Hi, Newbie to CNC

Hi,

Looking into purchasing a CNC router, more used to manual woodwork and routering. I work in the exhibition and sign industry so the work i do is very varied and use a very wide range of materials (softwood, hardwood, mdf, birch ply, acrylic polycarb, dibond, aluminium, corian, himacs)
Looking to purchase a small machine for personnel project use and for occasional use at work. Was looking at the OX cnc and Aspire software, the OX fits my budget but unsure of the Apsire software price. i use autocad for other work so learning similar software shouldnt be a problem

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Andy

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Originally Posted by urbansickness

Was looking at the OX cnc and Aspire software, the OX fits my budget but unsure of the Apsire software price. i use autocad for other work so learning similar software shouldnt be a problem

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

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Hi and Welcome,

You won't go wrong with Aspire or Vectric products but The Ox isn't something I'd recommend. It's poor design made with weak materials.

You'd be better advised to save up and increase the Machine budget or lower the Software Budget and put the money towards better machine.
No Point having Great software and then poor machine that restricts what can be done or takes for ever to do it.! . . Or worse Still starts breaking down and unreliable.

Unfortunatly the answer to your next question I cannot help with because there are no good alternatives in UK at lower price range.
This is why people Often take on the challenge of DIY Building so they can have good machine with lower budget.

Best advise I can give is don't rush into buying without checking out the whole machine. If your unsure then just ask and we'll take look for you and advise.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by urbansickness

Hi,
Looking to purchase a small machine for personnel project use and for occasional use at work. Was looking at the OX cnc and Aspire software, the OX fits my budget but unsure of the Apsire software price. i use autocad for other work so learning similar software shouldnt be a problem
Andy

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First welcome to the forum Andy. If you want to be cutting anything serious then I don't think the OX machine will do it .

Have you thought about asking for a quotation from one of the forum members as there are one or two that make exceptional machines on here. Here is the section to do that. http://www.mycncuk.com/forums/196-MARKETPLACE

You would need to state the cutting size that you require and what materials that you are likely to be cutting.

Or you could build your own by starting a build log and then asking all the questions you want.

On the software side, the Aspire software is great but not cheap. If you have access to AutoCAD and are happy to use it, then you could stick with that for a lot of CAD work. Instead of Aspire, you could buy Vectric vCarve Pro (very good for 2D and 2.5D work, especially for things like lettering and signwriting, as well as profiling and pocketing), and if you need to do genuine 3D work, you can use Vectric Cut3D to generate toolpaths and, if needed, use vCarve to drop them into a bigger design. vCarve looks as if it has very simple 2D CAD and CAM facilities but in practice these are capable of doing pretty much all that you are likely to need. Of course there are better tools, but the simplicity of use of the Vectric toolset is a big bonus. You can also mix-and-match - design in AutoCAD if you want, then export a DXF file into vCarve to do any final modifications and use vCarve to do the toolpath generation. Aspire does everything vCarve and Cut3D can do, better integrated into a single package, plus better CAD, but you don't necessarily need it. Download the trial editions and look for yourself. You might be saving a few hundred quid that could go towards a better machine!

Looks like ill be researching a self build then, the price increase from the OX to more professional machines is quite steep so a self build seems to the way to.
Ill be cutting all the material mentioned in my first post, size wise i probably wouldnt need to go any bigger than a work area of 1200 by 1000mm for the time being.

Software wise i think ill have to wait until i sort out a machine then have a try on the free trials

Thanks for your help