Does anybody here use a cheap Chinese 3018 CNC machine?

[RogerH58]

Hi all,

I'm new here and new to CNC.

I'm building a flight simulator cockpit in my shed and have come to the stage where I'm making the panels. I can buy these indivually at £30 a pop, but there are over 50 in the cockpit (it's a 747-400).

For the cost of 6 panels I can buy a cheap Chinese 3018 CNC machine and cut/engrave my own.

My question is - will a cheap Chinese machine have the accuracy to cut them?

The panels will be from 3mm (1/8") acrylic/perspex and will usually be around 150mm x 50 mm (6" x 2")

I've attached an example.




The square holes would of course have radiused corners, I know. The writing is around 3 - 5mm high (1/8" - 3/16").

I would cut and paint the panels first, then engrave the letters though the paint.

So - would a cheap 3018 from China do the job? I am prepared to accept some innacuracies, as cutting by hand is not an option. My attemps remind me of the old saw "measure with a stick, mark with a crayon, cut with an axe"... and in any case with over 50 panels to make I'd be somewhat older by the time I'd finished.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Just to be clear - I'm not looking for ultimate accurqacy here. An example of what I can buy for £30 is also attached.



My gut feeling is that a cheap Chinese 3018 would produce reasonably good quality, but before laying out for it (I'm on a very small income and it's a big expense) I need some reassurance as to whether I can expect to be reasonably successful.

Many thanks,

Roger.

[routalot]

From the prices quoted I suppose its safe to assume you live in the UK.I have very little experience with machining acrylic and not all of it was good.The engraving part was actually the most successful aspect.Cutting outlines was a bit more challenging as the swarf was melting in the cut and welding itself into a sort of fuzz.My machine is entirely home made and not a Chinese 3018.I suspect that if any number of your panels are the same shape and general configuration it might be more effective to jigsaw them to a touch outside the finished shape and make a fixture to locate them on the machine for final trimming and engraving.There are experts on this forum on the topic of machining acrylic and they may well recommend specific cutters but I'm far from certain that they would fit the small Chinese machine. The software for engraving needn't cost anything if you download F-engrave and it has the useful feature of allowing you to mirror text and engrave on the reverse of the sheet if required.Before committing to a purchase it might be worth a search of this forum to see how peoples experiences vary as some of the machines are supplied with demo or pirate versions of Mach 3 and there are lots of questions from buyers who have difficulties making it work.

[Pski3018]

Hello, I just bought the 3018 upgraded machine and so far. On 9mm thick acrylic. It has been doing well, however I am still a beginner and taking my feeds and speeds slow. I’m sure it can do more that what I’m comfortable with.. agai. I’m just learning CNc

I’ll take a few photos when I get home and perhaps some video

I will share my bits and process as I go in a channel I’ll be starting soon