One of the most versatile machines for carpentry and carpentry is a manual wood milling cutter. With this high-precision device, it is possible to perform a variety of woodworking operations. And with certain skills and sufficient qualifications of the master, the hand mill can serve as a tool for artistic wood carving in the base plane.
The machine consists of a high-power electric motor, a compact frame and several guiding devices. The engine is designed to rotate the mill in the range of 12 to 24 thousand rpm, which provides a fairly clean cut. As a rule, a manual wood milling cutter is equipped with a speed regulator, the speed of rotation depends directly on the size of the used cutter. The larger the cutter, the smaller the speed of its rotation, in order to avoid overheating.
The cutters with which wood milling cutters are fitted can be of two types, the so-called end cutters, for grooving grooves, grooves and "dovetail" slots. And milling cutters, which are designed for processing the edge of the workpiece, straight, angular or shaped. End mills are divided into cylindrical, semicircular and pointed, sharpened at a certain angle. The assortment of supporting milling cutters can not be counted, their profiling is too diverse, the diameter of the head can be from 4 to 30 mm.
The milling cutter has an auxiliary ring at the end, which limits the pressing of its cutting edge to the material being processed. Instead of the restrictive ring, a small ball bearing can be installed. The method of limiting the clamping of the milling cutter allows the use of special reusable patterns when the workpiece to be machined is rigidly aligned with the template and the milling cutter, with its bearing on the template, cuts the workpiece by a given profile and size. Templates are made of hard material, it can be multi-ply plywood, 10 mm thick, sheet textolite, aluminum or plexiglass.
A modern hand-held wood milling machine has a mechanism that regulates the depth of the milling, the so-called elevator. The machine slides up and down on two vertical guide rods, while the milling cutter can be fixed at any point in height. For works that are often repeated, there is a three-position limiter, a revolver type, on which the milling cutter is lowered and in this position is fixed. For more fine adjustment in height, an additional screw stop is provided.
Also, the hand-held wood milling cutter is equipped with a cut-off mechanism for milling at a given distance from the edge of the workpiece. This is a special stop that moves along two horizontal bars fixed at the base of the machine. After the final installation, the stop is fixed with two screws. If the length of this device is insufficient and the specified distance is not reached, then instead of the stop, guide rails are used, which can be installed at any point.
Of no small importance is the power of the motor of the hand router. Usually household electric hand milling machines install electric motors with a power of 1.5 kilowatts. But if the machine is used in a constant load mode, this power will not be enough. It is better to purchase a milling machine with an engine of 1.8 or 2.0 kilowatts. In this case, the power reserve is enough even for round-the-clock work.