule, lies in the range of 20–50 mm, in powerful professional models it can reach 70–80 mm. The greater the working stroke of the cutter, the deeper it can immerse into the material being processed, the thicker the details can be processed.

A groove of full depth is usually not cut out at a time - you can ruin the workpiece and damage the tool. Moreover, the harder the material being processed, the less the depth of a single pass is made. But in general, a groove with a depth greater than the working stroke of the cutter cannot be made. Many models of milling cutters are equipped with a regulator for fine tuning the depth of immersion; the accuracy of setting this parameter for them is usually 0.1 mm.

Additional functions

Constant electronics. With an increase in the density of the processed material or the speed of the tool along the workpiece, revolutions begin to fall. A system of constant electronics that controls the power of an electric motor in order to stabilize the speed of rotation of the spindle will help maintain them at a given level. The need for this function usually arises with heavy loads on the tool, so it is usually found only in professional milling machines.

Contact electronics allows you to maintain a consistently high quality material processing.

Smooth start. Powerful professional milling machines are often equipped with a "soft start" system. Thanks to this function, the engine gains momentum gradually, which eliminates a sharp jerk of equipment when you turn it on. Such a tool will last you longer, since its nodes do not experience periodic short-term overloads, it is safer to work with it, and the chance to spoil the workpiece at the very beginning of work is minimized.

Overload Protection System. If the temperature of the motor winding exceeds a critical level, an overload protection system will come into play. For different models, this function can be implemented in different ways - from simple light indication to automatic power off.

You can find a milling cutter with an overload protection system only among professional models, since they are used during long intensive work, which means that they are more likely to start to overheat as a result of increased loads.

Inadvertent Start Protection. On the case of most modern milling cutters, regardless of their price category, there is an additional button, without pressing which, simultaneously with the main start key, voltage will not be applied to the motor windings.

Its main purpose is to prevent the unintentional start of the router. This button performs, as a rule, one more function - allows you to lock the trigger trigger in the on position. With stationary use of the milling cutter (milling table), this option is indispensable.

Design features to consider when choosing a milling cutter

Sole

The milling support platform, called the sole by users, is one of the most important structural elements of the tool, so special attention should be paid to its quality. The sole can be made of either cast or stamped metal. The molded platform, thanks to its clear geometry and good fit to the surface of the workpiece, guarantees high quality work. Not surprisingly, it is considered a sign of a high-end instrument.

Stamped soles are cheaper to manufacture, so they are usually installed on inexpensive milling machines for domestic use.

The lower plane of the platform, i.e., the sole itself, is necessarily closed with a special overlay. This item is usually made of plastic. In most milling cutters, the plastic pad is removable, which makes it easy to replace it with a new one when worn.

When choosing a router, you should pay attention not only to the quality of the sole, but also to the size of the hole in it - the opening. It limits the maximum permissible size of equipment: you simply cannot succeed in installing a large diameter mill on an aggregate with a small opening in the support platform.

Boom gear

The milling head moves along two vertically arranged guide rods. The ease of use of the tool and the productivity of work largely depend on how easy and smooth its movement will be. The presence of backlashes and distortions, as well as excessive resistance to movement of the node in the vertical direction is considered a serious drawback, since it complicates the use of the milling cutter.

The immersion depth of the cutter in the work material is limited by a vertical stop. This metal rod rests against a special platform platform, not allowing the head of the instrument to fall below. By setting the milling depth, you simply slide the thrust bar up or down. This can be done using a special screw.

For advanced units, in addition, there is also an adjustment screw for fine-tuning the depth with a micrometer scale. The more accurate the adjustment and the wider its range, the more high-quality and functional tool you hold in your hands.

To make several passes with a gradual increase in the depth of processing up to a predetermined one, a multistage revolving emphasis will help. In fact, this is a special platform platform with several steps of different heights, in which a vertical rod rests, limiting the milling depth. Sometimes the revolving emphasis is made in the form of several bolts screwed into the platform; in this case, the height of the steps can be adjusted by screwing or unscrewing the bolts.

Snap-in assembly

The equipment of the manual milling cutter is fixed on the spindle using a collet chuck. It is a special nut with a collet located inside, screwed onto the spindle and clamping the shank of the inserted cutter. Light milling cutters are designed for milling cutters with a shank diameter of 6–8 mm; powerful mills are usually equipped with collets with a diameter of 10–12 mm. The latter is easily explained: the larger the cutter, the thicker its shank and, at the same time, the higher the requirements for the power characteristics of the tool.

The diameter of the cutter must match the diameter of the collet. However, you can still install a milling cutter with a thinner shank in a larger diameter landing seat. To do this, you will have to use a replaceable collet (or, in extreme cases, a special adapter sleeve). Even if it is not included in the tool kit, then it can always be purchased separately.

With such a “change” of the cutter, you should carefully monitor that the rotation speed recommended for it coincides with the parameters of the tool, otherwise the thin shank may not withstand excessive load.

A high-quality collet reliably fixes the shank strictly along the axis of the spindle, which eliminates the occurrence of vibrations that adversely affect both the quality of the processing of the material and the condition of the tool. Collet clamps with a large number of clamping blades are preferable since they better center the cutter.

Auxiliary devices used in work

The milling cutter is rarely used for rough fitting of a workpiece, more often filigree accuracy is required from the tool (and the operator working with it). All sorts of auxiliary devices come to the rescue, making working with the milling cutter easier and more convenient.

Parallel (lateral) emphasis used for milling parallel to the edge of the workpiece. It allows you to evenly lead the tool at a given (relatively small) distance from the edge. It is attached to the base of the tool by means of two rigid steel rods, which are fixed on the sole with screws. The quality of the work ultimately depends on the rigidity of the resulting structure. A parallel emphasis is made of cast or stamped metal isolated from direct contact with the workpiece by a removable plastic cover.

Guide rail also used for milling in a straight line, however, unlike the lateral stop, it can be installed at any distance from the edge of the workpiece and at any angle to the edge. It is a profiled ruler fixed to the workpiece with clamps. A special shoe is connected to the router, which moves along the grooves of the tire and guides the tool.

Copy sleeve It is used for milling along a complex path by copying the contours of the template. During operation, the sleeve rim abuts against the edge of the template, as a result, the cutter reproduces its outline on the workpiece, and you get a slightly enlarged copy of the product used as a template. The sleeve is selected for the diameter of the cutter, is fixed using a quick-clamp mechanism.

Compass ruler Helps milling a workpiece in a radial line. Using it, you can make, for example, a rounded countertop. One end of the compass ruler is screwed to the bottom of the router, the other is fixed with a pin in the hole drilled in the workpiece in the center of the circle.

Vacuum cleaner connection pipe - an element, the need for which today, probably, no one doubts. Allows you to keep the cut area clean, and therefore clearly visible, in the process.

Tips for choosing a router

We hope that your knowledge of milling machines, thanks to our efforts, has been significantly expanded. But has the question become clear enough for you which manual wood router to choose? If you still don’t, let me give you some practical recommendations so that you can understand on what criteria you should pay special attention.

Tip # 1. Choosing a high power mill, you choose high performance and the ability to work for a long time at significant loads. However, you should not thoughtlessly chase the high value of this indicator. Remember that at the same time as the power increases the weight of the unit - it will not work so easily and comfortably. The advantages of high power should be compared with the disadvantages of using a heavy tool to do small work. However, if you plan to use the router in a stationary position (milling stand or milling table), high power will be an undoubted plus.

Tip # 2. Pay attention to the possibility of the milling cutter of your choice to adjust the spindle speed. The speed switch of an ideal tool should move in steps or at least quite tightly and be in a place where the probability of hitting and shifting it accidentally is minimized.

Tip # 3. Be sure to check the actual immersion depth of the cutter, which can vary greatly depending on the design features of the collet clamp used.It is great if the collet reaches the bottom of the support platform, but ideally it should protrude beyond the base. This characteristic greatly affects the functionality of the tool, but, alas, it is not indicated in the passports “take-off” over the sole - you can find out its value only by holding the router in your hands.

Tip # 4. Test the operation of the boom mechanism. The head of the tool should walk freely and without distortions, and the vertical emphasis should be firmly fixed in a predetermined position. Ensure that the accuracy of the diving depth setting meets your requirements.

Tip # 5. Find out what tooling diameter and geometry can be used with this router. To do this, you need to compare the size of the cutter with the diameter of the opening in the sole, as well as in auxiliary devices (copy sleeve, compass ruler, etc.). Do not forget to compare the diameter of the shank of the milling cutters that you intend to use with the landing size of the collet.

Tip # 6. Evaluate the ergonomics of the instrument. It is important to choose the most convenient type of handle for you. There are not so many options - pistol and mushroom-shaped.

The opinions of experienced users regarding the location of the controls, in particular the immersion depth stop, were divided - some believe that there should be no buttons on the handles, while others, on the contrary, prefer to have switches in the most accessible place so that they can be used without interruption if necessary.

From our point of view, the most suitable place for the stop lever is near the handle, in the access area of ​​the fingers, but not on the handle itself. However, it does not make sense to listen to anybody’s advice regarding convenience: what is convenient for one may not be suitable for the other. It is worth holding the model you like in other respects in your hands and evaluate the convenient location of the controls. Pay attention also to the length of the power cable - a short power cord causes a lot of inconvenience during operation.

Tip # 7. If you plan to work often without guides, a good overview of the work area is very important. It also depends on the size of the opening in the sole, the location of the nozzle for dust removal, the presence of LED backlight.

Tip # 8. Find out how accessible auxiliary elements are for your chosen model, is it possible to replace them with analogues from other manufacturers.

Tip # 9. If possible, test the selected router at idle and under load. Extraneous noise and excessive vibration are a sign of poor build or malfunction.

Tip # 10. Undoubtedly, price is an important criterion for choosing an electric router for many. Here we can not give any advice. You have to understand that a good tool cannot be cheap. If your budget is limited, try to evaluate which features you are willing to pay for and which are not particularly important to you.

Hand Milling Safety

Now you, we hope, have formed an idea of ​​how to choose a manual milling cutter for wood. Let me hold your attention for a few more moments ...

Whatever milling cutter you choose, so that the joy of its acquisition is not overshadowed by anything, remember the main rule when working with a power tool: if you drive quieter, you will continue.

Haste is fraught with injuries, tool breakage or, at best, damage to the workpiece. Before replacing the equipment, disconnect the router from the power supply. Fasten the workpiece with clamps. These operations take a matter of seconds, and we strongly recommend that you not save time on this.

You should not try to remove a thick layer of material in one pass: you are unlikely to like the quality of processing, and the cutter may not withstand increased loads.

Well, of course, do not regret half an hour or an hour to carefully read the instructions before starting work. Even if you have experience with a similar tool and you feel like a cool pro, you should not neglect reading the instructions, because, firstly, you could forget something, and secondly, each model may have its own specific features .