Production grade CNC router Vs Homebuilt CNC router advice

[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.