aye up new friends :)

[Rigdiculous]

Just came across this forum while on the hunt for help for my future business plans.

Began my career as a craftsmen producing Harps on a manufacturing scale for a company based in West Wales.
The processes used a mixture of hand crafts along with CNC work to produce the products.

For the past 4 years i have been in the events industry and no hoping to get back into the woodwork side of things.

Setting up a workshop in the coming weeks with all machinery already purchased for the move forward. Hoping to produce a number of products
from my workshop in the direction of what pays the bills to begin with.

In around 6 months i am hoping to purchase a 3 axis CNC router 8x4ft bed. This is where i have come unstuck with my limited knowledge!!!

I am looking for information on CNC products along with the best cad/cam software to look out for or try using.....

sorry my introduction has been expansive, but hopefully someone can point me in the right direction :)

Thanks in advance,

Paz

[EddyCurrent]

Welcome, I see you intend buying a machine, if you look on ebay for example there are a number of reasonably priced new machines of that size.
e.g. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CNC-Router-/271609520235?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item3f3d30606b
obviously a search about will bring up other machines in the UK. Chinese machines are cheap but you have to consider support / shipping / import fees / VAT, etc.
With regard to software, there is no 'best' as such, but there are loads of trials that will let you have a go, look through this thread for ideas; http://www.mycncuk.com/threads/6707-List-of-CAD-CAM-Software

[Rigdiculous]

Cheers for your reply eddy.

i do intend on purchasing a cnc machine in the next 6 months, and have had experience with the Chinese products and their reliability/user friendly ness :(

i will ill dig deep in the forums to find as much info as possible before I purchase.