CNC3018 - avoid?

[SoundsDigital]

I have the 1610 which is the smaller version. I use it for making circuit boards. Initially I had a lot of issues with it, the biggest problem turned out to be the spindle wasn't quite straight. After a third motor was fitted, it became a totally different machine. For circuit boards, a piece of MDF bolted to the spoilboard made a big difference. This could easily be resurfaced and being flat and cheap to replace I could use double sided tape to hold the job down rather than clamping the edges which always left a high spot in the centre.

I'm in the middle of extending the Y axis and turning the bed by 90 degrees and extending in order to increase the working area. I should be able to get an area of 180 x 350, so slightly bigger than the 3018, but rotated 90 degrees.

[deepcut66]

Just tested my A5 pins again and they are fine, i was just touching them before with croc clips but decided to use dpont male/female instead for a more secure connection and all good.

[MikeG]

I have the 1610 which is the smaller version. I use it for making circuit boards. Initially I had a lot of issues with it, the biggest problem turned out to be the spindle wasn't quite straight. After a third motor was fitted, it became a totally different machine. For circuit boards, a piece of MDF bolted to the spoilboard made a big difference. This could easily be resurfaced and being flat and cheap to replace I could use double sided tape to hold the job down rather than clamping the edges which always left a high spot in the centre.

I'm in the middle of extending the Y axis and turning the bed by 90 degrees and extending in order to increase the working area. I should be able to get an area of 180 x 350, so slightly bigger than the 3018, but rotated 90 degrees.

Did you get round to extending your cnc machine? I am also thinking of getting the cnc 3018 kit but the workarea is very small and would prefer to have at least 300 x 300 for x, y axis. Looking for any tips and ideas on how to modify it. From what I am led to believe, is since the x axis is already 300mm. Just need to replace the y axis aluminium profiles with slightly longer size and replace the y axis lead screw and steel rods. But I could be wrong??