Help needed to choose a machine.

[DustySixString]

I started a thread in the New Member's section yesterday, but I will elaborate a bit more here.

As previously mentioned I've not really got the time to learn how to build my own machine and would much rather spend what time i do have on learning how to use a pre built machine.

Ideally with a minimum working area of 450mm x 600mm, Machining various hardwoods and plywoods, I would like some sort of dust extraction, either built in or a way to connect my existing extractor to the machine. Also, the machine would not be running all day every day with heavy usage.

The software I've got a bit experience with is Sketchup & SolidWorks, and more recently Shaper3d on the Ipad Pro.
Fusion 360 as also been recommended to look into by mekanik on the forum.

Budget wise I like good quality tools, but I don't want to break the bank on this! I've had two quotes from two different companies that I will attach below.

I would rather not spend that much if there are better value/recommended ones available?.

Thanks
Sean

[DustySixString]

Sorry, this should have been posted in the machine section, can somebody please move it.

Thanks
Sean

[mekanik]

Hi Sean
If you make a post in the Freelance Jobs and Requests section someone on the forum might be willing to build you a machine, chances are it will be a better machine than some of the other suppliers out there.
Regards
Mike

[DustySixString]

Hi Sean
If you make a post in the Freelance Jobs and Requests section someone on the forum might be willing to build you a machine, chances are it will be a better machine than some of the other suppliers out there.
Regards
Mike

That's something to consider cheers Mike.
Also do you know if it is possible to move this thread to the machine section? or would it be ok to just start a new one? .

Sean

[Neale]

Have you looked at any of the Chinese machines? Not the cheap end of the range, but some of the bigger machines? A friend bought an Acctek 6090 which he is using daily in his business and which seems to do a reasonable job. It has quite a few rough edges (literally, in some cases) and needed a bit of tweaking to get it running when it first arrived but it's steel and cast iron with profile rails and ballscrews. All up including shipping (he arranged his own), a 3HP water-cooled spindle (about right for this size machine), and USB motion controller, it was around £3K. The difference buys a lot of cutters and material!

I'm not pushing this specific machine or maker but something like this might be an option worth considering.

[DustySixString]

Have you looked at any of the Chinese machines? Not the cheap end of the range, but some of the bigger machines? A friend bought an Acctek 6090 which he is using daily in his business and which seems to do a reasonable job. It has quite a few rough edges (literally, in some cases) and needed a bit of tweaking to get it running when it first arrived but it's steel and cast iron with profile rails and ballscrews. All up including shipping (he arranged his own), a 3HP water-cooled spindle (about right for this size machine), and USB motion controller, it was around £3K. The difference buys a lot of cutters and material!

I'm not pushing this specific machine or maker but something like this might be an option worth considering.

Cheers Neale, yes to be honest the Acctek name has popped up on my radar as one of the better Chinese machines. You've definitely got me thinking about it, like you say its a massive saving.
Ive just spent the last half an hour looking at the Acctek 6090 and a few posts on another forum saying they are a good company to deal with also.
If you don't mind me asking, do you know Where your friend placed the order? and do you know who he made the shipping arrangements with?.

I'm seriously toying with the idea, im going to research it a bit more.

Thanks Sean

[Neale]

He spent some time talking to Acctek on Skype to agree the exact spec. I know that he used a UK shipping agent to handle all the transport issues but I'm not sure who it was - someone else on the forum was talking about this recently and I think they had found a suitable agent. I'll see if I can find who my friend used.

My only experience of Acctek is this one machine but based on this one example, it seems ok. There are a number of things about it that I would do differently but the real test is, does it do the job you want? My friend runs a small sign- and notice-board making business and for lettering, cutting hardwood, that kind of thing, it seems to work fine.

[ChrisJ]

Hi Sean

After doing a fair bit of research, the AccTek 6090 emerged as a reasonably well built and cost-effective machine for my needs. The import and delivery costs do add a fair bit to the price, mind you. I can PM the details if you like. If I may - a word to the wise on any shipping costs the manufacturer quotes: I was quoted very low prices for shipping using the manufacturers choice of shipping company but this is usually a loss leader for the shipping co which can then clobber you at the UK end with unexpectedly high fees. For the sake of transparency, ask for the FOB price and get a UK freight forwarder to get you an all-in quote. Apologies if you know all this already but it was all new to me.

I've not pulled the trigger yet on the Acctek machine for a couple of reasons - one of them being Clive putting into my head the idea of building my own! I've been reading the build logs on this forum and I think that with some help from wiser heads than mine, a self-build might be feasible although the electrics side of things worries me a bit.

Anyway... enough rambling! Best of luck with whatever decision you make. There's a ton of useful information in these forums, as you'll have seen, so happy researching.

Chris

[Boyan Silyavski]

5k is not unreasonable for as machine. The other one is expensive. No need for fancy spindles when the Chinese spindles do the same job.

Now there is that thing that for that money, me or sb else could build you a machine with better pro grade controller, better drives and motors and much more capable. In fact the first one is just re branded Chinese machine. I hate things with inherent design flaws, and if it was me i couldn't live with such a thing, unless i dont have to.

yes, some things the chinese machines have better priced than what i can do for the money, like the working bed and ... what, nothing else :joker:

And about the support: Wait, what i have build the only support that it needed was sorting Windows bugs

[Clive S]

He spent some time talking to Acctek on Skype to agree the exact spec. I know that he used a UK shipping agent to handle all the transport issues but I'm not sure who it was - someone else on the forum was talking about this recently and I think they had found a suitable agent. I'll see if I can find who my friend used.

Neale Was this the company you was looking for I seem to remember reading about it.

https://www.shippo.co.uk/

[Clive S]

I've not pulled the trigger yet on the Acctek machine for a couple of reasons - one of them being Clive putting into my head the idea of building my own! I've been reading the build logs on this forum and I think that with some help from wiser heads than mine, a self-build might be feasible although the electrics side of things worries me a bit.

Chris Have you seen Joe's excellent build including the control box. Here is his channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXlJ0k4GViuKi2aixoM-cOA

You will get all the help you need from the guys on here to help with the questions.

[Neale]

Neale Was this the company you was looking for I seem to remember reading about it.

https://www.shippo.co.uk/

Clive - don't think that this was the company but similar service. My friend arranged to collect from Southampton himself to save UK delivery costs but because of unloading delays, "his" container did not get taken off the ship in Southampton but arrived in Felixstowe instead. However, his crate was then transferred to Southampton free of charge so the net effect was just a slight delay. Seems like this kind of thing happens fairly often and the agents are used to dealing with it. Moral of the story, as someone has said, is use a UK shipping agent rather than manufacturer's default - better service at lower cost.

[Neale]

I built my own machine. Downside, I guess, is that it cost nearly as much as the Acctek although I could have cut that by buying more from China rather than UK. Upside is that "it is all my own work", bigger cutting area than the Acctek (1500x750), twin rather than single X ballscrews, better electronics, etc. I built it over a year or so, but it wasn't exactly a full-time job - apart from anything else, I always seemed to have a list of of jobs to do on the mk1 router! Which is why I needed something bigger and faster. If you need it for your business, you have to weigh time to be up and running and working more productively against the other factors; as a purely hobby user part of the fun for me is to be able to say "I made it myself - and I also built the machine that made it!" The satisfaction of taking a pile of steel, electronic black boxes, a bunch of software, and assembling it into a functional machine (and learning a lot on the way) is immense, but it doesn't pay the bills!

[ChrisJ]

Morning, Clive.

Yes, I've been following Joe's build log and videos with great interest and respect. I'm impressed by what can be achieved with patience, a methodical approach, ingenuity and the guidance of the folk here. Not sure I'd be as brave with regard to routing aluminium by hand though, so I'd probably have to outsource some of the work.

Thanks for the link - the control box build doesn't look impossible but I'd need to do my homework as I've never done anything like that before.

I'll definitely start a build log in the next few days. I'm still doing my homework as I don't want to ask any questions that have been answered previously in these pages, and any design I come up with will definitely be a slight evolution of existing designs in order to accommodate the features I think I need.

But back to Sean - shippo.co.uk was the company that I approached re shipping from China. There is a lot of very useful info on their website and they were very helpful in answering my questions, so that would be my recommended first port of call. No pun intended...

[DustySixString]

He spent some time talking to Acctek on Skype to agree the exact spec. I know that he used a UK shipping agent to handle all the transport issues but I'm not sure who it was - someone else on the forum was talking about this recently and I think they had found a suitable agent. I'll see if I can find who my friend used.

My only experience of Acctek is this one machine but based on this one example, it seems ok. There are a number of things about it that I would do differently but the real test is, does it do the job you want? My friend runs a small sign- and notice-board making business and for lettering, cutting hardwood, that kind of thing, it seems to work fine.

Yes it is to start using as part of my business and sounds perfect for my needs at the minute, I take it once I've got used to operating the machine and know a bit more! Could upgrades be an option in the future?.


Hi Sean

After doing a fair bit of research, the AccTek 6090 emerged as a reasonably well built and cost-effective machine for my needs. The import and delivery costs do add a fair bit to the price, mind you. I can PM the details if you like. If I may - a word to the wise on any shipping costs the manufacturer quotes: I was quoted very low prices for shipping using the manufacturers choice of shipping company but this is usually a loss leader for the shipping co which can then clobber you at the UK end with unexpectedly high fees. For the sake of transparency, ask for the FOB price and get a UK freight forwarder to get you an all-in quote. Apologies if you know all this already but it was all new to me.

I've not pulled the trigger yet on the Acctek machine for a couple of reasons - one of them being Clive putting into my head the idea of building my own! I've been reading the build logs on this forum and I think that with some help from wiser heads than mine, a self-build might be feasible although the electrics side of things worries me a bit.

Anyway... enough rambling! Best of luck with whatever decision you make. There's a ton of useful information in these forums, as you'll have seen, so happy researching.

Chris

Hi Chris

I can imagine the price does start to rise quite a lot, so yeah if you could pm me the details to have a nosey at that would be great.
I would love to have a go at building one when time permits but as of now it's going to have to be a pre-built machine and take it from there.
Thanks for your post.


5k is not unreasonable for as machine. The other one is expensive. No need for fancy spindles when the Chinese spindles do the same job.

Now there is that thing that for that money, me or sb else could build you a machine with better pro grade controller, better drives and motors and much more capable. In fact the first one is just re branded Chinese machine. I hate things with inherent design flaws, and if it was me i couldn't live with such a thing, unless i dont have to.

yes, some things the chinese machines have better priced than what i can do for the money, like the working bed and ... what, nothing else :joker:

And about the support: Wait, what i have build the only support that it needed was sorting Windows bugs

This is definitly something ill have a think about, but im not sure how that would work payment wise and with claiming it back against my tax.



But back to Sean - shippo.co.uk was the company that I approached re shipping from China. There is a lot of very useful info on their website and they were very helpful in answering my questions, so that would be my recommended first port of call. No pun intended...

Cheers will check them out

[DustySixString]

Right this is where I'm up to. I'm thinking about having a go at my own build!
From all the researching I've done and information I've took on board it keeps coming back to " you can get a much better machine for the money".

Now a few questions:

1 where do I start?
2 where can I find good guides and quality builds I can work from?
3 lists of good suppliers of parts?
4 your preferred software?
5......and probably a million more questions to be continued.

Sean

[Lee Roberts]

Hiya, welcome to the forum!

Building your own machine should yield more bang for your buck yes.

1. First think about what you want to cut, most people say "wood, plastics and aluminium now and again", guess what, that covers pretty much everything dose it not, the answer to this is the same though, have a good look though the machine build logs here on the forum, the matrial you want to cut predominantly, should determine the type of machine you want to build, see answer 2 for links to the options.

Once your ready to dream up a machine idea, start a new thread in the correct general sub forum: Gantry/Router Machines (http://www.mycncuk.com/forums/282-Gantry-Router-Machines-Building) or Milling Machines (http://www.mycncuk.com/forums/33-Milling-Machines-Builds-Conversions) and use this as your public "note pad" to ask questions, post your designs and hash out everything you need to before you buy or start building something, especially before you start buying new components.

Now your ready to start a build log (http://www.mycncuk.com/forums/253-DIY-Router-Build-Logs) or a conversion log (http://www.mycncuk.com/forums/254-Conversion-Build-Logs) and show us all what YOU can do :thumsup:

2. You can find discussion on moving gantry/router style machine builds in the DIY Router Build Logs (http://www.mycncuk.com/forums/253-DIY-Router-Build-Logs), or if your looking towards a traditional Mill type machine, you can find those discussions in the Milling Machines, Builds & Conversions (http://www.mycncuk.com/forums/33-Milling-Machines-Builds-Conversions) forum, typically members looking at this type of machine do a conversion of a manual commercial machine, however there have been some very nice "start from nothing" builds, my personal favorite is the DIY CNC Milling Machine From Scratch (http://www.mycncuk.com/threads/7662-DIY-CNC-Milling-Machine-From-Scratch) machine by "totts (http://www.mycncuk.com/members/5962-totts)".

3. First lets sort out what your building, then we know what you need and who its best to get it from, generally you'll need Stepper Motors, the Nema23 3.1Nm (https://www.cnc4you.co.uk/Stepper-Motor/Nema23-3.1Nm) units from CNC4YOU (https://www.cnc4you.co.uk) are what most people use for most machines, CNC4YOU are the best price for these as you cant really save any money importing them from China, unless you can get a discount on them at the point of ordering other components, linear rail, bearings etc, this brings me on to recommending a company called BST Automation (https://www.aliexpress.com/store/314742) trading from Aliexpress (https://www.aliexpress.com), have a look around their web shop you'll get the idea, the price's are not quite the lowest available on Aliexpress from other sellers BUT when you buy from BST your very much buying a service you can rely as well as the products.

4. Software is wide open really and I think becomes a personal choice after trying a few different flavours, if you've £20k to buy Solidworks start there, if like many of us your doing this as a hobby or enthusiast, you wouldn't go far wrong looking at Fusion360 (https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/overview) from Autodesk, its free to use for hobby use and also has its own CAM solution, giving a design to manufacturing workflow out of the box.

For an ongoing list of available software, the community has compiled a list here: List of CAD/CAM Software (http://www.mycncuk.com/threads/6707-List-of-CAD-CAM-Software), I point people at 360 generally over others, you get a lot for nothing (cost).

5. They've probably been asked already, dont worry about asking silly questions, this action has driven some of the best discussions on the forum previously and while it gets repetitive....WE LOVE IT !

Welcome to the forum Sean and good luck with your journey !

.

[DustySixString]

Hiya, welcome to the forum!



2. You can find discussion on moving gantry/router style machine builds in the DIY Router Build Logs (http://www.mycncuk.com/forums/253-DIY-Router-Build-Logs), or if your looking towards a traditional Mill type machine, you can find those discussions in the Milling Machines, Builds & Conversions (http://www.mycncuk.com/forums/33-Milling-Machines-Builds-Conversions) forum, typically members looking at this type of machine do a conversion of a manual commercial machine, however there have been some very nice "start from nothing" builds, my personal favorite is the DIY CNC Milling Machine From Scratch (http://www.mycncuk.com/threads/7662-DIY-CNC-Milling-Machine-From-Scratch) machine by "totts (http://www.mycncuk.com/members/5962-totts)".





.


Cheers for that lee, im working my way through the logs as we speak.

[cncmachineokk]

He is New Member .can you give him some advice !

[cncmachineokk]

thank addmin forum