Thread: good CNC to buy or build?

Might be best to list what sort of budget you have.

preferably under $1500 if i can.

A few members here, myself included, have bought a 6040 router from eBay.
Price might be a little high for your budget, ~ $1700.
Quality seems to vary though as does support depending on the vendor.

Have a browse through the CNC forum here as there are lots of budget builds (MDF)

How long have you had it for? have any parts failed on it? can parts be upgraded?

If you're looking at the cheap chinese machines, just beware that the purchase price of the machine may not be the end of the expense. You have little recourse to getting service, so any issues will probably incur extra expense.

I purchased a similar machine back in August, and have yet to get it running, and have spent another $1,000 so far trying to get it operational. Having said that, others have gotten these machines and had no problems.

Also, don't forget you need some sort of CAD software to design your models, CNC control software such as Mach3, and a PC to run it all. Usable software can be found on the cheap, but whether it will do what you want, and how hard it is to use, or what the limitations are, is another question.

Russell.

Originally Posted by Woodkid

How long have you had it for? have any parts failed on it? can parts be upgraded?

I bought mine in July but I'm embarrassed to say I still haven't powered it up
I hope to remedy this situation 'real soon' as I now have a place to live so there's somewhere to set it up.
The router arrived in 2 well wrapped packages with no parts bent, broken or missing.
FWIW, I bought my router from eBay seller lovehappyshopping.

I think i might put it on hold for a bit and read more about it.

American Woodworker magazine recently (maybe a summer issue) did a great job of reviewing some benchtop cnc machines if that helps. There's also instructions on how to build your own on instructables.com