The main cutting tools I will be using will be spiral bits. The most useful will be a square ended, plunge cutting bit like this bit from Amana or one of the ones with either a rounded end (ball mill) or a pointy end (v-groove) depending on what I am doing. There are also bits available for cutting metals and other materials as well as wood cutting bits. I will be using a spindle that will take at most 1/4. in bits but most likely will stick to 1/8 in. cutters. This goes back to the diminishing returns idea. I could put a big 3 HP router on the machine. This would mean a heavier spindle support and more powerful positioning to overcome the inertia. Instead, I am going the other way. On my small machine, I will use my Proxxon rotary tool. It is light, smooth running, and I already have it. The larger machine will use a RotoZip. It is light, easy to mount, cheap, easily replaced, and again, I already have one. Notice a trend here?
Another reason I am planning on the small cutters is waste. Milling is a horribly wasteful process. Whatever I am cutting, I don't want to spend lots of money for materials to have a lot of it thrown away as cutting waste. I would even go to smaller cutters except that the smaller ones don't cut fast enough, cost more, and don't cut deeply enough. If money were no object, I would probably switch over to some other cutting method such as laser or water jet.
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