Hello. Help! Which CNC router?

[S2wde]

Hello, my name is Stuart and I am an avid woodworker. I have recently taken up and learning how to use the wood lathe. I have also just finished an American wavy wooden flag. My wife hobby crafts on a Cri Cut and Silhouette cutting machine. We would like to use our combined skills and go to the next level and start using and making items on a CNC router. I would love the machine to cut both wood and metal and large enough to cut parts for furniture projects. ie. it needs to be a reasonable size. If any of you experienced machinists could advise on which UK available CNC to look at, it would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks and thanks for taking the time to read this!!

[AndyUK]

Hi Stuart,

Welcome to the forum!

Most of us tend to build our own machines, so we're not fantastic at suggesting off-the-shelf models. If you want us to comment on a particular machine you're thinking of however, you'll probably get a good few ideas thrown around. Certainly for any recommendations we'd need to know what sort of budget you're thinking.

A hobby grade router that is large enough for furniture and strong enough for metal at a reasonable price is somewhat of a unicorn - which is why so many of us build them rather than buy. Lots of the hobby machines (Shapeokos, MillRights, CarveKings etc etc) are actually quite weak and will disappoint you the moment you try and doing anything serious, and they're not built to maintain accuracy over time when cutting something like Aluminium. Alternatively there are people around here that will build a custom one for you if you're interested in that route. To give you a price ballpark, my machine (see signature link) can do small furniture (1000x800mm bed), and handles aluminium okayish, cost circa £3-4k in parts - but its tough as nails and holds its accuracy.

Hope thats helpful...!