Thinking of buying/building machine for PCB milling

[njh]

Hello,

I am looking to buy a 3-axis CNC router with the main purpose of milling PCBs but also more general purpose - small wood, plastic, foam, thin aluminium control panels.

Looking at all the Chinese 3020 / 3040 routers on ebay, they all seem slightly different, from the pictures but very little way of distinguishing between them by specification or quality. How can I distinguish between them?

Being able to repair and upgrade the machine is important to me and I like the idea of buying from the UK manufacturer/supplier, so that I know exactly what I am getting and be able to buy replacement parts - and Marchant Dice Ltd. / Worldofcnc.com was looking promising. But having emailed them a couple of times and received no reply, so I don't fancy my chances of getting support.

Does anybody have any suggestions as to what I should buy? My price bracket is £500 - £1500 and hoping to run LinuxCNC with it. I am more confident about the electronics and computer side of things, than metal working...


Thanks!

nick.

[Jonathan]

I am looking to buy a 3-axis CNC router with the main purpose of milling PCBs but also more general purpose - small wood, plastic, foam, thin aluminium control panels.

Looking at all the Chinese 3020 / 3040 routers on ebay

The machines you refer to would be acceptable for everything you listed, except maybe the aluminium, so long as they come with ballscrews. You need ballscrews to get the required accuracy for engraving PCBs. I'd be very concerned if you're planning on using one of those machines to cut aluminium regularly, or are expecting it to do it accurately and quickly.

Marchant Dice Ltd. / Worldofcnc.com was looking promising.

[njh]

I'd be very concerned if you're planning on using one of those machines to cut aluminium regularly, or are expecting it to do it accurately and quickly.

Ok. Maybe I don't care about aluminium then :)

***POST REMOVED ***

Wow, glad I didn't get any closer to buying from them then!

[richie00boy]

I bought a 3020 off ebay about a year ago for exactly the same things as you. Mine has leadscrews not ballscrews, and while I understand Jonathan knows a lot more about these things than I do, it seems fine for me. I'm not doing ultra fine pitch SMT on big boards though.

[njh]

Thanks richie00boy, that is really good to know - how did you choose an eBay seller to buy from?

[njhussey]

Just seen that there's a complete setup in the for sale section, only a couple of hundred more than a new eBay machine and you get a ready to run system with PC and Mach 3. Would get you started cutting PCBs straight away and because you like upgrading would be (by all accounts!!) perfect

[JAZZCNC]

Wow, glad I didn't get any closer to buying from them then!

Here we go More BULLSHIT SENSOR SHIP the machines are pile of over priced rubbish and that is my opinion based on experience with working on one of them and I've right to express it whether they like it or NOT.!! . . . . . . . .Even your Own Moderator made derogatory symbols he just hasn't got the Boll##ks to put it in words.
Don't see you going round deleting all the post's where he's putting folks off buying from Zapp in favour of buying from China and Gary happens to frequent and support this site.?? . . . . Don't see Mr MD around here much do ya.!!. . .. . . . DELETING POSTS IS WRONG. . . . . . Also You don't delete all the Bast@~d ones where I'm helping people folks do ya . . . . Well let me say any more of my legit post's get deleted and I'm done with this site.!

EDIT: Sorry NJH for this rant on your Thread but SENSOR SHIP really PISSES ME OFF.!!!

[njh]

Don't see Mr MD around here much do ya.!!. . ..

Something funny going on - the same day as your post is deleted; I get an email reply from Kevin Marchant - two weeks after my enquiry.

We can offer / produce an A4 with ballscrews, steppers, controller, spindle and Mach3 for £1000 + £29.50 shipping

If that is how long it takes to produce a once sentence quote, I don't fancy my chances of support. I am better off buying from China.

[njh]

In other news, I asked why the UK postage costs were so huge (£200) on this 3040T-DQ Router and quickly received the response:

Hello,

Thank you for you are interested in this machine from us.
We have it out of stock from our UK warehouse right now, and the coming batch can be available about 10 days later.
Then we raise the price for controlling sale volume.
Hope you can understand.

Best regards

- tool-zoom

Item: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/-/200933892175
Seller: http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/tool-zoom

[njhussey]

The best thing to do is to make your own, it will knock the spots off most things commercially available for the same price and in the process you'll get a better understanding of how they work and therefore (I can only guess as I'm just starting to build mine) will be better equipped to fix them when things go wrong/break.

If you look at, for example, the MD ones and the cheap China ones and then look at the build threads you will see the difference between a "home made" one and a "commercial" one. Making your own will enable you to do things like use supported rails, make the gantry much stronger (and normally a bit lower) use better quality materials for the same price you would have paid for a ready made one. There are enough guys on the forum here who will cast a critical eye over your design and once it's complete do any machining for you if you need it allowing you to assemble it with simple hand tools/workshop tools.

In my opinion a ready bought machine is only really good for scratching the surface at playing with CNC machines, in more ways than one! You will undoubtedly, no almost certainly from my reading various forums, need to update components to get the performance and finish you require. I did consider going down the ready made route before I started but soon dismissed it and now I will end up with a machine that will be capable of cutting Aluminium even though I started out wanting one that would cut Balsa and ply.

As an example of costs the MD A4 ball screw machine starts at £3,555.00 For that you'll get a machine that has a machining Area of 300mm x 220mm x Z Axis 155mm, my machine (when I get my finger out and start making it) should come in well below that and will have a cutting area of 1000 x 500 x 200. As far as I'm concerned it's a no brainer! If size is an issue, i.e. you don't need a machine that big then you'll be able to make a much stronger/accurate machine for half that cost.