Advice to Group Please FM 1325 CNC

[Signworks]

QUESTION TO GROUP !!!
iv been offered FM1325 Cnc , does anybody use or have used this machine . what's your experience you've had with this machine ? is it a good investment or should I not entertain it ? he's asking £7000 for this machine.... the main reason we require Cnc is for signage materials dibond acrylic foamboad... thank you in advance ... matt

28247

[JAZZCNC]

Hi Matt, Well that's a picture showing a Chinese machine in a Chinese factory and if I'm not mistaken it's on Ebay.? If I'm correct then it's spec'd to cut composite doors using multiple spindles. Nothing wrong with that but it might not suit your needs for signage.!

Regards these Chinese machines then they are like a box of chocolates.? You never know what you are going to get.!!
The structures are built strong enough but the quality of machining and materials can vary widely. Often the electronics are basic low-cost units that will fail at some point, how long is a lottery, often just long enough to be out of warranty. Which if a warranty is offered it's pretty much totally useless because you will be down for weeks as they want the faulty part returning(to China) before they will send a new one, or if they just send a new one it's still often at best 7-10 days before you get it. Oh, and you'll have to find the fault and fit the part your self or pay a UK engineer to find and do this, many of which don't want to touch Chinese machines, and not because of the Virus...Lol

All this said £7000 doesn't get you much for a machine this size in the UK so it could be worth you taking the risk and fettling or changing out parts to better suit your needs. But I'd want to see the machine before making that decision.

I've built a few machines for signage guys and your needs are not very taxing to a CNC machine because your cutting light materials but you need a reasonably fast machine. Whether you require a vacuum bed or not depends on what you do mostly. Vacuum holding can get very expensive quickly if your wanting to hold small parts as there is a lot of wasted vacuum so requires bigger pumps or several pumps working together. Large parts are ok as there is more surface area to grab so it requires lower vacuum flow but these don't always require a vacuum.
Several of the guys I deal with have Vacuum beds but only use them for certain jobs that they can't screw down, the reason being it's noisy and expensive on electricity but also and mainly because if the vacuum does drop and the part lets go then expensive board gets wrecked and time wasted so they don't take the risk.

The point being don't let the pull of vacuum(no pun intended) sway you because it's not always required or helpful unless it's a very good vacuum system with a high spec. And Vacuum adds a lot of expense to the cost of a machine.

Hope this helps

[Signworks]

thank you for your reply and advice

[phill05]

We use a China machine for cutting stone the machine is very well made and has worked very hard 7 days a week months at a time, good side is you get a lot of machine for your money,the only bad point about it they use a hand held DSP controller which you would need to change I would say change before you use it ( saves a lot of wasted time and head scratching) also factor into your budget shipping and custom charges this could add another 2K,

Phill

[Signworks]

thanks phill, we have still no idea what to get yet?
also been offered a KEW machine based in Leeds and also Fabertec M0 1325...
think both imported. im still looking at the moment. . . .

[JAZZCNC]

We use a China machine for cutting stone the machine is very well made and has worked very hard 7 days a week months at a time, good side is you get a lot of machine for your money,the only bad point about it they use a hand held DSP controller which you would need to change I would say change before you use it ( saves a lot of wasted time and head scratching) also factor into your budget shipping and custom charges this could add another 2K,

Phill

This is the problem, it really does depend on what or where you get it from and just because it's been supplied by UK supplier doesn't always mean it's Ok or cheaper long term.
For instance someone approached me 18mths ago to build a machine but I couldn't do it to fit there time frame so they bought a Chinese machine from a UK importer. Machine is ok in it's self structurely, it's nice and strong, but I will soon be going to retro-fit with a better controller and ATC spindle etc. So why isn't the UK supplier doing this.??. . .££££££££