Excitech Cnc Router Purchase

[rocket67]

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[bclark6716]

I have the sh-cnc 6090 (600mm x 900mm). For the size and price, you can not beat it.

The only problem I have had was to replace x and y ball screws. The factory forgot to put grease fittings in the ball nuts. Needless to say after a few hours of operation, the ball bearings wore out. There was absolutely no problems with getting replacements. So, when your machine arrives, check the ball nuts for fittings and give it an extra shot of grease to be safe.

Overall I am very satisfied with the machine.

Brian

[ger21]

I'd get the ATC, if you still can. It's an automatic tool changer. There is no learning curve, it's automatic. Seriously, a simple setting in your CAM program is usually all that's required, and tool changes will be done automatically with no intervention required. Even if you write g-code by hand, tool changes are extremely simple.

If you make parts that require more than one tool, it will pay for itself very quickly.

[cabnet636]

i also am on the verge of a purchase and have narrowed it down to
one of five, i can really appreciate the amount of study involved and
how many varibles there are before a purchase. i do hope you will post your experience here for us. i have looked at shop bot and visited their factory,
had extensive conversations with dyna cnc, ezcnc.com,shop sabre and
techno. i have seen all thier dvds, looked at thier equipment they are all good machines and all within the same price range.

i have a fairly large custom cabinet shop and now see that i should have done this (purchase cnc) a long time ago. at present we are working out lease
arrangements as the tax man cometh!

whats really funny is i bought a carvewright and learned cnc in about 30 minutes after 20 years of fear over what cnc could do for me

cabnet
www.mcgrewwoodwork.com

[ger21]

Our first machine was almost $150K, and we spent about a year looking at different machines and doing research. I also spent that year trying different software packages, and learning how the software process worked before we got the machine. That allowed us to get up and running almost immediately.

[ger21]

Gerry, stone the flamin crows mate! If we had to pay $150K to buy our first machine we would not stand a snowball`s chance in hell of getting one. You must have done your homework very well. Was this your first experience with cnc?

Yes, and we also bought a $100K saw and $15K in software at the same time.

I see that you joined the cnczone back in March of 2003. At that time was it possible to buy a software package along the lines of V Carve Pro for a realistic price? We were quoted $6000 to buy Enroute software (and i am sure that it is fantastic software ), but at around $500 for V Carve pro i cannot see the logic of paying for the more expensive software.

Vectric's software was the first of it's kind as far as I know. There were $500 packages that did V-carving only, but not that did everything V-carve does.

Software is very dependent on what kind of work you're doing. It's hard to go wrong with V-Carve pro, and it's very easy to use. But if you don't need the V-carving, you can probably do all you need with a $100 CAD program and something like SheetCAM.

We use specialized cabinet software which automatically generates all the code for our cabinet parts. But for all our custom work, I just do quick 2D cad drawings.

[KustomKoncepts]

Our machine is model SHM1530A with 5ft x 10ft table, 3.5KW HSD spindle,
Becker vacuum pump and dust collector.

We decided against the auto tool changer . I am sure it would be a very
desirable option, but we are concerned that due to our inexperience in cnc it would just make our learning curve that much harder.

Total price of the Router was $ (USD) delivered to Adelaide, Australia in a sole use 20ft container. It should arrive before xmas, so we will spend our holidays getting acquainted with it.

l

[rocket67]

.
This thread is about our first cnc router purchase for our small family business.

We are located in Australia and do not have the availability of many different brands that our friends in the USA can select from.

At this moment we have absolutely no experience in cnc. Our machine is due to arrive in Australia in mid December 2007 and it is our intention to provide an ongoing summary of our attempts to learn about the machine and how to operate it.

The cnc router that we have purchased is from a company located in China called sh-cnc The brand is Excitech.
The specifications are - SHM1530A Router Machine
Table size 5ft x 10ft ( 1500 x 3000 )
Spindle 3.5KW ( 4.7 HP ) HSD
Stepper Motors
Becker Vacuum Pump

If you read through this thread you will see that i had deleted a lot of my early posts. This was because a member had ( in my opinion ) tried to derail the thread by posting negative stories about our supplier. I figured that he was from the anti import crowd. His story in my opinion is preposterous, but as it has been pointed out to me that everybody is entitled to their own opinion, i am attempting to restore as many details as possible. Make up your own mind.

Rocket.

[bclark6716]

Brian - Thanks for the advice. Lubrication is obviously very important on cnc machines.
What type of grease do you use? How often do you grease your machine?
Are there any other routine maintenance procedures?

We will be routing MDF board and i have read that this type of material will send the router bits blunt fairly quickly. I guess that it will be important to keep a good supply of sharp bits handy. Where does one buy the bits and
what is the approximate cost of them?

I would expect that MDF dust will need to be kept to a minimum around the machine to protect the electrical components etc so we will hook up some pretty good dust extraction.

Any and all advice is welcome.

Rocket.

Rocket,
Sorry it took so long to get back to you, a little under the weather. To answer your question, use standard lithium grease made for grease guns. I sqweeze some in every 15 - 20 hours of run time. Router bits are generally a personal choice, I tend to use a fairily high quality bit making cabinets in hardwood veneer. The more you can keep dust at a minimum, the better off you will be. Check with the company and see if they have a dust shoe for the spindle.

Hope this helps.

Brian

P.S. The ATC is definately a good choice.

[KustomKoncepts]

G`day Kustom Koncepts, From all that i have read on this forum you cannot go wrong with a shop-sabre machine. They have an excellent reputation on the forum.

I should point out that sh-cnc Excitech machines are indeed available in the USA, they are sold world wide.
In the USA they are also sold by factorynew.com under the brand name cam-wood.

The simple reason that sh-cnc can sell their machines at such low prices is that they are manufactured in China, where wages are very low compared to western countries.

Rocket.

Yeah I know china is kinda the Hoes of the world, they run everyone out of business from outsourcing but god bless them they make stuff good but for cheap. I get the 1/64 scale Diecast racecars from ADC made in china and wrap them to look like local race legends. the detail is amazing and there is even plug wires a working stering wheel, soft fuel line and seat belts and even through a us distributor the are $32 ea. how can they cast all those parts and put it together ship over seas and the US dist makes money and so do I. That is how it goes I guess. With out china there would be a lot of things we use every day that would not be so affordable. I will check out that site though I am sold on shop sabre. thanks.

[KustomKoncepts]

I went to that factorynew.com site but I guess that the Bloody greety american distributor figures that the same machine you have that you paid $16,000 is worth $29,000 in the usa.
Unless I am mistaken I went there and found the 5x10 with 3.5 spindle a t-slot table but it is no where near $16,000. Everything doubles when it crosses to the western hemisphere because Aparently us americans have twice as much money. You gota love a county that is allowing Illegal imagrants to draw social security though they never worked a day here.

[cabnet636]

its on ebay
Item number: 130173463389
cabnet