CNC for MUNDANE Chores...?

[Tom Overthere]

I'm certainly interested in the artistic/stylistic capabilities of CNC routing, but right now I'm trying to understand the basic capabilities. For instance, would a CAMaster or ShopBot with a 48x96" work envelop provide an efficient means of doing the following:

1) Cutting straight-edged furniture part blanks from 4x8 sheets of cabinet plywood (instead of using a wall-mounted panel saw or table saw).

2) Cutting contoured furniture parts from full 4x8 sheets of cabinet plywood.


3) Cutting contoured furniture parts from hardwood blanks.

4) Creating true parallel edges on plywood or hardwood parts (in place of a jointer).


5) Routing edge profiles that span the entire edge of the work piece - where the router bit profile machines the entire edge surface.


6) Cutting Mortises and Tenons - and dare I ask...dovetails and box joints?


If there's an INFORMATIONAL PRIMER I could read instead of asking a lot of "dumb" questions, please point me in that direction. I'm sweating plans to outfit a specialty furniture shop, and am thinking (perhaps wrongly) that the right CNC router might help me avoid certain time-consuming (and dangerous) operations - and maybe a few large, expensive tools, too...

Thanks,
Tom

[james mcgrew]

tom i am a cabinetmaker with two camasters, both will do all of the above with the following exception, dovetails there is a program and bits for this but i was just not impressed enough to sell my dovetail machine, i also have a slider and boring machines, we do not use them in panel processing unless the router is tied up (reason for two) you can machine any thing the key is holding it still

www.camaster.com

www.mcgrewwoodwork.com

jim

[Michael Kowalczyk]

I would agree except for #1.
If you are cutting square/rectangle blanks with no dado's, line boring, edge profile or any other secondary operation, it's hard to beat a good slider w/scoring but if you are not pressed for time or need that 1/8" kerf to get the yield you need out of a sheet, you will find that you start putting EVERYTHING on the CNC that you can. Then reality sets in and when he CNC is busy doing the bulk of your work, you will wipe of the dust from your slider and put it back to work doing what it does best and cheaper, cutting square and rectangle blanks. But it is real hard to find any blanks that do not need a secondary operation on it other than shelves.