I found the CNC to be a bit like the Mariana Trench and as many here will attest it's a hobby first and if your lucky to make money all the better .
Hi everyone,
I've got some projects that I would like to turn into a hobby business. I think an entry level desktop CNC machine might be the way to go. I'd like to dabble in the hobby to see if a CNC fits my needs and if the business is viable.
I would be cutting 2 dimensional patterns into 20mm thick hardwood.
I thought picking up a second hand machine might be the way to go because it would give me some cost savings and would reduce my losses by allowing me to resell my machine for a similar price if it didn't work out.
Any recommendations on what types of machines I should be looking at picking up second hand? Is there a good classified section for Aussie CNCs anywhere? I'm in the Melbourne area.
Thanks!
Rahn
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I found the CNC to be a bit like the Mariana Trench and as many here will attest it's a hobby first and if your lucky to make money all the better .
May help if we knew the size of machine your looking for and required speed and quality of the cut.
A very cheap machine is likely to be not very rigid hence the cutting speed will need to be low to get a reasonable cut quality.
Stronger stiffer machine go faster and cut better.
The cheap Chinese frames are about the minimum in my mind, just forget about cheap Chinese eBay electronics.
That's the way i started and used it to cut ally components for a bigger stronger machine. Cutting hardwood, like Jarrah, is probably more difficult than ally.
Mike
The pieces will be about the size of your hand. So the machine doesn't have to be huge.
At this price range is it better to buy a smaller machine so that it's more rigid?
How set and forget are CNC machines? If I have a bigger cutting bed can I put multiple pieces in to cut and let it do it's thing while I go do something else?
It is an interesting thing the size ,I thought my 2 x 1 meter was big enough then I have to cut a full sheet to fit it in .
Yes the table size just never seems to be big enough. One would think 3600 mm long on my cutter/plotter would suffice. But then you get jobs that require 5000 plus.
But to upsize my table would mean a bigger shed..... doh!!
Just some random canvas guy
2D into 20mm hardwood, hand size objects, you're not going to need a huge machine of infinite stiffness. As has been mentioned, stock should probably play a part in your decision. Within reason, of course: if you're getting 2400 x 1200 sheets the cost of the machine to save you a couple of cuts per sheet of stock might get a bit silly.
You can do something else whilst the machine is going but you need to hang around in case something goes wrong so you can kill the job before the machine wrecks the stock, itself or the area in which it's running.
Where should I go to look for second hand CNC machines in Australia?
The only place I can think of that lists second hand CNC routers is Machines4u. They are likley to be bigger industrial size systems though.
Hi,Rahn,
My suggestion is buy one new cnc router.Because Secnond hand cnc router need you to cost more for repair or replace the old/broken parts.
For the size,length 2m ,width is 1m or bigger?
Any help,please feel free to contact me at jenny@toyeacnc.com ,toyeacnc@hotmail.com .
I also have a 600x400 machine, a 6040 which has worked well for the last 5 years or so. Not heavy usage though. Standard controller is/was crap and was replaced early on with a Gecko G540.
I also have an X-Carve which was fun to build and works well but I'm not sure I'd plan a business around it.
I found several reasonable priced, second hand CNC routers on Machines4u. It would depend where about you are to whether getting one of these is practical.
Hi....what's your budget?
Ian.
A friend has pointed me in the way of some Maker Spaces so I'm going to check that out as a way to get a feel for CNC machines first.