Hi all

[victorismyhero]

yeah I have been looking around and can see that "thought highly of" is not amongst the comments...so where to go from here?? self build?? not impossible it has to be said, I'm a (reasonably) competent mechanic, a skilled electronics engineer, a (sort of) competent but bad tempered programmer (I can do it but hate it) and a skilled wood worker. SO....i am tempted to try a self build AND solve the "room" problem by building the machine over the 4 fooot square cast iron table of my saw bench such that it shares the same space. (if the rails were flush with the saw table , with the gantry racked back and fully raised it wouldnt interfere with cross cutting OR ripping. and the inevitable loss of having the facility to cross cut an 8 x 4 sheet would be compensated by using the cnc to do this) Hmmmm....possible ??? comments welcome (well helpful ones anyhow )

[JAZZCNC]

Ok well first apppologise's if my comment didn't come across has helpful thou i think in time you'll see it very much was. .

Regards self build then first let me say these days you don't need to be electronics Engineer or Programmer of any kind to build perfectly good CNC machine. Patience and moderate mechanical/electrical skills are all thats needed. Good design and planning help greatly has well.

Your plan to use the table saw could work fine with abit of thought and planning i'm sure.
The only thing other than making the mechanics fit are the fact you'll need some form of sacrificial bed that will need to be surfaced parallel and this could become tiresome removing and refitting then resurfacing every time you want to use it has pannel saw.? Unless of course you do it insuch away that saw can use same bed.!!

In all honesty having a cast iron panel saw my self then I think you'll find starting from scratch much easier and probably quicker.
If your space challenged then look to building a vertical machine, my machine is now mounted vertical and the space saving was massive.
Absolutly no harder to build or works any differant to conventional machine but with several key benifits, space saving being a big one. Look around the forum and you'll see I mention them in various places.

Anyway if decide to go self build route (Which I very much advise you do if you want a good machine.!!) then good luck and just ask lots of questions before buying and doing any thing. Don't hesitate to contact me directly if you want to know about going vertical or anything else.!