Hello from Bristol

Hello all my name is matthew, and i am on the brink of starting to go down the CNC path.

I have seen a CNC Router on ebay, and up to now was goint to build my own, but i have seen a "Professional Elu CNC 860 Machining Centre" and am quite tempted at £220, the link to it is:-

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=250318189192

is this a good buy at that price, or will it have more bends than spaghetti junction.

I have spoken with the seller, but it all seems quite cheap, a £14,000 router for £220, something aint right, can u give me any advice. I am disabled and cant pick it up, so would need a man with a van to help ship it home, pending your recomendations of course?

Matthew :confused:

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/images/misc/progress.gif

Matthew

Hi and welcome. Apart from the shipping costs which will be at least £300 I suspect because of the size, weight and specialist loading needed (you dont want this to be chucked in the back of an artic with a load of other stuff, it needs precision handling), petrol (160 miles) and a driver and mate at least, its unlikely to go for that price. I'd be surprised if it doesnt finish over the £2000 mark at least, but then eBay is a strange place. what was the 'buy-it-now' price? For something like this where conditoin is critical, before buying you need to go see it working so you know what it was like before it was transported.

Then once you have it home you are looking at replacing the stepper drives, so thats £200-£300 at least, plus configuration.

I reckon this would top out at over £3000 to make it usable for you. Of course it it did go that cheap it would be a good bargain as long as you have the room, this is a big table. Nothing stopping you throwing in a max bid of say £500 and seeing what happens...

Hello Irving2008
Thanks for the prompt responce, here is what they said about the buy it now price,

Q: Hello You mention the buy it now option, What is the buy it now price? Cheers05-Nov-08A: Dear chozhibees, sorry for the late answer, e started the auction with a buy-it-now option which had disappeared after the first bid. Buy-it-now price was £5999. Sorry, I did not expect that option to disappear. Consequently if the price exceeds those £5999 we will do as we told and install the PC plus laminate the handbook. Best regards, Andy
The auction is at £205, and regards delivery, this is what they said:-

Q: Dear protexxengineeringltd, I would like to bid on this item, but i am disabled and cant drive, and i dont know of anyone who has a van large enough to take it, is there any way of having it delivered for me, i understand there would be a cost in this. I live in Bristol so its straight down the M5. Can you help? - matthewh1066 05-Nov-08A: £300 for delivery was a top end estimate incl. driver, fuel & hours. If the cost is less, we would only take the real costs. The intention was to give you a worst case scenario rather than flattering you into a buy.
what do you reckon.

Matthew

Oh dear, they are a novice ebayer... the buy-it-now option drops off after the first bid. If there is no reserve a usual strategy for an experienced ebayer is to bid £1 to kill the buy-it-now and allow low bids... then come in late with a killing bid below the buy-it-now if poss. They will probably end up selling this for far less than they expected but my £3k estimate might be a little low.. i doubt it will get to £6k tho.

My £300 guess at delivery wasn't far out then!

This would be a good buy for a small company at the £4k-£6k mark. If thats in your budget range and you need a 850x850mm work area then go for it, but for a hobby machine its overpriced unless it comes in well below that, you can build or buy something similar for a lot less. A 720 x 420mm work area system can be had for under £2.5k

Remember there no warranty or support with this... if you buy new you get some element of that.

In the end the Elu machine went for £2940, only £60 of what you guessed at. Far out of my reach.
So now i am looking for plans for a machine that i can build. If you look for CNC on ebay there are some small machines all build from Aluminium box section, but they are only good for a dremel or similar, and i would imagine get quite hot after a short time, the sort of machine i wanted to build would be one which uses a router to power it, as my dad already has an Elu router im halfway there. Any thoughts.

Matthew;)

Welcome to the forums Mat.

Many thanks Kip, this is the conclusion i am coming to. No matter how much money you throw at this sort of thing, unless you have say £20,000 just hanging around, burning a hole in your back pocket, an of the peg machine just would not make the grade. Where as you would have a greater sense of achievement if you created something, it worked, and you had overcome all the problems associated with building such a machine. That is what a hobby is all about.

First is to find someone with an extensive supply of steel and aluminium;)

Matthew

Quote:

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Originally Posted by matthewh101

First is to find someone with an extensive supply of steel and aluminium

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Ebay, Ebay, Ebay !

Matthew,

What is your expertise in design and build of such a complex beast? Not wishing to be negative but unless you are working to a known design some idea of what you want to build and how its going to go together needs to come before buying materials, or did I understand right that you were going to have a stab at copying an Elu? What makes you think that the Elu is the right design for what you have in mind?

Hello Irving2008 & All

The size of machine would be one that would take about the size of a kitchen carcass. I have one machine in mind, where the beam goes under the bed in a U shape, and the U shape can move backwards and forwards under the bed with ballscrews

I have no plans cast in stone as yet, but an Elu certainly ticks a lot of the boxes.

Matthew