Hey all, I'm a bit new here, I've lurked for a while before hand but this is my first time posting. I'm currently doing a Uni project around entry level, consumer CNC and was hoping I could do a bit of an informal survey here and get some opinions. It's about a desktop CNC router, geared towards the low cost end of things, so please keep this in mind. Without further ado, here's my little survey, feel free to comment on any of the points below or anything else you might feel is relevant.

1) Once you bought your CNC, is there anything that made it particularly easy or difficult to get started? Anything from instructions (or lack thereof), software involved, any aspects of the machine that made it easy to set up... anything really.
2) What are some features you consider essential or non essential for a first CNC? This can be anything from work holding, touch plates for automatic homing, whatever.

3) For those on a budget, what sort of budget do you have? I've seen quite a few builds here that make a machine with radial ball bearings riding on tubing or angle iron and have frames cut from MDF or plywood. These are obviously budget focused machines, and if you were looking into one of these what sort of price point would make you consider buying a kit instead of sourcing and doing it all yourself?
4) What's the most important thing for you when looking at a CNC? Cost? Support? Precision (what sort of tolerances are you wanting?)? Work envelop? Good instructions (for assembly, operation, CAM)?

Lastly is just what sort of machine do people want? Big, small, does it have to be super precise or is +-0.1 mm good enough? What sort of budget would you be looking at?

Thanks in advance for you time, any feedback and opinions are appreciated, doesn't necessarily have to be based on the questions above.

EDIT: Sorry if this is the wrong place for this thread, if so please let me know

Similar Threads: