Quote:
Originally Posted by jwfoss
Those of you who have purchased a CNC router, can you recommend your supplier or point of contact at the company. Thanks.
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We have a
Zenbot 24x48, it's alright. For about $2500 you can get it fully operational, with a controller, Mach3, etc. You will need to get a CAM package as well, HSMworks is free and what we have been using. We just got a licence for CAMmaster that I'm going to start playing with (We asked them very nicely).
For an inexpensive solution I'd look at the
X-carve. It probably won't handle any think cuts in aluminum out of the box but will probably get the job done for a fraction of the price of most routers. There have been several mods to make it cut better, like
changing the spindle to the same router we use on the zenbot. I know a few teams have bought one this off-season hopefully they will chime in as they start cutting. The X-carve has a free CAM/controller software suite as well that may be some what limited but is also probably easier to use. Seeing as we get most of our competition parts made by our sponsors laser cutter this definitely were I would have started had it been available a few years ago.
These options won't do full sheets of material or anything but they are smaller and cheaper which will better fit some shops and budgets.