Hi guys looking to buy an entry cnc machine, would a X carve by Invebtables be a good choice. I have been following a woodworker in the US and this is what he uses.
Printable View
Hi guys looking to buy an entry cnc machine, would a X carve by Invebtables be a good choice. I have been following a woodworker in the US and this is what he uses.
To save others searching - https://www.inventables.com/technologies/x-carve
In short, it's not that great a machine, and definitely not worth the money it would cost to get one across here.
It's going to cost over £2k by the time you add import duty and VAT, plus whatever the delivery cost would be, which I'd say is pretty poor value for something that uses belt drive on two axes, a cheap acme screw on the Z axis, and basic v-guide/wheel ways.
The soft focus and angle in their videos is deliberate to avoid you seeing just how poor a finish it's actually creating.
The glimpses you do get, shows a very rough finish, about what I'd expect from such a machine.
what sort of machine would you suggest from the uk
It would be helpful if you stated your budget and what cutting area you require.Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew C
Im looking to cut mdf and plywood up to 400mm, with a budget of about a grand
Hello anybody there
Andrew, I sympathise with you but this is a fairly common request, and the answers usually don't please anyone - the person who replies because they will have to tell you it can't be done, and you for finding out that your budget isn't compatible with your requirements...
There are a few machines out there in this kind of price range. They all use cheap guide rail systems of one sort or another, to keep cost down and allow relatively easy home-building, but they tend to be fiddly to set up and prone to wear/go out of adjustment relatively quickly. So you spend a lot of your time overcoming the limitations of the machine.
A friend of mine bought a "cheap" machine from China about 3 years ago. He needed it for his business in order to avoid having to sub-contract engraving jobs in wood, and it has proven to be a useful and usable machine. That cost a touch under £3K, with carriage and duty, for a 600x900 machine, and probably represents about as cheap as you want to go and have a sensible machine. Frankly, it's not worth the manufacturers building much smaller than this because at a commercial level, smaller machines aren't needed and in practice do not cost that much less to build and sell - a machine with half the capacity would probably cost 80-90% of the price anyway. Then there are the really cheap machines, such as you find on eBay, which are generally regarded as a kit of not very good parts which will need a fair bit of fettling and, after a short time, all the electronics to be scrapped and replaced. Assuming that they do a halfways decent job in the first place. Then there are a few UK-based "manufacturers" who build machines of, it is widely reported on this forum, of debatable quality.
This forum has a member who does build machines, but I can't see him building anything in that size for that price. You just can't buy the basic components of a decent quality for that money.
I have built two CNC routers. The first was, in all honesty, a bit of fun. It was the JGRO design (lots of info available with a google search), MDF throughout, threaded rod from Screwfix as leadscrews, guide rails from heavy steel tube and roller-skate bearings. I spent more time shimming, tweaking, and generally fiddling with that machine than I did cutting, but it taught me a lot and was great fun. But so frustrating when you had a 15 minute job to do but took an hour to readjust the soggy MDF each time. Mk2 went the other way - about 1500x750 cutting area, steel tube, welded, proper profile rails, ballscrews, decent electronics, etc. Raw materials probably cost around £2K or maybe a bit more although could have been cheaper (stuff is available these days from China for less than I paid. At least pre-Brexit it would have been).
The kind of thing to which you linked is kind-of OK-ish and with a performance better than my MDF effort, but less than the Youtube videos would have you believe.
Take a look at some of the build logs on this forum, and particularly look at the aluminium profile machines which are arguably easier to build at home and can give decent results in use. Not sure if you are going to do it all for £1K all the same, but you can spread cost over a period if you are building yourself.
Good luck in any case - you weren't being ignored, but you have to recognise a certain frustration amongst the regulars here that the requirements given are not entirely compatible :beer:
Thanks Neale for a comprehensive post, I`ll have a think and see where i`m going with this. I thought it would be buy a decent machine and start producing pieces to sell. Cheers
I also had a look at the Inventables site and saw their "Pro" range. These use profile rails and ballscrews (although the one I saw used 25mm ballscrews which probably slow the machine down). The price difference is an indicator of what better quality components cost. I also wonder about the life of the routers they use, especially given how long it seems to take to get through thicker timber.
But as an engraving machine, within its limits - horses for courses. There are a number of things about them that I don't like, but that's not the same as saying that they might not suit some users but go into it with your eyes open and not dazzled by videos from people from carefully-selected users!
I have been looking at an Ooznest workbee now because they are from the UK and someone once here said it is a good starter machine. There are a lot of choices for different components on their site though.