Was about to get a toy- then I did some research...

[JAZZCNC]

Hi,

Just to hopefully clear the air and clear any misunderstandings.

Jazz is 100% right that a good design with a heavier gauge setup is great and all but getting one is going to cost a lot more money. But calling the smaller machines shite and then praising the tiny eBay machines is bonkers.

The point of being £350 is better than £1500 for learning on. Great to test the waters and then pass on when ready for a better, bigger machine.

If you can afford it, get a heavier gauge gantry with linear bearings and digital drives like Jazz says. Then a water cooled spindle is a no brainier. But that means a more expensive control setup. It means purchasing Mach 3 or 4. More money. Paying to have custom plates made. Yup, more money. It can get expensive fast.

It doesn't need to get expensive, doesn't need Mach3 either plenty of free controllers, Linux CNC, for instance, is as good if not better and free.
Yes for someone who's disabled I understand it's more difficult but it's still do-able.
The profile is more than good enough for a great machine, it's what you hang off it that matters. This is where the Workbee etc fails badly. Linear rails and ballscrews are not that expensive from China, neither are the electronics when you shop around. It's just about doable with £1500 easier with £2k, I've helped several people who have limited means or ability's for whatever reasons build great machines under £2k.

What many here missed was that your original post said you want your machine to work with wood. Someone disparaged a belt driven design and Jazz actually shot them down saying don’t knock it until you try it and then yesterday he said my machine is crap because it’s driven by elastic bands lol.

That reference was to the size of the belt not the fact it's belt-driven. Not all belts are suitable.!

Every design has pros and cons. I would love a good quality built machine but you have to be precise in building it or it ends up outputting inaccurate parts. The stiffer the build, the more accurate it will be... but the more dense it is, the heavier it is and you get sagging. Not a lot but engineers fret about parts of a millimetre.

So that’s where the aluminum extrusion system came in. Lighter beams, using a router instead of a dedicated spindle, lighter general stepper motors, grbl instead of mach3... yet still the machine can cut wood projects fine. I’ve been cutting 18mm thick plywood quite nicely on my “shite” machine.

This my point, it doesn't need to be massively built to cut good parts that are accurate. It just needs to be built with better design and components that don't limit or cripple performance. Just because something cuts a material doesn't mean it's good at it. A properly built machine will cut it faster and more accurately with a better finish quality and that doesn't need to cost the earth to do that.

Just remember when your getting advice from the supplier or manufacturer you are often getting a biased opinion which is nearly always given with there own interests or protection in mind.!

Again my comments were not an attack on you personally and if you took them that way then I'm very sorry, it wasn't my intent.

Dean.