Here’s my tuppence worth on “low-cost” cnc’s. (my real life analogy) I bought a DSLR camera for £1,800 (sold along time ago) about 5 years ago because I fancied doing a bit of photography. Then I realise I actually liked making video’s just as much. The camera was amazing at photos but it had limited capability’s when it came to video. So by this time I was skint but really wanted to make some decent video footage. Now a half decent video camera or broadcast ready one would cost me about £2,000 + 2nd hand, that would produce really good footage straight out of the box. My budget was less than £300. So I hit google and spent a good 2-3 weeks looking for a solution. Finally, after many - many forum posts youtube videos and emails I bought the camera, a 7-year-old Cannon E50. I won’t bore you with the details, but with a bit of free software a couple of very cheap prime lenses (£20 each of fleabay) and decent CF card I could take RAW video the same as some of the much-much more expensive cine cameras. But no auto focus, limited continuous filming time and overheating problems just to mention a few. And the learning curve was steep because it involved a lot more post production with editing, colourisation software etc. If I was patient and took time to set up the shot and managed my expectations I could achieve, in my opinion, good results. I wasn’t going for an Oscar or a career in film making, it was just something I wanted to do. However, one day a friend of mine who has a web design company, had a client who was having a company intro video filmed by a professional production company. He had spoken with the film makers and asked if I could go down and watch, do a bit of filming pick up some tips and tricks etc. After spending the whole day with them and seeing the results I realised that there was a vast difference between, what I was doing and what professionals do.
But I realise my limitations the same as I realise the limitations of my CNC and work accordingly and know what results I will get. However, if I decide to move to a better video camera or a more expensive CNC I will take with me all that knowledge and I expect to build on the capability’s and produce better quality work.
You can make money out of the cheap Chinese CNC’s, I know I have done it. When I was totally skint about 3 and half years ago (under threat of eviction and not in a good place in my life) I designed a bit of a fancy bird box, that looked like an old clock. I used cheap ply and even cheaper external paint. I worked a good 8 hours a day and.. less overheads + 20% I was putting away for any breakage of the machine, I was bringing in on average of £100 per day. That got me out of the shit, but it was hard work and frankly the machine took a beating. People still ask me if make them even though it’s to replace the ones that had rotted to bits lol, and yeah I bang a couple out on a weekend just for the fun of it for them (that sounded rude).
I have an ambition now and I’ve set my goal’s to achieve it. I will be buying another cheap CNC and making a bit more money from that, then when I have scrimped and saved buy a half decent CNC and continue like that. Each stage with let me know if I’m on the right path, but nothing will be lost when it comes to experience. And of course I can always sell it and get some money back for the next project.
BTW I looked at making my own cnc, and rejected the idea, really because I don’t have the confidence. If JAZZ was my next door neighbour I would have no qualms about attempting to build one. And who knows, in the future I might go for it.
So that’s my story, hope this helps you towards your decision.