Personal CNC Mill vs CNC Router vs CNC Mill vs Vertical Machining Center

Basics

• This page aims to clear up some confusion / Terminology Hell around CNC Mills and CNC Routers
• "Desktop CNC" / "CNC Machine" etc often fill a grey area between personal cnc mill, and cnc mill

Personal CNC Mills

• These are desktop units, typically in the low to mid 100 USD's scale, and often don't have many features built in
• Examples:
  • Dremel CNC
    • IndyMill is a bit of a grey area, since it may be more akin to a low level cnc mill, or small high level cnc router
  • MP-CNC
  • 3018 CNC Pro

CNC Router

• These are CNC Mills, but mainly designed for cutting, and engraving + mild sculpting of wood
• Also can do Plastic, Acrylic, Carbon Fiber Fabric Reinforced Plastic etc, but 2/3 of the time they are running wood
• Usually giant X/Y, with minimal Z
  • Sometimes can even fit a Full Sheet of Plywood etc
• No integrated cooling, but typically an integrated Dust Shoe for use with Central Sawdust Collection Systems
• Examples:
  • OpenBuilds
  • PrintNC
  • Shapoko

CNC Mill

• Can be desktop, but may need it's own table/mount
• High Power Spindle + Integrated Flood Cooling
• Can be enclosed, but doesn't have to be
• Can cut Steel etc

Vertical Machining Center

• A Fully Enclosed Self Contained High Level CNC Mill with Automatic Toolchanging , an Integrated CNC Pendant and/or similar screen + keyboard based system

External Links

• A Video by the YouTube Channel "At-Man Unlimited Machining" Titled "So You Want to Buy a CNC Mill, Part 3 VMC or Personal CNC?"