I've read other discussions here about one brand CNC router vs. another, but I would like to hear some opinions on the specific machines I'm looking at. If anyone has personal experience with the machines listed below I welcome your comments.
I have been in the machining industry for 20+yrs but only recently became familiar with CNC routers. I'm looking for a new or used router that can handle cutting 1/2" phenolic on a daily basis with summertime temps over 100 degrees. The only router I have programmed was a Komo Mach 1 with a 5x12 moving table. So far I have seen demos on:
Onsrud Panel Pro 145G18D
Multicam 7000 series
and I have an appointment to see a SCM Pratix N15
These are all moving gantry machines which I'm not familiar with. The Onsrud impressed me but is pricey. The Multicam is nice but I have an issue with no full controller at the machine. I have never even heard of SCM before so...
If SCM's CNCs are anything like their sliding-table table saws, planers, shapers, jointers, their minimax line, or the morbidellli CNC machines, you could drop an Abrams Main Battle Tank on these machines and the tank would break.
I have a cabinetmaker friend who has two sliding-table table saws, one with electronics/stepper motor control of the adjustments and one manual, a shaper, planer and jointer, and his idiot shop crew have not yet managed to damage them, though they break other tools with horrifying regularity. These tools do not, in my opinion, get the care they need either.
I contract with a shop that has a Morbidelli 5-axis machine, 5-feet by 12-feet, and it is a brute. It has a 27-horsepower spindle and I have never seen anything that cuts so fast or so precise. Word of warning, you better count on putting in serious dust collection, about twice as much as you think you need; this machine is LOUD when it is working too ..real loud.. but I think that is because it races though through the material it is cutting.
I had an older [1998 or 1999 model] small MiniMax sliding-table table saw that was an astonishing piece of equipment; very precise and dependable.
The base, without the fence and rails, or the sliding table, or the arm that has the blade shroud/dust collector on it, weighed 675-pounds. With everything else on it is weighed about 1,200-pounds. It makes the new Delta Unisaw look like a cheap toy.
I bought the saw used for $1300, used it for three-years, only replace the bearings in the sliding table [did that when I bought it..and they were an off-the-shelf item at a machine tool supplier, I recall they were about $50, took me about 4-hours to replace the bearings and realign the sliding table working by myself ..which I would never do again!!], and sold the saw in 2008 for $1,900 to another cabinet maker.
+1 on the SCM, they make alot of good woodworking equipment. I have been programming and running a Fulltech imported through Multiax for 5 years now, and for the money? It'd be a tough sell to step up to something like a morbi. We have 5 axes, one being an indexing axes and one for the aggregate head, full OSAI controller, and I think it was all up for about 150 installed?
You can have the manufacturer come and service and install the machine, and provide training, and still save tons of money buying a used machine, with just as much functionality.
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Shopping for a CNC router
