Any experiences with CNC 6040 ROUTER?

[jaru-eri]

I see this router is sold on ebay for about 1300 usd. Is this a good deal for a router like this, and is the quality ok?

eBay - New & used electronics, cars, apparel, collectibles, sporting goods & more at low prices

[tumutbound]

I bought one of these about 3 weeks ago. Unused so far as I'm house sitting and have no where I can set it up. Once I get a place of my own and get it installed, I'll let you know how it goes.

Construction seems solid and it was well packed and arrived without damage. Not sure about the quality of the stepper drivers but I've got a Gecko G540 in case it's needed.
Needless to say there's no documentation to speak off

If you want any info that doesn'y involve me starting it, let me know.

[direwolf]

Anymore comments on these machines? Price looks ok.

[Alekoy]

I bought one, and it works!

after reading about other people with the 6040, and the 3040 (basically the same, but smaller),
the other users have had problems with the control-box, and the VFD's manual, so I decided to ask the seller if he would sell the machine without the control-box and VFD, And he did.

I ordered a Gecko G540 , and I already had a decent Danfoss VFD with a understandable manual.

The machine arrived in two boxes, one with the table, and one with the gantry, spindle, steppers and wires etc.

Now everything is working perfectly, and setup went smooth with very few issues.

There are however a few points that is bad with the machine:
no home/limit-switches
the table is not perfectly flat over the whole area
the cable-chain has not got space for all your cables and hoses (if you go for a water cooled spindle, like me)

[Foogl]

Alekoy, may I ask you, who was the seller you bought your machine from?
I asked several of them and none is willing to sell it without controller / spindle.

Thanks!

[aarggh]

Originally Posted by Foogl Alekoy, may I ask you, who was the seller you bought your machine from? I asked several of them and none is willing to sell it without controller / spindle. Thanks!

Do you already have a VFD/spindle? If not, I'd get it with them as it would only be an incremental cost when buying the machine, and while they aren't top of the line, they are cheap and work. These machines for the price are generally very good, and apart from the mandatory replacement of the controller with a G540, only need some minor tweaking and adjustments really. performance of the one I have is very nice. Funnily enough the alu table is better and more robust than the one on my larger Jinan JCut 6090. Go figure!

cheers,
Ian

[Foogl]

Thanks Ian. What I'm trying to do is to get 6040 with 1.5kW spindle and complete it with my G540. Unfortunately, sets on ebay has 0.8kW spindles + el cheapo controllers and so far there was nobody willing / able to deliver me different configuration. So again, can you tell me, who did you buy your machine from?

[aarggh]

I got mine from "lovehappyshopping", but these guys -

amonstar | eBay

- appear to be about the cheapest currently. Almost all of them also sell the 1.5kw spindle/vfd sets, so you could ask to upgrade the one on the machine, but it's quite possible that these generally are turnkey sales so I wouldn't be surprised if they wouldn't be able to. Failing that, you could buy a 1.5kw set, and just swap them over yourself, but having said that, the 0.8kw is a surprisingly capable and powerful spindle, and may well do you fine for most work. And given that the cost component of the 0.8kw spindle and vfd would be a very small part of the cost of the overall machine, I would think it handy to just have around for when you build 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc, machine! Shame the controller that comes supplied isn't of any use though!

One thing I forgot though, is one of the first things you'll need to make if you buy the 1.5kw set as well, is an 80mm spindle mount! That was actually what I did myself!

For the money, these are awesome machines, and seeing as you've already got a G540, you're home and hosed!

cheers,
Ian

[Alekoy]

The seller I bought from was Tool-zoom, I contacted them on ebay, but the buying itself was outside ebay, and the payment was done on paypal.

Arrived in Norway in less than a week, shipped by DHL.

Now that I have used the machine a little, I would say that the little 0,8kw spindle is sufficient, I've milled alu, MDF and 3mm sheet metal and the spindle has done its work without any hesitation. BUT if the 1,5kw spindle does not cost a whole lot extra, I probably would buy that (bigger is almost always better)

[aarggh]

I've got the 0.8kw, 1.5kw, and 2.2kw spindles, and as i'm very mindful of the cost of running these things for extended periods, I personally find the 1.5kw to be the sweet spot for power usage, grunt, and performance.

The 0.8kw is more than adequate for most use, and is especially suited for mundane and repetitive stuff that's fairly easily machined, while the 1.5kw is really great for plowing through lots of aluminium machining. The 2.2kw I haven't found really offers that much of a performance boost over the 1.5kw for my needs currently, so all general stuff is done with the 0.8kw, and heavy machining with the 1.5kw.

I am planning a cnc machine next year or so, specifically for machining aluminium with flood coolant, and I'm setting aside the 2.2kw for that purpose as it will be fairly hard work, but the grunt would just be wasted on lighter stuff IMHO. Here in OZ our utility bills are going through the roof, so running costs are more and more a real concern.

cheers,
Ian

[Foogl]

Originally Posted by aarggh For the money, these are awesome machines, and seeing as you've already got a G540, you're home and hosed!

Sooo, my two boxes with 6040 arrived. You hooked me up Ian!

Looks like no damage on the way. Packaging was absolutely fantastic, bubble wrap, PU foam, foil ... would take me a week to pack it like that.
Frame looks nice and sturdy (and heavy), spindle looks really good, movements all nice and smooth, servos are fine (270oz), VFD is acceptable. But man! Wires and controller are absolute crap (expected). No shielding, no grounding, nothing. I didn't even have balls to start that blue box up. I'm going to visit McMaster-Carr tomorrow (it is absolute joy to live 5 miles from this wonder-store) for new cables and I will hook it up with my new G540 right a way. Cannot wait.

Thanks for the good tip!

[aarggh]

Originally Posted by Foogl Wires and controller are absolute crap (expected). No shielding, no grounding, nothing. I didn't even have balls to start that blue box up. I'm going to visit McMaster-Carr tomorrow (it is absolute joy to live 5 miles from this wonder-store) for new cables and I will hook it up with my new G540 right a way. Cannot wait. Thanks for the good tip!

Great! They really are good value, you'll probably find the table will be very slightly out over some of it, but no big deal to shim or adjust that. I didn't find mine to out enough to worry me for what I was doing with it. Good idea to not touch the supplied controller, otherwise you might reasonably think it's worth "having a look at", after all, just how bad could it be? And before you know it, you've lost a week and it still doesn't work!

The g540's are a real treat, they have a rock solid reputation for a good reason, they really are that good!

I'd recommend checking over the cabling though, and make sure all the connectors are solid, and start mapping out the A-/A+ and B-/B+ from the controller (assuming it's wired right, if it's not, doesn't matter as you'll soon work it out) to make it easier for the G540 hookup.

cheers,
Ian