Hello from Somerset UK

[Joiner88]

Hello, being new to this forum I would like to introduce myself.
My name is Brian and I am a joiner by trade and manage a workshop locally.
I have been in the trade all my working life (43 years and counting) and have always had a passion for producing unusual things from wood as well as the normal windows, doors and stairs that we produce daily.
I am very much a hands on woodworker and have never used, or really been interested in CNC, up until now.
Having built a "panto router" (Mathius Wandel version) it triggered an interest in letter carving, which upto now, I had always cut by hand.
I am now looking at obtaining (or building) a CNC machine to produce letter work and small decorative work.
Any pointers to production machines or suggestions of a kit to start my research would be appreciated.
I look forward to getting to know you all.

[AndyUK]

Hi Brian,

Welcome to the forum!

If you look at the build logs area of the forum you'll get a good idea for what is involved in building some of these machines and the range of designs and configurations.

Typically this forum is more focused on the building and designing than the kits that are available, but you should still be able to see the range and types of machines on here. We also have a few members who run businesses which can make high quality machines if that's of interest.

Good Luck!
Andy

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

[Joiner88]

Thank you for your reply Andy, I will spend a while looking at the build threads as you suggest. Obviously an alful lot to think about, and although I tend to be a bit impatient, this is going to take a lot of planning

[routerdriver]

Welcome.Beside having a machine,you will have to generate the program to make it do the lettering and you can learn to use it while researching machines or building one yourself.I have been getting to grips with F-engrave for the purpose and it will cope with any true type font-which helps a lot.

To begin your search you really need to define the work area you really want.Or measure what will fit in your workshop space.For what its worth,I built an MDF machine with a work envelope of about 350mmX240MMX28mm for about what a good 1/2 inch router costs-including an ebay computer and software. it took a while though and I had years of CNC experience when I started.