These flexible machines have both the 3- and 5-axis routers at the same time, which gave them the best of both worlds. Innovations Even without fanfare, there is a growing list of innovations in the CNC woodworking industry that has kept it going and it is pretty exciting. Some of the cutting edge innovations include 5-axis heads, moldings units, expanded range of aggregates, and the ability of the pods and rails to be electronically positioned. CNC Machining It is the general term used on work processes that use machines to perform tasks that require high accuracy, precision, efficiency and are mostly repetitive in nature. CNC machining is mostly required in industries that need milling, woodworking, drilling, polishing, anodizing, grinding and including high powered cutting that features such devices as plasma, water-jet, or oxy-fuel propellants and lasers. To date, ShopBot can do cutting, carving, drilling, and machining all kinds of things from all kinds of materials. In the past, ShopBot used to be classified as part of strictly industrial tools that were collectively called CNC tools. Today, it belongs to another type of tools that make things by cutting materials away or building them in layers to create an object the digital fabrication tools. CNC wood lathes could be used almost every kind of wood. It could also be used for aluminium and brass materials. If you are a hobbyist, you do not have to worry about the size of the equipment, since the CNC wood lathes are available in different sizes. If you are a small hobbyist, then there are portable models which can be easily mounted on a table or a countertop. Accuracy and precision What is great with CNC machines is that they are able to repeat accurate results even though they have to reproduce a lot of work pieces. CNC machines have an accuracy rate of 2-4 thousandths of an inch, nowadays. This means that it is easy for these machines to replicate or reproduce 10,000 work pieces. What makes CNC woodworking beneficial is that it is highly efficient, accurate and outstanding with their results. CNC machines would not operate with any woodworking software, which is the CAD or the Computer-Aided Design. One of its most simple examples would be Paint which is present in Microsoft Windows.