CNC tooling for the stone fabrication

The increasing demand of the industry for complex-shaped products in natural stone makes the use of automatic CNC machines necessary.
Today almost every stone fabrication shop has one, or more, CNC machines and made use of special CNC tools designed for the stone, the marble, the granite, the quartz and the other new materials in the market.

A CNC stone working machine uses diamond tools, such as synthesized diamond mills, electroplated bits, and diamond blades. For the stone machining, diamond tools are becoming increasingly important and highly suitable, especially for the machining of the hard stone such as granite and quartz.

Using the right tools for the job, whether it is for countertop fabrication or granite engraving, is essential and it can affect the cost and the time spent on each job.

At amastone we partner with the most important stone CNC tooling manufacturers who constantly develop their products to meet demands for tools that work quicker, last longer and produce a better finish. If you are a stone fabricator on amastone.com you find a wide selection of CNC Diamond Tools for marble, granite and for all the new materials you need to work nowadays.
The range of CNC diamond tools for the stone working includes:
Diamond engraving tools, Router bits, Core Drill bits, Drainboard tools, Finger bits, Profile wheels, and Stubbing wheels.
Improve your productivity with high-quality diamond tools and speed up your supply chain buying online, buying Amastone the granite fabricators and your trusted supplier.

Choosing the right diamond tool for CNC

There are various types of diamond tools for CNC and the choice of them depends on many factors.

5 simple questions for choosing the right CNC tool for the job

1. What material should I work.
   Is it marble, granite, quartz, basalt, engineered stone, ceramic?
   There are so many materials today you can machine and every material has its right diamond tool, diamond edge or diamond bond (for the sintered granite CNC tools)
   For example, CNC granite engraving bits are made of polycrystalline, while the CNC marble engraving tools are made of widia or electroplated.
2. Which CNC machine I use.
   Do you use a small CNC stone router for engravings, or a machining center for kitchen tops, or a 5-axis milling machine or a robot and so on.
   This point includes also which fitting type you have in your spindle and which tool you can use in the machine. Do you have a half gas spindle and the related adaptors, do you have ISO or HSK tool holders for finger bits, stubbing wheels and ER collets?
3. Type of processing to be performed.
   To produce your final piece of work you need to make one or more of these operations: cutting, engraving, roughing, lowering and so on. Different tools make different operations.
4. Accuracy or level of finish that I want to obtain in the processing.
   Also, this point is important to analyze. If you want a high level of finishing maybe you need a smaller tool and a smaller pass to set you your CAM software. Or if for that job a medium quality is enough maybe you can use bigger tools and maybe fewer because you don’t need to polish too much.
5. Time I have available to do the job.
   This point is related to the previous one. Usually, time to complete a job is inversely proportional to the accuracy. But with the right tool, you could have the quality you need in a fast way.

Basic CNC stone tools fall into 7 categories

1. Engraving router bits
   The engraving router bits are used with CNC Stone Routers and they can be in Widia (Solid carbide), in Polycrystalline or electroplated.
   CNC Stone engraving tools are used mainly for engraving, lettering and marble relieves finishing. These bits have a 10mm cylindrical shaft fitting so you can use them in a spindle with an ER collet system or an adaptor for it.
2. Router bits for relief and stone carving
   CNC router bits, named also cnc stone carving tools, are used for heavier workings than engraving tips such as stone carving or roughing before the finishing phase. They have usually 1/2 gas or 10mm and 14mm cylindrical connections. CNC Granite carving tools are made of sintered diamond or in Polycrystalline while marble carving tools are electroplated.
3. Finger bits
   CNC Finger bits are essential tools used to cut with a CNC machine. Finger bits work from the side. If you need to go inside the material to make a cut you have the first hole the slab with a core drill bit and after go inside that hole to start the cut.
   There are special finger bits that come with a diamond base to go inside the material from the top they are called finger bits for incremental cutting.
   For the marble cutting, there are also the replaceable bit tips that are used for incremental cutting operations.
   As the other stone tools also the finger bits can be both sintered and electroplated as well. The sintered products differ in the type of binder (bond)  which can be more or less hard. The fitting thread of the finger bits is generally 1/2 gas but there are various end mills with a cylindrical shaft.
4. Stubbing wheels
   The Stubbing wheels are diamond wheels for grinding, for slab calibration and removing materials. They are available in various diameters and the fitting is a flange. To use a stubbing wheel you need a proper adaptor 1/2 Gas to flange or a cone for stubbing wheels.
5. Profile wheels
   The Profile wheels are essential tools for shaping and polishing profiles in the production of kitchen tops and bathrooms. The profile wheels can be sintered or electroplated. There are various profiles based on the type of profile to be performed.
6. Diamond core drill bits
   The diamond core drill bits are used for the execution of through and blind holes with CNC machines. The core bits for through holes have half-gas fitting while the blind hole drill bits have a shank 10mm fitting.
7. Drainboard tools
   The drain board tools are used to make the grooves, drip lines, in the kitchen tops. They include fluting bits to make grooves (drip lines) of diameter 10mm and 12 mm and the circular blades (disc) to produce 15mm wide grooves.