Greetings to all in MYCNCUK!

[howser37]

Hi, i can chime in as an owner of a Heis High Z CNC. I purchased mine from ebay as nearly new second hand, i needed something with a relatively large bed, that had a half decent reputation as i know bugger all about electronics, that wouldnt need messing with to get it up and running. And lets be honest when you decide you want a CNC you want it now, so i was keen to get something and it came up.

I am relatively happy with the machine, it could have turned out a lot worse put it that way, I have had a few minor issues, one with the auto height puck which to be honest when you consider what they charge for it, is pretty poorly made. And also with the jack that the puck plugs into, again pretty shoddily put together once you open it all up and actually take a look.

I cut mainly HDPE and some wood so im not stressing the machine particularly hard, also bear in mind my model has the Hiwin 15 mm rails on the X axis which i imagine helps a lot, i once took the hiwin blocks off just to test the deflection of the round rail on its own and it was significant, especially as it is quite a long X axis on the S-1400, i assume this is why they added the hwin rails on this model as they just wouldnt get away with it on this model, so although it wouldnt be as bad on the S-720 it would still be an issue.

Two big reasons to look elsewhere on this machine for your circumstances in my opinion is speed and unprotected rails, if you are cutting wood the rails are right up there in the way and will be covered in dust all the time i would assume this cant be good for the rails or the beaarings, even with my dustfoot i am forever cleaning crap off the linear and round rails that gets shot out through the cut channels escaping the dustfoot, luckily as its mostly hdpe it probably does no harm, but if it was wood or copper swarf it would be a bigger problem .

Secondly speed, the S models are slow, for engraving which you mention this is a deal breaker as it really could be flying, and instead you will spend a long time staring into space wishing you had a faster machine, i cut HDPE and i could easily push the machine a lot harder and faster and probably improve surface finish, but i am maxed out. The T models are much faster but then much more expensive and a whole new cost v value issue is introduced.

Whether there is something better off the shelf for similar money i am not sure unless you build youir own, i am pretty sure my next machine i will either build myself or have someone build for me.

I am not putting the Heiz machine down as its been pretty good for me, but it has its limitations and weaknesses. Also i paid not much more for the S-1400 really than a brand new S-720 once the VAT is added, and the S1400 has nearly 4 x the cutting area.

[Nauris]

howser37, have you ever tried to use dust skirt in fight with wooden or other material dust?
It could manage to keep the small particles to be extracted out before they land on rails.
They also can be found transparent in DIY method.

[howser37]

Hi Nauris, In my case i made my dustfoot out of transparent acrylic top and transparent PVC/Vinyl skirt, i like to be able to see what is happening at the router bit.

The downside to the PVC Strip skirt is that it does not drop down into the channels that are being cut (whereas a brush skirt might) so it allows the chips to be fired down those channels like a bullet from a gun and escape the dust foot, they then bounce all over the place.

This is probably fairly exclusive to the material i cut which is 90% HDPE so the chips are big and slippery and bouncy so they can really fly off in all directions compared to wood chips.

The plus side of HDPE though is that i doubt it would do any dmage to rails and bearings etc as it is so soft and slick

I did order a piece of Brush Skirt from aliexpress but i found that the bristles where way too stiff for my liking.