Production grade CNC router Vs Homebuilt CNC router advice

[Ger21]

A table or panel saw is going to be a lot faster than a small, inexpensive CNC. At least for cutting lots and lots of rectangular panels.

[SweetAs]

Cheers for the replies. Its very much appreciated!!

Jazzcnc - Could you enlighten me on the design flaws of those machines please? In terms of the build I'm not too concerned if we are being honest. I am a Surveyor by trade and build tools / renovate cars in my spare time so I have a good eye for detail. I also understand what I'm getting in terms of trade off for saving money on the machine but thanks for the advice. I will spend the next few days reading up on info and build logs to get an idea of what I am trying to achieve.

Greeny - Cheers for that. It was a LONG day in the workshop yesterday so Im putting it down to the tiredness of not picking up on that. Good eyes lol. Thank you very much for the link, that was just what I needed.

Gerry - Point taken. You are right and in all fairness I would complete the rectangular / square shapes on the saws as it is so quick and easy.

[Boyan Silyavski]

The Stoney CNC Axiom looks right priced for what it is. Obviously an industrial sized half sheet / 4x4ft or 1250x1250/ CNC will be differently priced.

Money wise 3000 will be price of the components for a 60x90cm machine. Not bigger for that money. My signature first build could be done for that money. Industrial grade machine with servos and so will be ~8000 in parts. And that if you are clever and dont make mistakes. But the result will be a superb machine in its class.

The time spend though will be much more than you could imagine.

In your scenario, i would buy one ready, or even better somebody from forum make one for you. One reason being - unfortunately no good plans on internet. My first build is open sourced so drawings a free in the Open source section. I am seriously contemplating starting to sell plans for my big machine. In fact i sold to some people redesigning it for their specific purpose. In reality the plan i could give for free, the support is what it costs.

[Neale]

Just as another data point, a friend of mine who runs a one-man signmaking business recently bought one of these, although his had a T-slot rather than vacuum bed. He found Acctek pretty good to work with; he agreed a spec for the machine via Skype, and he received exactly what he had specified. Cast iron and steel frame, ballscrews, profile rails, water-cooled 2.2KW spindle, USB interface to Mach3. It's Chinese: there are more than a few rough edges, and it needed a little bit of work to get it set up and running (things like a limit switch trigger had come loose and needed readjustment). He used a UK-based shipping agent to handle collection and delivery, and the whole thing cost around £3K. Would have been less but the Brexit vote happened during negotiations and the pound slumped. However, from his point of view, it saved a lot of time in building his own, and to be honest did not cost that much more than buying decent components would have cost. It's not the greatest machine on the planet but it's installed, working, and easily earning its keep. It mainly does text engraving on signs, and is also used for cutting hinge and lock recesses, joints for noticeboard cabinets, things like that.

[JAZZCNC]

Jazzcnc - Could you enlighten me on the design flaws of those machines please?

The design flaws are with the Linked machine you showed. Single rail on gantry, Weakly supported gantry, too tall and narrow Z axis, Lack of support on bed frame. These are the main ones which are not little issues and define the machines abilty's.

The other's I won't get into too deep because as caused me troubles in the past but what I will say to you and others "Boyan" need to Look beyond the gloss and the covers then you'll see design issues that shouldn't be there in machine costing this much money.!! . . . . To highlight my point those with experience look at this pic and tell me whats less than ideal.?


On the panel cutting front then it wouldn't be big deal to design Z axis in such way that Saw could be fixed along side spindle so have the best of both worlds.!! .. . . . . . It's all possible with bit of thought and common sense.

[Washout]

Oooh a where's Wally competition?

I think Wally may have run off with the rest of the Z axis plate for the motor mount and the other set of bearing blocks that should be on it...

[JAZZCNC]

Oooh a where's Wally competition?

I think Wally may have run off with the rest of the Z axis plate for the motor mount and the other set of bearing blocks that should be on it...

That's one but there's another thing missing.?

[njhussey]

OOoooooo is that the ballscrew connected to a lovejoy coupler (and therefore directly to a stepper) with no AC bearings I see before me??!!

[JAZZCNC]

OOoooooo is that the ballscrew connected to a lovejoy coupler (and therefore directly to a stepper) with no AC bearings I see before me??!!

We have Winner.. (shared with Washout)
There actually is Fixed bearing at other end but still it's not good design and shouldn't be like that on machine costing that much money. These machines use smoke and mirrors and people need to start looking deeper to see the real truth.!