Quote Originally Posted by HankMcSpank View Post
I see a lot of "just build it yourself" type posts, but the majority of these posts overlook the serious amount of time involved wrt buildinh yer own .... it's simply a lot cheaper to have someone partial to a bowl of rice use their time building frame vs. someone who has a hulking UK mortgage to feed!

Perhaps if it's a rite of passage, or a hobby/interest (or if what you seek doesn't exist) then building your own begins to make a bit more sense, but for the majority who just want to get up & running with a modest machine ...then buying one off the shelf with the known limitations they bring (awful electronics etc) can be quite compelling.


I imported a small machine from Taiwan (just the frame) .... for the money I think it's great ...will it cut ali? Nope (but I didn't require it to)...it was ordered on a Monday & I was up & running cutting stuff 10 days later ....whereas 10 days when you're spec'ing your own machine is about the time it takes just to obsess over the motor mounts!
Maybe that's another option to look at then, I didn't realise you could buy just the frame on it's own. I would agree with what you are saying about the time involved & yes if you are looking to get started quickly then building isn't really a good option. If you run a business & need a machine for that then buying could have you in production very quickly compared with a self build so from a financial point of view the extra cost could easily be justified by the money you would make almost straight away as opposed to some time in the distant future lol
I take it the frames on these machines aren't to bad then, it's things like the electronics that let them down the most.