Morning all, from David Browne, founder of Wolfram Slides.

My company is about two years old, and we make very high-end guitar slides and picks from solid tungsten carbide.

I'm starting to expand the kinds of products we make, and also have a need to design and manufacture bespoke packaging for our growing bespoke tungsten carbide products business, so am starting to explore digital prototyping and have already made use of professional SLS 3D printing.

I've been doing a lot of research recently on desktop CNC machines, with a view to purchasing one to bring some physical prototyping capability in-house, and also to directly manufacture bespoke foam and cardboard packaging (which is REALLY expensive to buy in in small/single quantities). I need to work with wood and plastic (eventually with a fourth axis), and perhaps some cutting of thin aluminium, use a drag knife on cardboard and ideally a hot wire cutter on Plastazote high density foam.

Usage will be very light - I estimate less than four hours per week on average, so I'm looking for a reasonably capable machine but it does not have to be capable of production workloads.

From my research, the new upgraded German Stepcraft 2 840 machine with their 500 watt HF spindle seems to offer everything I need, and is a significant improvement over the current models (faster feed rates, stiffer construction). Are there any other machines I should be considering in this kind of price range? (under EUR2,000 for the machine and spindle, leaving me with some budget for other accessories and software).

Many thanks, and great to meet you all. There's a wealth of information and advice here on the forum, and I look forward to participating.

Cheers,
David