Thread: Request help in buying a CNC Router.

I've made three or four purchases from Maker Store and all have been OK.

The xpro v5 controller is popular and widely used.

You're essentially buying a kit of parts with instructions to put together a hobby-level machine based on an open source design. If you don't like some of the parts, buy alternatives from somewhere else or upgrade bits and pieces once you have some experience with it. For a lot of people, the machine itself is a big part of the hobby.

Hopefully I maybe able to answer some of your questions as I have used the Makerstore and have a CNC.
I built my own CNC - build Post here. New CNC build
I bought about 80% (parts wise) from the Makerstore. One thing I will say is they are very quick to take your order but slow to correspond unless it’s about an order Apart from a couple of incorrect items, they were reliable and reasonably fast to ship. They even modified one kit for me.
Watch shipping costs - if you can order over $150 of parts, shipping is free so plan. Otherwise shipping costs are based on value of parts bought. This can add up when you forget to order something multiple time - like me

As to rack and pinion, there is not much information on hobby models which use Delrin racks - same material as the anti-backlash nut blocks are made from. Large industrial machines use rack and pinion but they are metal I believe.
Backlash can be adjusted by having the stepper motor on slots so you can move the pinion further into mesh with the rack. I don’t know how well they hold up but if you are not using the whole rack for most jobs and get wear in those areas, you may not be able to adjust it out as the unworn areas would bind.
There are a couple of personal builds on Openbuilds that used rack and pinion so probably worth asking the question re wear there.

I used leadscrews with Delrin anti- backlash nut blocks and tension nuts and thrust bearings at each end of the lead screw. I would have used Ball screws but they weren’t available in the size I required. Also very expensive.

I build my own controller from an Arduino UNO and DM556 open loop stepper driver plus other bits and bobs. I’ve also heard mixed reviews on the XPro V5 but not having any experience with one I really can’t comment.

I also used twin linear MGN rails and bearings on all axes and used two steppers for the Y drive. I wanted to try milling aluminium and brass so I really wanted rigidity with minimum adjustment or replacement of parts. Certainly more expensive than wheels.
if you are going to hang a VFD powered spindle off the Z axis, you really need rigidity - a 1.5w spindle weights about 2.8kg.

The Workbee certainly is a popular unit but quite a few people upgrade them to Queenbee so it may be worth looking at the changes between the two. Once again, Openbuilds is worth visiting.

Hopefully that may have helped a little - fire away with as many questions as you can think of - someone here should be able to answer them.

I bought one of these in mid/late 2022. 1500mm x-axis and 3000mm y-axis. Both using gear rack, as that was recommended. 1.5kw spindle as well.

• It was a big job to assemble, but probably the biggest job was a table to put it on. That meant welding up a very large table, that needs to be flat. I'm not the greatest welder plus doing it TIG probably wasn't the fastest, but we got there. Hopefully it is somewhat close to flat.... And heaven forbid I ever move house. Plus it takes up a massive amount of space. I have a large workspace, but now a large part of that is taken up by one piece of equipment.
• The actual assembly of the machine wasn't too hard, but it takes a while. Their instructions are pretty good. Then getting it up and running wasn't too difficult either. But there are plenty of teething issues. For example, the way I set it up meant it reacted strangely to some commands Fusion 360 puts into its g-code output. It meant the spindle would bury itself into the table. I can't remember the exact solution, but I believe the way my axis' were arranged caused a problem which seems fixed now (I solved this over a year ago)
• Then getting such a large table flat was a nightmare I still haven't completely solved. I'd end up with ridges in some places where I think the MDF was flexing or warping. Somehow tying it down to the underlying frame is probably the solution here.
• I also couldn't get nice circular small circles. Still something I'm working though.
• The depth of cut didn't seem consistent, but that might be related to getting the spoilboard flat.
• Finally, I had a glitching axis issue. After some tests I sent it back to them and they replaced the xPRO v5. That solved that problem.
• Dust management is a big challenge for such a large bed. I ended designing and cutting a dust boot for it, which attaches to a 4" dust hose. This is suspended from a moving gantry above the bed. It seems to work well, but the gantry only moves with a fair pull from the machine, which I worry puts undue pressure on the machine. I'm in the process of reducing this to a 1.5" hose to reduce the weight. On the plus side the 4" hose dealt with the dust very well.

I ended up designing some parametric shelves for my garage in Fusion 360 and cut these out of a 2400x1200 sheet of MDF. But the precision wasn't quite there, so there was a bit of hammering and nailgunning to get the end result together. It's a fine functional shelf for the shed, but I wasn't sure I could make anything more suitable for the house until some of the issues were sorted. I kind of then didn't touch the thing for over a year - I got sick of solving problems.

Anyway, I've cranked it up again and I'm starting to work though the niggling issues. For example, a lot more support for the spoil board and working out some way to tie this down to keep it flat (I already had an extra 4 supports over the kit and I've just ordered more). The other is lightening up the dust collection system. But getting nice circles is still something I've got to work out. I'm hoping it's not just limitations of the setup, so I'm currently trying to work out where the issues could come from and then tune things up from there.

Would I go this path if I could choose my approach again? Probably not. It's a huge machine and won't necessarily produce perfect results right out of the box. Indeed mine still doesn't and I don't know what it will take to get to acceptable results (if that's possible at all). But this might be the case for any hobby grade machine like this. If I were to have my time again, I'd probably go something a fair bit smaller, but still useful to learn the craft on. Sure, you won't be able to cut furniture out of 2400x1200 MDF in a single go, but it still might be useful for most of what you do and it won't take up a space larger than a kid's bedroom.

What brand did you buy? Are the racks steel or Delrin?
I tried Fusion 360 but it never fell into place for me. Even did an online course. I switched to Freecad ( which also generated gcode) and had much better success. I have downloaded a few add-ons for it to do jobs like cut multiple items from a single sheet, cut “ tab and slot” boxes etc.
I use Vectric Vcarve desktop for the decorative cuts.
i use gSender as the interface between my gcode and CNC. gSender has some interesting alignment check routines.
While mine is nowhere as big as yours, my accuracy is good so repeatability is good. Eg. I was cutting a job with with lots of 1/2 depth slots then cut the job profile out. When I set up the Z zero, there must have been something on the surface because it cut 0.02mm shallow so the job did not cut through. Ran it again after correct ting the Z axis zero and the slots were still a snug fit for the panels.
i ran a number of check routines after building to check X, Y and Z accuracy. I think I download some of these routines from links in
“James Dean Designs” on YouTube. I run two Y axis steppers so i normally do an alignment check after homing but it’s usually good ( had an alignment issue early up due to a loose end stop which ruined a job so i now do a quick check)
I would love to help you sort out the “niggles”, if I can, so keep posting.