CNC router Recommendations?

[NGrimberg]

I'm designing a workshop for myself - well in advance of having the means to afford one - and I'm unfamiliar with which brands generally make good CNC routers. I would use this router to machine plastics and wood.

Given what I intend to do with it, do you guys have any tried and true recommendations for CNC routers?

 

[kylemp]

If it's only plastic and wood almost any one would work for you if you stay in its limitations.. how big of a machine are you wanting? That determines a lot about what options are out there.

 

[Colten Edwards]

I built a cncrouterparts.com 4x4 table. I only ordered the special parts from them, and bought the cold rolled steel and aluminum extrusion from within Canada. Saved quite abit of money for shipping. Aluminum extrusion in the 102" length I needed when I created my 4x8 table, I shipped via CanPar as they were the only shipper that would ship it in that length. Same with the CRS rails. There are several places in Canada to order the extrusion. Rocky Mountain is a 80/20 distributor for western Canada and they are in BC. There is also another company in Quebec.

 

[Tom O]

I have all the rails and ballscrews along with the electronics but still have to get the extruded rails before putting it together.

 

[Tom O]

Well here we go again!
I went to KMS Tools a good week ago to look around and saw a Icarver router made by General it’s a 15 x 20 model and hummed and hawed for a good week about it. I was told it’s not running but they have the board for it and figured that even if it didn’t run I have the parts to use Mach 3 with it, anyways I picked it up Friday but haven’t really dived into it yet but after turkey dinner tonight I had a brain fart ( probably turkey) they put on the enclosure but didn’t place the safety switches on the door which would stop it from working!
So fingers crossed!

 

[Tom O]

Well I switched out the board and no changes so I started to check out the limit switches, I’m happy to say we can move it around in all axises but when it limits out you have to crank the problem axis out a bit then hitting the start again sends it to the home position I tried to upload a video but says it’s too big!

 

[Alexander]

that is pretty cool i saw that machine there and wondered what the story was on it.

 

[Tom O]

After I replaced the board there was no change, I moved the gantry in a little and it started so it may have been a limit switch that made them think it was broken! When it overtravels they kill the power to everything even the display for the controls!
I figure it was a good deal for $2500.00 Canadian.

 

[Tom O]

I finally loaded a file today without a format error. I emailed Iconic Cnc asking them about it and if it needed the software version 1.1 instead of version 1.2 they said it was a original General machine not the x model and I needed the 1.1 version I’ve been looking on the web for it with no luck so they sent me a copy of all the files for it. I fired it up today but the spindle wasn’t turning so I replaced the new power board KMS gave me with the old one and it’s working fine now except the y axis doesn’t home when started.

 

[Tom O]

Here is the first try using this thing with the Ipicture software it took 5 hours but that was probably me setting it up! The discrepancies are probably due to the software giving depth readings to greyscale values.

 

[Tom O]

Here is a better one, one took 27 minutes the other took 2 hours to complete so I’m fairly happy with it although the pause button pauses but doesn’t resume and the y axis still doesn’t home but that is livable.

 

[Alexander]

Cool im glad you got it going.

 

[Tom O]

There is still some things to check out there is no fine feed to set up the x y z so if you tap the button and it moves maybe 1/4 of a inch but I’m hoping that is in the configurations of it.
They tell you to stab the bit into the wood in case the wood isn’t flat I’d like the spindle running when I do that!
That leaves the homing of the y axis and the pause button to play with I’ll take another look at the electrical again just to check the connections and fuses.

 

[gsg9.ca]

One of our members was working on one of these yesterday : https://www.v1engineering.com/



It's his second one. He was one of the first people to set it up as a plasma cutter. He's got a couple hundred hours on it and loved it enough to build a second one as a dedicated router. The laser might come next year. Still needs a bit of debugging but I was very impressed. The base is all scrap metal. The rest ran him @ $ 625.