When Does a CNC Machine Make Sense for Cabinetmakers?

We set out to answer one question: Is a CNC router right for your cabinet shop today? We break down the information into comparison tables, using industry averages and common pricing, with enough granularity that you can quickly visualize your shop’s standing and easily gauge whether the answer for you is “yes!”

Recouping Time

Every hour spent measuring, cutting, and drilling by hand is an hour your business isn’t growing. With a CNC router, you can redirect the hours you save to assembly, finishing, and the sales tasks that generate revenue.

It takes on average 50 minutes to manually cut, drill, and measure parts for a cabinet box/case.

Table 1: Estimated Time Spent on Tasks without a CNC Router

The next table shows the time saved on these tasks when using a C.R. Onsrud CNC Machine. The T-Series CNC router was selected for the calculation because we can prove to you its processing speed — a full cabinet nest in under 4 minutes (youtube video) in a single setup.

By saving almost an hour per cabinet box, here is the amount of time you could recoup by using this CNC router:

Table 2: Estimated Time Savings with a C.R. Onsrud CNC Router

Making 125 boxes by hand, for example, takes 104 hours, 10 minutes (13 days, 10 minutes based on an 8-hour day). That’s nearly 2 weeks dedicated to one task that the CNC machine can do in a single day! And that’s assuming the CNC machine is only operating one 8-hour shift. By producing 125 boxes, you “buy back” almost 12 full days out of those 13+ days of labor every month.

A CNC router processes a full cabinet nest from a single sheet in a single setup — cutting to finished size, routing dado or dowel holes, drilling shelf pin holes, and completing edge profiles in one program. If your cabinet parts currently pass through multiple manual stations, a CNC router with an automatic tool changer will recover even more time than calculated in Table 2:

Table 3: Estimated Additional Time on Non-Value-Added Activities

Table 4 breaks down the expense of a CNC machine:

Table 4: Estimated Cost of CNC Router

If you currently spend 141 hours a month making 170 boxes by hand, the machine pays for itself and gives you more than 2 extra weeks of time to do other work.

Return on Investment: Basic Hourly Cost Comparison

Using the $21/hour salary cost to manually create boxes (Table 1) and the hourly cost of the machine ($15.63/hour, from Table 4), the following table shows the total net savings when you transfer the box work to the CNC machine. The calculation also takes into account the slightly higher average salary for a CNC operator of $24.00/hour.

Benefit packages are not included in our calculations. Your total net savings could be significantly higher depending on the salary and benefits you offer your staff.

Table 5: Estimated Savings with a CNC Router*

This shows that if your monthly payment for your machine is $2500, then you start making a profit by the time you’ve processed 170 boxes.

It takes 141 hours, 40 minutes — 17 days, 5 hours, 40 minutes based on an 8-hour day — to make 170 cabinet boxes manually. That’s 2 ½ weeks! The CNC machine can produce those 170 cabinet boxes (consistently and more accurately) in less than 1 ½ days (1 day, 3 hours, 20 minutes based on an 8-hour day)! For many shops, they can spend the saved time of 16 days, 2 hours, 20 minutes bidding on more projects.

With a CNC router, producing over 170 boxes a month is quite feasible, but if it seems too many for your current customer base — wait! There are other data points in the cost analysis.

Labor Shift: You might be thinking reducing labor would save you money. It possibly could, but the CNC machine is only freeing staff from the repetitive panel processing work. You still need people for critical work: design, quality assurance, craftsmanship, edgebanding, assembly, finishing, and delivery or installation. With a CNC router, your shop can run more efficiently with your current team because now parts are continuously fed into the pipeline. Rebalancing your shop without reducing workforce prevents bottlenecks after panel processing improves.

Return on Investment: Material Yield

CNC machining supports nesting where the patterns (toolpaths) of your cut are arranged to maximize material yield. Manual processes rely on the operator laying out how the parts are to be cut, often using a standard grid-pattern, which results in more waste. Using a sliding table saw, you can get a standard cabinet box from 1.5 sheets of material compared to 1.2 sheets with a nested-based CNC router, a yield difference of 20%.

When you also factor in the parts that get scrapped due to measuring, layout, or other human errors, manual processes yield about 75% with 25% scrap. In contrast, CNC machining minimizes waste, delivering a yield of 90% or higher and reducing your scrap rate to approximately 10%.

Table 6: Estimated Material Savings with a CNC Router (per month)

In material cost savings alone, you’re already making a profit if you purchase $1400 or more a month.

If you spend $69,500 per month on materials, your annual savings is $125,100 and you’ve recouped the entire cost of the machine.

Plus, with your shop running more efficiently, you can take on more projects, making even more profit.

Return on Investment: Insourcing

For shops that outsource cabinet doors and drawer fronts, the savings is significantly greater when you transfer the work to an in-house CNC router. Keep in mind that the CNC machine has saved you time that can be reallocated to adding doors and drawer fronts to your process.

Table 7: Estimated Savings When You Transfer Doors and Drawer Work to an In-House CNC Router

After 61 doors and 61 drawer fronts you make in a month, the remainder is profit. In fact, once you’ve made 3023 boxes, you’ve paid for the machine in door and drawer production alone. For a highly automated shop using CNC routers, this is a modest yearly volume.

Beyond material savings, bringing cabinet components in-house offers additional benefits:

• You control your in-process time.
• You choose what work gets prioritized.
• You direct oversight of the quality.
• You don’t need to negotiate contracts or change orders.
• You’ve eliminated vendor markups.

The CNC router converts your vending expenses into your business’ equity. You can put that money toward your internal processes and materials, scaling production or offering premium lines or custom cabinetry — great ways to make your business more profitable.

Additional Benefits

In addition to the financial gains, the CNC router provides operational benefits that have a positive impact on your operations:

• Accuracy: Shops lose approximately 2–5% of parts due to human error. With a CNC router, this number drops to near zero, which saves the cost of remakes, including labor, material, and time. Plus, it ensures a seamless installation at the customer site.

Example: With a manual process, if 100 boxes consist of 500 parts, an average of 3.5% (17.5) parts are lost due to error. That equates to a loss of over $3800.00–$6500.00 in labor and material and 1 ½ weeks worth of work.

• Consistency: Consistently ensures dimensional accuracy (perfectly squared parts that are accurately sized).

This eliminates compounded measurement errors that lead to gaps or misalignment during installation. Also consistent drilling, interlocking grooves (dadoes), and mounting holes means perfect hardware alignment, so your doors don’t stick (bind) and the reveals around them are perfectly straight and even.

If you produce dozens of different cabinet designs weekly, this consistency will positively affect your margins.

• Repeatability: Identical parts simplify part replacement and ensure uniformity across multi-room projects. Each of your cabinets are flawless and perfectly symmetrical which in turn makes installation quick and easy.

• Efficiency: With a CNC router you can perform the drilling and cutting operations in a single setup. This further prevents potential errors.

You can also design a kitchen and send it to the machine instantly, removing the need for manual cut lists.

• Custom Designs: Industrial CNC routers are not simply used for mass production. They let you streamline your R&D to machining process for custom designs and one-off parts. If you make 3 cabinet boxes of one size followed immediately by 8 of another, the CNC router handles the transition automatically without the operator needing to manually readjust physical alignment guides. With vacuum hold-down, there’s no readjustment of clamps either.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can a small cabinet shop justify a CNC router?

Yes. The value for small shops is not so much saving labor but saving time. With a CNC router you could spend 1 hour/day operating the CNC machine, leaving you 7 hours a day to focus on high-value tasks: bidding jobs, edgebanding, and installing. The machine pays for itself by allowing you to take on 5x the volume without hiring your first employee.

Additionally, nested-based machining efficiently handles short-run custom orders. A shop making even 3–8 cabinet boxes per configuration benefits from the consistency and labor redistribution that CNC automation provides.

You are also positioned to become a medium-sized shop if that’s part of your business goals.

What are the benefits of a CNC router?

You operate more efficiently. Your total shop output can triple because the assembly team is no longer waiting on parts. The ROI comes from a spike in total annual revenue due to more output.

With one or two people dedicated to the panel processing work and the rest of your team focused on finishing and assembly, you can capture $343,000 in recovered vending costs — paying off the machine in less than 5 months.

A CNC router seems expensive. Is it worth the money?

Investing in a solid CNC router with a track record for durability and reliability is worth it. Look at the design, engineering, and construction of the machine because rigidity matters — giving you precise cuts when working with the materials in the cabinet industry. C.R. Onsrud, for example, uses full F.E.A.-analysis, thermal-stress relief, thick heavy steel for every router in their line. But the machines aren’t overengineered just to make them look big. They’re designed for fast performance and long-term reliability.

Watch out for cheaply made machines. Imported ones especially may appear less expensive initially, but wind up often carrying tariffs of 9% to 14%, are too flimsy to give you high-quality results, and likely lack the level of support you need at critical down time events. Plus, you’ll need to replace them in a few years.

Additional Resources

• High-Quality Doors with Install-Ready Finishes Straight Off the CNC Router (article)
• You Save More than $ When You Buy American-Made CNC Machinery (article)
• Buying a CNC Router for Cabinetry: What You Need to Know Before You Buy (article)
• Cabinet manufacturing (customer; youtube)