We are looking for a CNC router primarily for 1/4in Aluminum plate and came across these: https://lagunatools.com/cnc/iq-series/. We would like it to be able to hold tolerances for center to center distances for gears. Does anybody have experience with the Laguna IQ or IQ Pro? Any opinions on them would be extremely helpful.
Thanks!
Team 8 has a beefier Laguna and last I heard they were quite happy with it. 115 is getting a Laguna very soon (<2 weeks last I heard). They are getting one that costs $12k and looks somewhat beefier.
EDIT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEpApUx6JeU Looks like it can cut aluminum fairly fast!
If you are thinking of buying a Laguna product I would suggest you wait until our customer support experience plays out in the next few days. I will report on it within two weeks.
For a $12k machine the finish looks pretty bad. At 9:29 it looks like the cutter deflects maybe 0.015".
I thought the finish looked bad but that’s because he climb mills the first pass and finishes with a climb cut. If you keep watching to hereit shows the material after a climb-cut finishing pass. I don’t see that much deflection, I mean 0.015" deflection should just snap a carbide bit right?
I don’t remember how I forgot, but it’s definitely worth mentioning that 115 has waited a few months to get their router due to poor stocking by Laguna. Very frustrating, but they ordered it in early summer so it wasn’t an issue for them.
Thanks everyone for the opinions on the router. A few months seems a bit long for us, considering that the season is starting in about 3 months. Do you know if that was a one-time thing, or should we expect the same if we do decide to order the router?
There was some issue where Laguna got 8 orders for that particular router and had only 5 in stock, or something like that. 115 had already paid but had/has to wait a while before getting one due to the lack of stock. I would contact 115 if you want to know the details.