Hobby Machine Recommendations £1000-£1500

Hello all, hope everyone is well.

I'm looking to upgrade from my 3018 and I'm looking for some recommendations on machines, there are alot of options out there and not sure which direction to go.

This will be a hobby machine for various personal projects.

Requirements

• Price: £1000-£1500
• Work Area: 400*400mm - Ideally extendable in the future when I get more room
• Router Support - not a deal breaker
• Cutting/Engraving Materials: MDF, Plywood, Hardwoods, Acrylic, Aluminium

Some of the options I've looked at are:

Ooznest - I like the fact they are UK based both from a supporting UK companies and also from a support point of view. I'm still pretty new to cnc so having that UK support will no doubt be useful. The size can be extended and it does support router mounts. Price is on the upper end. Most reviews seem positive, some people suggest you can get more for your money elsewhere.

Fox Alien - Vasto - Looks pretty decent, hardware looks good, has ball screws (I hear these are better), doesn't look like it's extendable and delivery is likely to push the price a bit too high.

Fox Alien - 4040-XE - This one seems a middle ground between the Vasto and Maustro Pro, belt driven, 400*400 not extendable

Fox Alien - Masuter Pro - This is the cheapest of the machines, extendable to 400*800, belt driven, wonder if the lighter construction may cause issues down the line.

Sainsmart - Genmitsu PROVerXL 4030 - This has the smallest working area for 400*300 but is extendable, has router support and scew driven. Seems decent, heard mixed reviews.

Sainsmart -PROVerXL 6050 Plus - Bigger newer machine, doesn't look extendable at least not yet, but it has a larger starting size than the others of 600*500. Upper end of the budget and may not be in stock in the UK.

Bulkman/yuyongindustry - Loads of options, cheap prices, being new to all this, not sure if this is a good option due to the lack of support and full diy kit style.

PirntNC - Similar to above, full diy kit not really what I'm looking for at this moment.

Any advice is greately appreciated, thanks.

I know very little about routers but just from reading around.... :
If it hasn't got 1610 ballscrews and HGR20 rails and cars.
I wouldn't want to know.

Save up a little bit more.

Take a look at Dean's company:
https://www.jazzcnc.co.uk/

This will give you a good idea of what is required to get a good router for your materials at the top end of hobby machines - I believe they're mostly used for small production environments.

Now your size requirements are lower, but size has a smaller impact on price in this range than you'd imagine (the electronics and spindle and carriages and ballnuts are all the same, but the bits of metal they ride on are just longer, and they're relatively cheap).

What I'm suggesting is look at the bulkyness and the geometry of the designs against the Jazz routers; the closer they are the better, but I suspect you'll quickly see why the prices are different, and the Jazz machines are very good value. Cost me about the same to build mine myself, and you're getting a lot of experience bundled.

For a 400x400 machine, 1605 screws would be good enough.
They do limit top speed compared with 10mm pitch screws, but at 400mm max travel distance, that's not really a major issue.

As for rail size, 20 size is actually overkill for most machines, but the larger mounting screws let you get away with simply bolting them down, and the higher height often helps with component positioning.
In terms of actual forces the rails need to handle, you could probably drop to 10mm rails and still have a perfectly good machine, but they'd need to be mounted as per the official recommendations, with the rails clamped into position against a reference edge, and not simply bolted down.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by m_c

For a 400x400 machine, 1605 screws would be good enough.
They do limit top speed compared with 10mm pitch screws, but at 400mm max travel distance, that's not really a major issue.

As for rail size, 20 size is actually how to get rid of gyno overkill for most machines, but the larger mounting screws let you get away with simply bolting them down, and the higher height often helps with component positioning.
In terms of actual forces the rails need to handle, you could probably drop to 10mm rails and still have a perfectly good machine, but they'd need to be mounted as per the official recommendations, with the rails clamped into position against a reference edge, and not simply bolted down.

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Is it necessary to get official recommendation first?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CodyPilla

Is it necessary to get official recommendation first?

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I believe that you need to fill in the forms in triplicate and make formal application to Hiwin before fitting any of their profile rails...

More seriously, I can remember finding a copy of the Hiwin manual giving their recommendations for fitting and setting up their profile rails when I built my router. As M_c says, 20mm rails are intrinsically stiffer so easier to mount, and particularly for the Z axis the increased height over smaller rails makes it easier to fit in the ballnut, etc, between the Z fixed and moving plates.

I’ve had the 60w 20x28 Monport for a bit over 2 weeks. Coming from a diode laser, it’s night and day. https://monportlaser.com/