Strike CNC (My first CNC router)

**Shinobiwan** · 03-02-2012

Hey guys,

I'm very new to cnc but have had a passing interest since reading about them some years ago. At that time they were horrendously expensive, extremely complicated and generally impractical for all but a commercial setting. Well fast forward about 15 years and thing have improved no end for a hobbyist such as myself and I finally caved in and decided there was a better way over the old manual methods I've been accustom to.

The problem was I had little to no information when I started looking at machines and so I didn't rush, instead I spent around 6 months just researching as much information as I could so as to be armed when it came time to pull the trigger so to speak. My budget was limited and that brought about even more complications as you always went the best for your money even when there's comparatively little of it. From this budget I set some realistic minimum specification that met my requirements. It had to be a 1250mm x 1250mm working area with a minimum of 200mm Z axis travel for the work I had in mind and to allow some growth and experimentation in the future. I was also mindful of that I'd be predominantly cutting MDF and this stuff is horrible for the lungs and makes a huge mess whenever its cut so a dust enclosure was a must as I didn't want the workshop covered in MDF 'snow'. Aside from that I was fairly flexible on the mechanical details as long as it was accurate and reliable. Speed wasn't a real concern and even if it was my budget wouldn't stretch to a fast machine that did all I wanted anyway, this was one of the main compromises.

So armed with a set of requirements, a budget and the knowledge I'd gathered I set about looking for a supplier in the UK. I knew that it would be tough but I really had no idea how tough! There are very few cnc manufacturers in the UK who supply machines in the UK that start at less than £10k for what I wanted. Marchant Dice was one and the other I found advertising on ebay - Strike CNC. Marchant machines looked good but the price quickly rose as I inquired about the extra's I wanted for requirements and I no longer thought it was a very good deal. That's not to bad mouth Marchant, they were very helpful during all my inquiries. I didn't bother ringing Strike CNC at all because the lack of website and only an ebay presence made me suspicious when spending that amount of money(I shouldn't have been but more on that later). And that was pretty much it for UK suppliers I could afford. I did consider shipping overseas from places like K2CNC, ShopSabre, CNC-Step but the taxes and/or shipping costs quickly spiralled.
Next up was searching ebay for a used bargain but again I found little to no machines within my budget that supported 200mm Z travel for the larger 3D work I had planned. Sure you could drop £20k and get something that had 200-300mm z travel but that was double my budget. At this point I was fed up of ringing places and staring at websites for hours. It was starting to look hopeless and maybe my expectations were unrealistic.

I gave up the search for about a month to re-assess and when I began again I came across Strike CNC on ebay once again. I figured I had nothing to loose so sent them a message asking for them to contact me. Within about 30minutes I got a phone call from a really nice chap down there called Michael and over the course of a couple of hour conversation I'd convinced myself they were the real deal and the next day we hashed out the details for my machine and I placed an order. Thanks god for that! I was doubtful I'd ever get the machine I wanted for the budget I'd set but glad that Strike proved me wrong.

That was back in mid December 2011. But because their machines are made to order there is a lead time which increased by me adding a lot of extra's in there too. I'm expecting delivery next week on the 8th Feb.

For now I have attached a couple of work in progress shots as the machine neared completion that Michael kindly sent whilst I was biting my nails in anticipation of the exciting arrival of the machine but once the machine arrives I hope to post some pictures on here and hopefully give them a little exposure from a very happy customer(so far!). These guys have been nothing but helpful and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them, they're machines are well made too and the fact that you can tweak virtually any part of the order is a big bonus if your looking for something a little more tailored. The prices are better than anything I managed to find outside of DIY'ing my own machine too.

For those interest the specs of the machine are as follows:

CNC router Stand mounted with full enclosure. Clear front & side for full viewing , clear double front doors & grey paneled double back doors , lexan polycarb windows used on the enclosure.