Thread: Help needed to choose a machine.
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28-06-2017 #11I'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.
You will get all the help you need from the guys on here to help with the questions...Clive
The more you know, The better you know, How little you know
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The Following User Says Thank You to Clive S For This Useful Post:
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28-06-2017 #12
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.
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28-06-2017 #13
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!
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28-06-2017 #14
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...
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28-06-2017 #15
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 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.
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.
Cheers will check them out
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30-06-2017 #16
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.
SeanLast edited by DustySixString; 30-06-2017 at 03:01 PM.
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30-06-2017 #17
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 or Milling Machines 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 or a conversion log and show us all what YOU can do
2. You can find discussion on moving gantry/router style machine builds in the 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 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 machine by "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 units from CNC4YOU 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 trading from Aliexpress, 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 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, 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 !
.Last edited by Lee Roberts; 30-06-2017 at 10:33 PM. Reason: Formatting, speeeling
.Me
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30-06-2017 #18
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28-07-2017 #19
He is New Member .can you give him some advice !
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28-07-2017 #20
thank addmin forum
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