Hi I'm new to this forum and I'm interested in purchasing a CNC Router. Most of my work will be cutting wood up to 3/4" thick as well as the routering and 3D design work. This machine comes with a 3.25 Porter Cable router, Option to upgrade to Servo drives and some decent software to boot. Just wondered if anyone out there has purchased one of these or knows of someone who has. Your opinions would be helpfull.

www.practicalcnc.com


Thanx Brian

Do a "practicalCNC" search using the search engine on this website.

You'll be surprised at the amount of information that is available.

I just went up to Michigan to look at, and purchase, a 4x8 table. Before I went I looked around on this forum and most of the problems with their equipment that I found were in some way or another related to the older "v" groove guide rails. I took the advice of many in these forums and spent a little more money to get a better machine regardless of brand. I upgraded the Practical table with the new guide rail system, more bracing and bigger servos instead of steppers (just shy of 10K total for the 4x8). I got it home and spent about 4 -5 hours assembling it. Took my time and did it about as well as it could be done. They have a decent assembly DVD they send you home with but it does leave out some things. Overall it got the job done. The couple of small questions that came up where answered quickly for me. Once it was going I had one problem that quickly made 2 or three. The encoder for the Z axis was messed up somewhere along the line, slammed ( and I mean slammed!) the router mount into the table at full speed. Bent a couple of parts. Got on the phone and spoke to Josh. I know very little about these tables but have a pretty good mechanical knowledge in general. He led me through diagnosis which took about 5 minutes and sent out replacement parts (encoder, acme rod and mounting plate) the next day. Got them a couple of days later, spent about 10 minutes putting it all together again and have been cutting ever since. I am very impressed with it thus far and love the Igus track it comes with, I am not one for messy wires all over the place. Makes about as perfect a circle as you could ask for, no ridges at the meeting point. Cuts better squares than I can on my table saw. I use it for cutting hard and soft plastics 1/4-3/8 thick and have zero vibration in the table. While I do not have enough experience yet to evaluate the software (WinCNC and BobCad) they seem to get the job done and I will report back in a couple of months when I have learned a bit more. I would definitely recommend spending a little more $ on your machine, the difference between their old style and new style machines is tremendous! My history with them is about 3 weeks but it seems like they are expanding the size and knowledge of their team slowly but surely. I am very happy with my purchase.