EZCNC vs ShopBot

[MacMan]

Hi All,

I'm a newbie to CNC with a background with computers and some experience with 3d software (Strata) and general basic woodworking. Looking at a 4x8 machine to start up a custom fab shop for outsourcing to signmakers, set designers, artists, etc. Want to work in wood, foam and metal. I would also like to be able to mount a plasma head and have USB control. Budget under 20K for everything.

I just attended the IWF in Atlanta and was jazzed by how much an industrial show can get your creative juices going. I saw the EZCNC booth, missed the ShopBot booth, but saw plenty of others. EZCNC seems to have a better machine, albeit with fewer options. But they deliver a fully plug-n-play system, no assembly or special wiring. And the owner, John, seems friendly and helpful, even saying I could call on weekends to his cell.

I've have found many tables out there, but prefer either the ShopBot or EZCNC. ShopBot has a huge user community, which is a plus, and they offer a few more options, like the Digitizing Probe and Rotary Indexing head. On the minus, I called this morning, got an answering machine, and no one has called me back yet.

As a mostly Mac guy, I find most of the software offered with these systems to be downright ugly. Poor user interface and non-intuitive controls. Considering Apple's dominance in the general art and design fields, it's disappointing no one has made a Mac compatible system.

ArtCAM looks good, but it's $7500 and I found OneCNC tonight, but it was too late to call and get a price. At a minimum, I need to be able to import my Strata files at a decent resolution. (DXF, OBJ, or VRML)

Any constructive input would be appreciated. BTW, this is not a hobby, I need to make a decent living at it.

Thanx

[puzzleman20]

I bought a seven year old Shopbot that was not running and in poor repair this past winter. I got a used circuit board directly from Shopbot and brought it back to life. I have found the Shopbot easy to work on; replacement parts are everywhere, and they have an excellent user's forum. They also include a good starter software package with their machines. If you add Vetric's V-Carve you will be able to do the work you describe in your post. I believe V-Carve is under $500.00.
Just my two cents.

[Jason Marsha]

The vectric website is www.vectric.com. Fantastic software for a very good price.

Jason

[daisydog]

You might want to take a look at Shop Sabre. They are built with all high quality parts (tdk rails slides and ball screws) and all the Shop Sabre users that I talked to were happy with the product. The owner and designer is very helpful and supplies all needed support, although the support is sometimes slow it is always thorough. Give them a look a shop sabre.com.
Good Luck,

[MacMan]

Thanks for the input. I downloaded VCarve and it's fairly straightforward and well written, if a bit limited. I'm a little puzzed that no one seems to have heard of EZCNC http://www.ezcnc.com/. I saw these guys at the IWF in Atlanta just a couple of weeks ago and their machine looked to be well built, anyone have an opinion on them out there?

Also is Constant Velocity a 'must have' feature? I've found a lot of positive feedback from ShopBot owners, but I don't want to end up doing a lot of sanding to get surfaces acceptably smooth.

[Torchhead]

A lot of it depends on the quality of artwork you send to the machine (g-code). If the CAM software outputs nice smooth arcs (G02 & G03) then CV is not as important. OTOH if your g-code does arc segments or line segments the CV is absolutely essential to get a smooth cut.

You will find the ShopBot community to be mostly comprised of Sign Shop owners that are so happy that they can cut stuff in hours that used to take days that they sometimes don't mind the sanding. Also most Signage for bigger signs is not viewed at less than 2 ft and slight cutter marks disappear at distance.

From a CNC machinist perspective the SB and other machines in that class are crude but you don't need to pay for accuracy you don't need.

I do know there there is after-market controllers for the Shop Bots that use the Gecko/MACH3 approach with microstepping drives (much smoother) and the CV features of MACH. If the factory units worked up to the same level then there would be no market for the solution.

You can't miss the taste of Filet Migon if all you have ever had is Spam!

I think you will see VCarve continue to grow and add features and be close to what ArtCAM does. For the price I think it is the best deal going for sign shops and decorative wood routing.

There are 3D art files at www.vectorart.com and a free converter to be able to use them with VCarve.

Keep digging and when you write that big check know that you won't end up with buyers remorse.