X-Carve as a budget CNC?

[jkelleyrtp]

So 5511 is looking into getting a CNC router and we're pretty much decided that it will be our next tool. We figure a manual mill can wait as we'd rather make our own gussets and custom parts with a computer rather than by hand.

However, being a second year team comes with a few drawbacks and we don't really have much money to spend at the moment making the X-Carve by inventables a decently solid $1500 option. We'll get the deluxe with the Dewalt 611 and upgraded base package. I've looked and a good feed rate seems to be 0.01" at 50 IPM but it seems like some guys have pushed it farther with PID.

We're just about to pull the trigger but I just wanted to see if anyone has had some experience with the machine or any advice with CNC routers. Our mentor says tooling will run us $500 but considering this isn't a true mill, I'm not entirely sure. I'm aware of the X-Carve forums but I wanted to get the FRC outlook first.