Quote Originally Posted by WoodKnot View Post
Thanks A Camera -

Ok, they are not a top brand and of course, for the price, it does make you question it. Like most stuff these days, it comes out of the same factories but with a different brand name. I am going start buying bits and pieces over the next few weeks to at least get he base machine built - still struggling on how the hell i am going to get my plates made with no cad ability??
True that (normally) you get what you pay for, but in this case, I think that if I'd spent 5-10 times more, I'd NOT get 5-10 times better stuff. I bought similar stuff before and this last buy is definitely miles ahead in quality. Last time (before this one) I had to open every bearing and clean each ball and everything because there was so much grit in them that they were grinding the rails and the balls. It was no fun with all those tiny balls in 16 bearings... but I managed without losing a single one. So the way I see it, that's the worst that can happen. Of course, a bent screw or rail is even worse, but I thing that's rare. Also, even if you had bad luck and received a bent screw, it is so cheap that you can buy a new one. In fact, you can buy several before you are up in the same price as the real high quality ones.

So far I bought in total 8 ball screws (1204 and 1605) but never had any issues. But, as I said, all mine are shorter, the longest 1605 I bought is 650mm, so not very far from your 1000mm, but still shorter. One thing you should carefully consider is the travel distance and speed. With 1605 you need many turns from one end to the other, so you will need a lot of time, or very fast and powerful servo or stepper motors.

Regarding no CAD-ability... I designed and built my CNC without CAD, just paper, pen and calculator. I never had the patience to spend a lot of time on fancy 3D CAD models. I understand when people work with that professionally and selling the machines or models, but for a one single machine, what's the point...? In fact, many things I made are made with manual G-code programming without any CAD. Some times I use simple 2D CAD and convert the DXF file to G-code, edit and correct or change manually the things needed to be changed. Among the tools I am using there is an old CAD software I bought about 20 years ago for about 20USD. That is my favourite for many jobs. After that comes FreeCAD, which is a free (donateware) but extremely professional and advanced CAD software. I use that mostly for 3D printed objects. That software I am so happy with, that every time there is an update I pay a sum (I think 20USD) because I consider those guys worth the money. But I never done any machine modelling. I just build them...