Newbie- Can a CNC router help me expand?

[jjtheone]

Helllo all,


I have a sucessful furniture restoration business and have been in business for 12 years. I do some design work but mostly work in the world of restoration, repairs, and some refinishing. I have a 2500 square foot shop and currently do all work with standard shop hand and power tools.
I want to begin to diversify my business line (getting tired of repairs) and start to grow into other areas such as parts prototyping, high-end sign carving, etc and I want to invest in a CNC router to multiply my efforts. I detest employees (l hate babysitting) and would like to continue to keep them to a minimum. I have been amazed at the vast number of CNC mfg's and resellers out there and that you cannot even really tell who really makes what machines in many cases since some sell through different resellers under different machine names.
I have been looking at Techno, CNT Motion, Warthog, and Shopbot among others. I know I want servo's and I would like true 3D capability. Can anyone offer any suggestions on brands to consider and brands to possibly avoid? I know one often gets what one pays for and I like to invest in the best equipment value I can afford (i.e. works well, easy to use, not too many aggravating quirks that bug you on a daily basis, etc.). As a small shop who has never used CNC before, I would like to start smaller and upgrade as needed as I grow and figure out specifically what markets I will be most successful in. I would like to know from those that know by experience what the mininum configuration, best practical configuration, and dream configuration might be for my situation. I know at some point I want a laser scanner but do I really need a tool changer? I would think I would but I am amazed at the cost. And of course the CAD/CAM software is another story. Rhino? Enroute Pro? so many choices...

Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Jeff

[cabnet636]

heres some photos of machines bill has built,

george look at the touch screen at bottom of page on pro series josh and joey are working on this for us.

joey sign files ran great, thanks to all of you will come to GA hopefully later this week jim

http://camaster.com/cs/photos/default.aspx

jj to answer your question bill glenn builds his own and sells aftermarket machines, shopbot builds thiers i have been to thier shop

techno, cnt, flexicam, shopsabre build thier own, all of us here have our own paths we took to buy our machines and have chosen for various reasons there are others also here who are looking to purchase, i absolutly wanted well known non propietary parts and with camaster i have that, the support has been phenomenal, this is paramount in this support can also be found within the software forums and other owners of machines i for one have learned more by trying to help, it seems that when my answers are just dumb enough the experienced guys will chime in and give us the correct answer

good luck i waited ten years longer to go cnc than i should have jim


i just realized i was not on camaster thread

[KeithG]

Welcome!! Go for it! Yes a cnc can expand your business. The better deal you get on the machine balanced with good support can make things happen. I sure do wish I had known about the forums when I first started. My Camaster is GREAT! It's dependable day to day. Most of the time if there's a problem it's something stupid I did. What did Forest Gump say, "Stupid is as stupid does." Just quoting one of the great philosophers of my time !

ALL CAMASTER USERS .... Why can't we set a time on Friday at IWF this year and all meet at the Camaster booth??!! I sure would like to meet some other people that use our machine. What do you think? Maybe we could get the Cabinet Pro crew and the Cabinet Parts Pro crew and some V-carve people??? How about some of these blokes from Australia? It is an international show. Cokes and hot dogs? That's the xtra large cabinet maker part of me talking! I can see it now, CAMFEST 2008, McGrew could make the sign !!!!

[cabnet636]

let us know how your search is going and what you are finding about cnc and purchasing jim