Intrigued by your comments on price. This seemed to be the cheapest prebuilt gantry out there, and the other option I'm looking at is Exel CNC, which has better components but is also over twice the price for a similar table size. Do you have any suggestions for where else I ought to be looking? All advice gratefully received.
Thats the problem,I'm looking at it from a "I could build it for much less than that" angle. as you want a ready built machine then you will expect to pay for that privilege. Then again if were to add up my time and the cost of all the tools and machines to build my cnc then it would be far greater than the cost of the routout one

However I like making stuff and the lathe and mill will still be of use to me even when the cnc is finally built. I'm also a believer in having the right tool for the job so I'm planning 4 or 5 machines a heavy duty mill for milling , router for routing , pcb/inlay machine for detail and a plasma cutter for quick 2d metal work. :whistling: one day in the distant future that is......

Tom has made some excellent points about pcb work, especially the fact that you need to aim higher on resolution (not the same as accuracy) to allow for error.

I had another look at the site and the new ones seem to have the patented belt/rack system (ala mike everdyne?, something like that.) which is much better for anti backlash but it still looks like it has the poor resolution that belt drives suffer from.

Look at demo pics, particularly the guitar,see the gagged wavy lines, not good. If you are going to the shop then ask to see it cut circles in Ali. good machines cut perfect round ones and bad ones make eggs :naughty: