Hi Rebekah,

welcome to the forum. You are on a good start with what you are doing so it may or may not be the next step for you to get your own CNC machine. I have seen your trucks and must say they are very cute. The detail is amazing! Where do you get the blueprints from if I may ask?

Anyway your questions are not uncommon and we do get a number of the same type of post: "what machine for total newbie looking to expand business" The answer is pretty much always the same.

I am sure you have done a ebay search for cnc and it came up with all the chinese 3020, 3040 and 6040 machines. They are good for learning and engraving and if you have time and inclination and more money you will probably be able to make the 6040 a good machine. The smaller ones are too cheap to do anything with. Before you can even use the 6040 professionally you will need to learn the ins and outs of building a CNC in order to understand what needs to be added to the machine to make it profitable. I estimate you will have to fork out around £300-500 to get it running by adding Mach3 and a motion controller and then potentially new cables throughout, limit switches and decent drivers for the motor. See where I am going? Steep learning curve big time. You really need to want to have a CNC machine to make it worthwhile. See youtube vids...

Unfortunately CNC machines are not, to borrow a phrase "SantaClaus Machines", you will need to know how to CAD and then how to convert the 3D models to gcode using CAM. Now Unlike 3D printers, you are dealing with potentially lethal machines so you really need to know what the gcode does, how to select the right endmill, what speed will not make the 1mm bit go ping and fly across the floor and then there is the swarf...ah the swarf...it gets everywhere.

Having 2 printers myself I can tell you that they are nothing as involved as running a mill or a lathe...childsplay in comparison...some 3D printers do not even have an E-Stop circuit.

So where would you start with cnc? Dont spend a pound just yet. Start learning to use the CAD packages like Fusion360 that have a CAM function built in. Fusion 360 is based on Inventor Fusion and very capable. It is free for hobby use and Startups earning less than $100K iirc for a year. There are plenty of tutorial on how to use it on youtube. Check out the NYCCNC channel, going back from his early attempts so you can get a feel for why it took him +5 years to get as good as he is now.

Depending on where you are based, you may be able to visit one of the forum members to get some hands on experience with CNC. Failing that see if your town/city has a Hackspace or makerspace. They usually have a mill etc you can have a go with under supervision.

Would I recommend you learn to CNC? Not if you want to make a living off designing and selling models unless you have the luxury of space and time. You need to want to learn CNC. As I said, see if you can hook up with a member local to you to see what is involved then if you get bitten by the CNC bug like all of us here, we can point you in the right direction.

Regards

George