CNC Router
- Started
- Last post
- 9 Responses
- BK
Anyone have any experience working with one of these bad boys? Any brands you would recommend or things to watch out for?
I'm going to be taking some operational classes at a local community college and hope to start up a small furniture design/manufacturing/misc. side hustle from my garage. Hopefully grow it into a full time hustle.
Looking for a 48"x 96" table under $20k. Some of the ones I've been looking at include:
http://www.baileigh.com/cnc-rout…
http://shopbottools.com/mProduct…
http://www.lagunatools.com/cnc/S…
- BK0
Has anyone attempted to build one themselves? Looks like you can get all necessary parts at: http://www.cncrouterparts.com and save a few bucks.
- Bennn0
:-o
- detritus1
I've made one.
Well, a much more hands-on friend and I have.
Well, he has mostly — I was just the labour monkey :)
I'm the tech person running it, sorting the electronics and then production flow from design and CAD to gcode, etc.
Depending upon how complex you want to operate, I'd *wholly* recommend building your own as you can get a lot more machine for a lot less buck, especialyl at your intended size.
It depends upon how comfortable you are with the underlying principles (eg. I've owned and run a laser cutter for the past 9 years which gave me ample training in the basics, including teh all important material restrictions/possibilities) and your capacity for DIYing it yourself. having seen it done, I'd now feel comfortable building my own, for instance. Indeed, I have plans set out for two very specific machines :)
Also depends upon desired feature set — for instance, automated tool-swapping was beyond our ability, so we went for a manual approach there.
If you can wield CAD/3D to outsource your own components you've won half the battle.
it might be worth getting a small DIY kit on the cheap first (<£500 for something that will actually be functional) to familiarise yourself and project through options. This is the one thing I wish I'd done first.
- • Over-spec the aluminium profiles.
• FULLY COST EVERYTHING (we didn't — cost creep was hilarious, but still cheaper than we'd've ever paid for pre-built)detritus - • DON'T Skimp on the electronics. Go at least for something like.. http://www.geckodriv…detritus
- < that said — I paid for a commercial laser cutter, and likely overpaid by a factor of four on it... but ..*touches wood*.. it's had less than a week downtimedetritus
- NOW I'll make my next machine, but I wouldn't've originally. Depends upon how commercial you want to go and how self-reliant you can be.detritus
- Thanks man! I don't think I know enough at this point to build my own properly, but it's a good thought. Probably have more insight after I take some training.BK
- • Over-spec the aluminium profiles.
- Gnash6
- holy crap, this looks amazingESKEMA
- meh, looks like a pain in the ass toy.detritus
- That's pretty dope but I'm not sure I see the advantage over drawing your outline or printing a paper template on the wood.BK
- It autocorrects the path, it's different than cutting yourself. This will always give best resultsESKEMA
- https://m.youtube.co…ESKEMA
- *cutting -> cutting it
*best -> betterESKEMA - ouch - it's going to retail for $2100?! pfft, nah.detritus
- a good, hi-end hand-held will run you up to $500Gnash
- Sure, but this thread's about CNCs, and $2k could get you well on your way to a more capable CNC than that thing.detritus
- ^ ah, i guess. I don't really know know too much about it.Gnash
- akiersky0
- Looks awesome for the price. Def. more for the hobbiest market, but super cool if speed & consistent accuracy aren't important.BK
- Being able to break it down when not in use is a huge +.BK
- Again, a toy, although neat all the same.
Might be ok for cutting thin ply, inaccurately, but I'd not consider this for anything functional or solid.detritus - .015" accuracy is decent. I'd say you could make some pretty solid furniture or things around the house.akiersky
- Mmm, I'll believe it when I see it. My main concern is how it'd deal with repeated routing. Christ, I sound like a gouch, eh?detritus
- I actually thought this and the above were quite cool when I first saw them — i just don't think they'd be better than something in a solid frame...detritus
- *grouch, hahahdetritus
- section_0140
What about an X-Carve? $1,500 at 100cm squared. Less than what you're looking at size wise, but well under 20k.
Disclaimer: I have no experience in this field. Saw it mentioned elsewhere is all.
- The good thing about things like these is that once you've worked it out and got comfortable with it, you can upgrade it and make it bigger.detritus
- Won't ever make for a solid work horse for BIG things, but would always be useful for small jobs and detail work.detritus
- Yeah, they appear to suffer from constant calibration issues.section_014