Cutting, engraving, sculpting
CNC Routing
High-precision 3-axis routing for wood, plastic, foam, and composites — from one-off prototypes to production runs.
CNC routing cuts a design from sheet material using a CAD file to guide the tool. Our machines move in three dimensions at once, so we’re not limited to flat outlines — we cut profiles, carve variable-depth relief, and sculpt fully three-dimensional forms.
What we do with it
Flat cutting. The workhorse. Any closed outline, cut clean through your material at any thickness we stock. Tools down to 1/16” diameter mean tight inside corners and fine detail.
Variable-depth carving and etching. Fluting, topographic relief, texture fields, signage. Different tool profiles give different cuts — V-bits for crisp lettering, ball-nose for smooth organic surfaces.
Paint-fill and two-tone. We can rout an etching and fill it with paint. Or, on two-tone material, routing away the top color exposes the layer beneath — no paint, no fill, no bleed.
3D sculpting. High-density urethane foam is our favorite here: architectural models, prop forms, mold plugs, oversized letterforms.
Plastics the laser won’t touch. PVC and polycarbonate can’t go near a CO2 laser — chlorine gas — but a router cuts them cleanly, and we do that work routinely. Same for HDPE and ABS.
A word on tolerance
We can hold ±0.001” — in a stable material, on a part that wants to cooperate. Solid wood moves with the seasons and foam compresses. The honest answer is that the achievable number depends on your material, your geometry, and what you’re mating to. Tell us what the part has to fit and we’ll tell you what we can actually hold. We’d rather have that conversation before we cut than after.
Sending us a file
Rhino is our primary. Send a .3dm and we’ll work from it directly — no export, no
translation, nothing lost on the way in. Most of our clients model in Rhino and so do we.
Beyond that we take essentially anything:
- 2D vectors — DWG, DXF, AI, EPS, PDF, SVG
- 3D — 3DM (Rhino), STEP, IGES, STL, SKP, OBJ, SLDPRT, F3D
The only two we can’t work from are Blender and Cinema 4D. Export to STEP or STL and we’re fine.
Whatever you send: 1:1 scale, closed paths, cut and etch on separate layers, text converted to outlines. Profile cutting needs vectors. Relief and 3D work needs a model — though simple pocketed depths can be called out in 2D with labeled layers.