Thinking about my first CNC machine, thoughts and opinions welcome.

[be_a_sponge]

Hi All,

I am new here and this is my first post. I've been lurking around for a while and have learned loads, enough that I am very close on a pushing the button on purchasing a CNC machine. I have no experience using a CNC machine bar this one time almost 10 years ago and really all I did was draw out a pcb sketch and the programmer put all the info in the computer and out came a PCB. Still though I have been doing a lot of research learning how these machines work. I am also currently trying to learn Fusion 360.

To give you an idea of what I would like to achieve with a CNC machine is to make a furniture items; cabinet making, bedroom suites, baby furniture, kids furniture etc. These items will mainly be made out of 16mm MDF as this is the particle board that is most readily available to me but it would also be nice to know the machine I buy can work with hard woods as well.

I've narrowed my search down to two manufacturers and these are CNC Router Parts and Omni CNC and have quotes for for a 5 x 10 bed machine.

I am leaning towards the CNC Router Parts Pro kit with plug and play electronics for these reasons;

1) I have read glowing reviews of their products and most importantly excellent support and backup service.
2) Their machines require assembly which I think will teach me very quickly about the ins and outs of CNC machines which is very important to me.
3) Their machines seem compatible with new upgrades they bring out in the market and they seem to be cooking up new stuff.
4) My budget just about meets the 5 x 10 machine with all the necessary parts to get cutting including the 2.2kw (3hp) air cooled spindle they offer

My concerns about the CNC Router Parts Pro kit.

1) Their machines do not offer a multi tool changer or auto Z axis zeroing, at least I have not seen this feature, I think I will soon need something like this once I figure out how to use the machine and start making parts. Does anyone know of an add on kit that I could purchase sometime in the future after owning the machine
2) I have read that their customer services are top notch but they seem to be taking 48 hours to reply my emails, understandably this could be temporary.
3) Will it be a good enough machine to work 4-8 hours a day 5 days a week?

I have been looking at the Omni machines and I am very taken with the price, I have been looking at the 3 spindle (cheap way for automatic tool changing) pneumatic machine with stepper motors which seems to be excellent value for money, almost 2 grand USD cheaper than the CNC Router Parts pro kit. Now I have read some good reviews and some bad reviews about Omni but the bad reviews seem to be enough to push me towards CNC Router Parts. Still though, on the positive side, I would a working machine out of the box with a lot of the features I think I need for a cheaper price.

What do you guys think? Are there any other compatible options to the CNC Router Parts Pro kit for similar money? Should I seriously consider buying from China?


Thanks for reading and commenting.

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[ger21]

1) Their machines do not offer a multi tool changer or auto Z axis zeroing, at least I have not seen this feature, I think I will soon need something like this once I figure out how to use the machine and start making parts. Does anyone know of an add on kit that I could purchase sometime in the future after owning the machine

An automatic tool changer would probably nearly double the price of the machine, as ATC spindles are very expensive.
Automatic Z zeroing is handled by the software. Typically, all that you need is a plate wired to an input, and the macro to control it. There are many versions of Auto zero macro's available for download, and a few for purchase.

3) Will it be a good enough machine to work 4-8 hours a day 5 days a week?

Yes, it should be fine.

I think that with chinese machines it's 50/50. You may get a good machine, or you may get a machine that requires a considerable amount of work to make it right. If you get a good one, than yes, you save a considerable amount of money. If not, then not so much.

[be_a_sponge]

Yes, it should be fine.

I think that with chinese machines it's 50/50. You may get a good machine, or you may get a machine that requires a considerable amount of work to make it right. If you get a good one, than yes, you save a considerable amount of money. If not, then not so much.

Thanks Ger21, Based on the research I did, I kinda came to the same conclusion as that.

Do you know if there are any other kits that are comparable to the CNC Router Parts Pro 5x10 kit? I do like their kit but it has been over 48 hours and they still haven't replied my email which is starting to concern me even more.

[ger21]

Check your spam filter.
I've never dealt with them, but their support is supposed to be top notch.
If you look through all the build threads here for the last 5 years, the vast majority are CNC Router Parts machines, and all of their customers seem to love them.

CNC Router Parts is pretty much the only game in town when it comes to kits.
You can also look at FineLine Automation, which does offer similar kits, and uses some of the CNCRP components.

[be_a_sponge]

Thanks again Ger21.

I really want to push the button on a CNCRP Pro but I haven't received a reply and my spam filter doesn't have anything from them. I too have read only great things about this company, potentially my emails could be going in their spam filter or maybe they've got some sort of problem. Fingers crossed they will reply soon. I am checking out FineLine Automation out.

[Rubyg01]

Hi I bought a complete machine built to spec from Cau Cau . I gave them the spec of what materials (mostly oak) I wanted to cut. How big the largest piece would be and how often I would be using it. I also wanted to use two spindles I already had, one from a previous machine and a spare one in a twin independent head configuration as it would save me from changing tools quite a bit.. They came back with price and delivery time with some parts upgraded to suit my application. When received the router, installed the two spindles and loaded a program everything worked perfect (they supplied computer + mach3 + backupUSB. Their support is great and usually reply back within a couple of hours. I have been using it over over a year now with no problems. I have just got a price from them to upgrade to an ATC + rotary axis and am about to order the kit within the next few weeks.