Need help in buying first CNC Router

[patrickziadeh]

Hello,

I am looking to buy my first CNC Router. I read many posts about all the different routers available and I decided to buy the chinese cnc 3040t.
It costs 700USD on amazon and it will cost me 450USD to ship it (plus customs and taxes etc..).

So my budget is around 700-800$ without shipping and taxes.
Any recommendations other than the cnc 3040?

Thank you in advance!

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[KOC62]

Your budget seems too low. It cost me almost that much just for 4 steppers and a Gecko G540.
What are your intentions for doing anything cnc? That may determine your final decision as to what type of cnc you end up with.
What are your plans for cutting bits? It can easily cost $30 per bit. You will want different types and sizes.

[patrickziadeh]

Your budget seems too low. It cost me almost that much just for 4 steppers and a Gecko G540.
What are your intentions for doing anything cnc? That may determine your final decision as to what type of cnc you end up with.
What are your plans for cutting bits? It can easily cost $30 per bit. You will want different types and sizes.

Thank you for your reply.
Since it is my first cnc I do not want to spend much before I learn enough about using such machines.
I have read in many forums that cnc 3040t is not bad for cutting wood and acrylic and even aluminum.
My plan is to start a small designing business using 3d printers cnc routers and cnc milling machines. I already come up with solutions and designs for different devices so I would save a lot of money if I implement the designs myself.

Concerning the bits I have not yet done any research about them since I believe I can easily find them in a local shop.

[aarggh]

If you have any ambitions or aspirations towards CNC or producing any sorts of products, I would consider the 3040 a fairly useless machine. It's cheap for a reason, most of the ones I've seen are quite reasonably made but usually have vastly inferior components, such as ACME (in well designed, quality machines ACME screws are good, just not in these units) or even trapezoidal screws, unsupported round rails, a woefully underpowered and crappy DC brushed spindle, etc, etc.

What happens at first with these machines as you have pointed out, is most people buy them with the expectation of easing into the cnc world, but what ends up happening in the real world is that when bought, the users very quickly find out they've spent an awful lot of money for an underpowered machine with bad tolerances, and end up forking out an even larger amount to get a more appropriate machine. Rendering the smaller one a paperweight, albeit an expensive paperweight.

The resale value is next to nothing, so you'd have to ask yourself if it's at all likely you'd be getting serious about cnc, and if so, are you prepared to write off the 3040 if you end up deeming it not suitable, or you'd still have a use for it?

Personally, I don't see any benefit whatsoever of the 3040's over the 6040's, they are cheaper, but the 6040's are a completely different beast. Most come with VFD/spindles, supported round rails or even ,linear rails on some, far more robust construction, and proper ballscrews. But thats my opinion.

cheers, Ian

[patrickziadeh]

If you have any ambitions or aspirations towards CNC or producing any sorts of products, I would consider the 3040 a fairly useless machine. It's cheap for a reason, most of the ones I've seen are quite reasonably made but usually have vastly inferior components, such as ACME (in well designed, quality machines ACME screws are good, just not in these units) or even trapezoidal screws, unsupported round rails, a woefully underpowered and crappy DC brushed spindle, etc, etc.

What happens at first with these machines as you have pointed out, is most people buy them with the expectation of easing into the cnc world, but what ends up happening in the real world is that when bought, the users very quickly find out they've spent an awful lot of money for an underpowered machine with bad tolerances, and end up forking out an even larger amount to get a more appropriate machine. Rendering the smaller one a paperweight, albeit an expensive paperweight.

The resale value is next to nothing, so you'd have to ask yourself if it's at all likely you'd be getting serious about cnc, and if so, are you prepared to write off the 3040 if you end up deeming it not suitable, or you'd still have a use for it?

Personally, I don't see any benefit whatsoever of the 3040's over the 6040's, they are cheaper, but the 6040's are a completely different beast. Most come with VFD/spindles, supported round rails or even ,linear rails on some, far more robust construction, and proper ballscrews. But thats my opinion.

cheers, Ian

Thank you for your feedback!

I'm glad I went on this forum before buying the 3040. I have watched many videos on YouTube about it and it seemed to work just fine.
I did not know that 6040 had advantages over the 3040 other than the larger working area.

So would you recommend me saving more money and investing in a 6040 rather than starting with a 3040?
I would definitely want a machine that could serve me well later on, not just as a beginner.

[Cromaglious]

I have a 3040, worthless machine! Get at least a 6040, bet yet a 6090. As Ian said vfd's and ballscrews. You also get a reasonable z axis range. The 200 to 400 watt dc brushed motor sare total junk. The stepper driver board are bad as well. Get a mechanical kit and go gecko drivers.

[aarggh]

Thank you for your feedback!

I'm glad I went on this forum before buying the 3040. I have watched many videos on YouTube about it and it seemed to work just fine.
I did not know that 6040 had advantages over the 3040 other than the larger working area.

So would you recommend me saving more money and investing in a 6040 rather than starting with a 3040?
I would definitely want a machine that could serve me well later on, not just as a beginner.

I would absolutely not go down the 3020/3040 route at almost any price, just doesn't make any sense to me, especially as I've developed a better understanding of the mechanics over the years to be able to realise what crap they are.

The 6040's are Chinese, and still come supplied with the garbage blue box controllers that would need to be replaced with a G540 as others have mentioned, but they are a vastly superior machine in every way. Even taking into account the need to replace the controller, and ideally the PSU to match (to get the best performance possible from the steppers/G540), they are still exceptional value, and I don't believe anything else on the market comes close in design/build and cost.

CNC isn't a cheap hobby, so your better buying once and buying (reasonably) well in my opinion.

And after using a VFD/spindle, you may never want to use a wood router again! They are that good in every way possible!

cheers, Ian

[Cromaglious]

cheers, Ian

I totally agree with Ian!!! I'm waiting for a check so I can upgrade to a 6090 and going the Gecko route.

[aarggh]

I totally agree with Ian!!! I'm waiting for a check so I can upgrade to a 6090 and going the Gecko route.

6090 or 6040? If it's a 6090, congrats, your in for a real treat!

I frikkin love my 6090!

If its a 6040 with a G540, then your still in for a treat (just not as much as with a 6090). I couldn't believe the difference the G540 made to my 6040. I was lucky and had some 48VDC PSU's around so I could get max torque/performance out of the steppers, and it was just fantastic to use then!

cheers, Ian

[patrickziadeh]

I would absolutely not go down the 3020/3040 route at almost any price, just doesn't make any sense to me, especially as I've developed a better understanding of the mechanics over the years to be able to realise what crap they are.

The 6040's are Chinese, and still come supplied with the garbage blue box controllers that would need to be replaced with a G540 as others have mentioned, but they are a vastly superior machine in every way. Even taking into account the need to replace the controller, and ideally the PSU to match (to get the best performance possible from the steppers/G540), they are still exceptional value, and I don't believe anything else on the market comes close in design/build and cost.

CNC isn't a cheap hobby, so your better buying once and buying (reasonably) well in my opinion.

And after using a VFD/spindle, you may never want to use a wood router again! They are that good in every way possible!

cheers, Ian

Thank you, will definitely save some more money to go with the 6040.
As for the controllers and steppers I will need to do some research to know more about them.
I am currently building a 3D printer, so I will definitely going to upgrade my CNC later on too.

So to sum it up I basically need to upgrade the controllers by a G540 and the power supply accordingly?
Would I need to upgrade the steppers also?

Thank you for your continuous help.

[KOC62]

Patrick:
Opinions abound here. You may also be interested in a discussion of the 3040 here; http://www.cnczone.com/forums/chines...-software.html

[aarggh]

So to sum it up I basically need to upgrade the controllers by a G540 and the power supply accordingly?
Would I need to upgrade the steppers also?

Thank you for your continuous help.

I would expect the steppers you have to be perfectly adequate, but to get the max performance out of the steppers supplied the rule of thumb for VDC required is 32 x square root of the stepper inductance. For most steppers around 3mH this means a 48VDC PSU being the max a G540 can support is just about perfect. Maybe google the stepper model number to find out the inductance value, but I would be very surprised if they weren't just fine.

So as you can imagine all those machines supplied as standard with 24VDC PSU's are terribly underpowered.

There are other controller options out there, but the G540 is really a very solid investment. Beautifully designed by an world acknowledged expert, built in BOB, pretty bullet proof, fantastic product support, and just amazing performance. They are somewhat pricey but I doubt you'd ever find a person who regretted buying one. They turn the 6040 into a real work horse. It's just a fantastic driver and well worth every dollar.

And converting a 6040 to a G540 is really easy.

cheers, Ian

[patrickziadeh]

I would expect the steppers you have to be perfectly adequate, but to get the max performance out of the steppers supplied the rule of thumb for VDC required is 32 x square root of the stepper inductance. For most steppers around 3mH this means a 48VDC PSU being the max a G540 can support is just about perfect. Maybe google the stepper model number to find out the inductance value, but I would be very surprised if they weren't just fine.

So as you can imagine all those machines supplied as standard with 24VDC PSU's are terribly underpowered.

There are other controller options out there, but the G540 is really a very solid investment. Beautifully designed by an world acknowledged expert, built in BOB, pretty bullet proof, fantastic product support, and just amazing performance. They are somewhat pricey but I doubt you'd ever find a person who regretted buying one. They turn the 6040 into a real work horse. It's just a fantastic driver and well worth every dollar.

And converting a 6040 to a G540 is really easy.

cheers, Ian

Thank you, very much appreciated.

[lankku]

6090 or 6040? If it's a 6090, congrats, your in for a real treat!

I frikkin love my 6090!

If its a 6040 with a G540, then your still in for a treat (just not as much as with a 6090). I couldn't believe the difference the G540 made to my 6040. I was lucky and had some 48VDC PSU's around so I could get max torque/performance out of the steppers, and it was just fantastic to use then!

cheers, Ian

Hey Ian!

I am in the midst of deciding which 6090 machine to buy and would really appreciate your two cents on which machine you opted on and why! To me it seems that AccTek's 6090 is just a 6040 with a larger table (atleast the price that they sent me was just 100 dollars less for the 6040 than the 6090...), but you're implying that the 6090 is really superior? Have you upgraded the G540 for your 6090 also? Thanks a lot!!

-Ville

[aarggh]

Hi Ville,

The 6090 I think you may be referring to is the benchtop model and is still vastly superior in most ways to a 6040. The one got through Jinan JCut in China however is the 350kg 6090B with Hiwin style linear rails, not round, pretty much the same machine as in the attached pic. Best value thing I've ever bought, just a fantastic machine that's done an absolute crapload of work over the last 5-6 years, and just keeps plugging away as good as the first day I got it. I never did upgrade it to G540 over the Leadshine drivers and NCStudio controller as it has performed pretty much flawless, so I'm not sure if converting to a G540 would actually be an upgrade in this case. For my 6040 I put a G540 on and that was a massive upgrade over the standard rubbish bluebox controller those machines come with.

I'd recommend going for the best you can for the money, at least a 1.5kw spindle, 2kw would be better, linear instead of round rails. etc, etc. Buy once buy well. Take note of the pic of the 6090B how big and thick the gantry sides are, means less flex when machining.

cheers, Ian

[dalcini]

@aarggh, this is exactly the kind of information I am seeking also. I'm looking to purchase a 6090 with 1.5 or better spindle. I've seen (and taken notes from) several of your posts here on cnczone, and would really appreciate if you have any advice on where to buy.

Do you recommend Jinan Jcut as a seller? You mention that your 6090B came with a leadshine controller - I've read some very positive remarks about those as well. I'm surprised to hear that this machine comes equipped with one stock! Do you recommend anyone in particular to contact?

Here's a link to another post I made with some info on what I'm looking for: http://www.cnczone.com/forums/chines...cnc-posts.html

Any advice you can lend would be GREATLY appreciated as you seem to have been around the block with this stuff!

Danny

[aarggh]

Hi Danny,

I'm still pretty stoked with my machine and couldn't be happier at all.

Paying the extra for the big frame version and the quality linear rails was more than worth the extra cost.

I just finished a sizable 3D picture frame the other day done with a 1.5mm ball nose that ran for many hours, and not a beat missed even with the really muggy 35+ degree days we've been having in Melb! Since I solved the rare overheating-stepper issue the machine is just flawless to run now.

I dealt with Sanny at Jinan Jcut, email address at the time was chinajcutcnc@hotmail.com, but this was some years back so no doubt staff have changed.

Whoever you end up going with, as I say to everyone considering buying a machine from China, take everything you hear with a grain of salt as there's many people who make it a pastime to just bash anything Chinese without any experience on the matter, and there are VERY different cultural and business perspectives that can make the affair quite painful, or one that works out good in the end.

The trick is to keep the pressure on them that you want very frequent updates on YOUR specific machine, not just of a general one in works, pictures of the build progress of YOUR machine, videos of YOUR machine being tested, etc, etc, throughout the period, which you can probably expect to take twice as long as the best estimates they provide. Ask question on anything that doesn't look good to you so far, they are quite pragmatic and will be keen to do whatever they need to ensure the final payment is made after the build is complete.

Take the offered delivery to your door as them being overly optimistic about how shipping works in most countries, and be prepared to have a shipping broker ready in case at the last hour you have to rush through paperwork and clearances to get it from the ship to port, and then cleared for the trucking company. These last steps cost me a lot of money and lack of sleep at the time, but even so the machine still worked out around 25% of the same machine through a local supplier.

Lastly, don't be tempted to buy the crap rotary axis they offer, it really is garbage and a complete waste of money, it has just enough torque to engrave an apple, not very useful at all.

cheers, Ian

[Rover31]

Awesome thread with great info.

I am looking for the same type of machine.

Thanks to all who posted! I learned a ton.

[zszabo]

Hi,

Here is my story:
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/chines...866-forum.html

[phildirt]

Hello,

I am looking to buy my first CNC Router. I read many posts about all the different routers available and I decided to buy the chinese cnc 3040t.
It costs 700USD on amazon and it will cost me 450USD to ship it (plus customs and taxes etc..).

So my budget is around 700-800$ without shipping and taxes.
Any recommendations other than the cnc 3040?

Thank you in advance!

Have you given any thought about a ShopBot CNC